The 8th University Research Conference (URC 2024) attracted 1,500 participants from different parts of the Philippines. The Conference was held on April 18–19, 2024 at the Fr. Michael Richartz Conference Center and SAFAD Building, USC Talamban Campus.
With the theme “Sustainable Futures: USC@75 and Beyond,” this year’s URC highlighted the role of higher education institutions in creating sustainable futures and promoting sustainable development with artificial intelligence (AI) on the horizon.
To prepare for the future, a closer look at the present is crucial. In line with this, Fr. Francisco Antonio T. Estepa, SVD, Ph.D., President of the University of San Carlos delivered the State of the University Address, highlighting USC’s milestones and sharing the University’s goals in the near future.
He emphasized the University’s plan to improve its world ranking, increase partnerships, improve research, and ensure that educational revenue is higher than educational expenses. Fr. Estepa also shared updates on USC’s R.I.S.E. campaign. Since its launch in 2022, USC received Php77.8M in scholarships, Php19M in research, Php18.1M in infrastructure (smart classroom donations), and Php14M in endowments.
Aside from Fr. Estepa’s address, URC 2024 also featured the keynote speech of Ateneo de Manila University’s Vice President for Higher Education, Maria Luz C. Vilches, Ph.D. delivered her keynote speech on “The Role of Higher Education in a Sustainable Future.”
Dr. Vilches highlighted that higher education has to recalibrate its concept and process of educating students and providing leadership. This requires the involvement of the entire community by considering the voices of different sectors, finding commonalities, and respecting differences. Lastly, Vilches emphasized that the move toward a sustainable future requires openness of both the University’s governance and the entire community, allowing both to embrace new paradigms.
Joining Dr. Vilches as keynote speakers were Hon. Elmer Francisco U. Sarmiento, Undersecretary for Maritime of the Department of Transportation and Dr. Michael Lochinvar S. Abundo, Chief Executive Officer of OceanPixel Pte. Ltd. (Singapore).
Hon. Sarmiento discussed the concept of the Blue Economy from the perspective of the government’s maritime transport sector. The Philippines aims to achieve economic growth, sustainable development, and maritime competencies through the Updated Ten-Year Maritime Industry Development Plan (MIDP) 2028.
Under the MIDP, the government plans to modernize and expand the Philippines’ domestic shipping industry, promote and expand Philippine overseas shipping, modernize and expand the country’s shipbuilding and ship repair capabilities, and promote the highly skilled and competitive Filipino maritime workforce.
Sharing another perspective on the Blue Economy, Abundo’s keynote speech tackled the concept of embracing the Blue Economy as a strategy for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to him, the Philippines has huge blue assets, most of which are yet to be tapped to realize their full potential. These include marine solar, offshore wind, tidal currents, transport, shipping, and aquaculture, among others.
These existing blue assets can be improved through progressive development approaches such as establishing expert knowledge hubs, leveraging marine/maritime ecosystems, and creating pilot projects and hybrid systems. Overall, he recommended streamlining multi-sectoral interventions with integrated sustainable solutions resulting in holistic, cohesive, scalable, and regenerative solutions.
On top of these three keynote speeches, this year’s URC featured two plenary lectures, two panel discussions, 51 oral presentations, 42 poster papers, and 15 equipment and educational exhibitors.
With this year’s success, Dr. Patrick John Lim, director of USC Research Development Extension and Publication Office (RDEPO) announced that the next University Research Conference will be on April 24–25, 2025. The call for papers will be announced around December 2024.
The live-streamed videos of the URC 2024 can be viewed on USC’s official Facebook account.