With a few weeks away before the holiday season, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the entire local scientific community will be already presenting its gift to us through with the staging of the five-day celebration of the 2022 National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) from November 23-27 at the Hall A of the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
This year will mark the return of the biggest S&T festivity in the country in a venue like the World Trade Center after two years of settling into enjoying the NSTW right at the comfort of our mobile and desktop devices due to restrictions implemented during the height of the pandemic.
Now, we are nearing the end of 2022, and thankfully, everything is going back to normal, and the DOST makes sure that the public will have the chance to again witness firsthand how the mix of science, technology, and innovation can make our lives easier and truly enough, much better.
For this year, anchored on its theme, “Agham at Teknolohiya: Kabalikat sa Maunlad at Matatag na Kinabukasan” the 2022 NSTW celebration will showcase to the public all the research and development (R&D) outputs as well as innovative products and services developed and offered by DOST agencies and regional offices that helped address the challenges brought about by the pandemic and climate change.
In addition, there will be techno-products, forums, and exhibits that will provide a better angle on DOST innovations that respond to the pressing needs of various sectors and stakeholders towards the goal of attaining inclusive growth in the areas of agriculture and food security, health, job creation, education, energy, transportation, blue and green economy, and environmental protection.
And if you feel this information would not make you pumped up enough, here are the five reasons why you should get yourself hyped for the upcoming 2022 NSTW celebration.
- Experiencing 2022 NSTW is FREE!
Your stay at the World Trade Center would not cost you at all (or a lot) because 2022 NSTW is free. So, if you are wooing someone and working on a tight budget but at the same time, you would like to get a good impression on your first date, inviting your special friend or barkada and of course, your family to World Trade Center from November 23 to 27 to check out numerous interactive exhibits and other special NSTW
events is not a bad idea at all. No need to prepare a certain amount of cash in your pocket or load up your e-payment wallet. Just fill out our pre-registration form (https://nstwregistration.dost.gov.ph/preregister) and bring your vaccine cards to the venue, in case they are needed, and follow various health and safety protocols.
- Interactive Exhibits provide timely solutions to our real-life problems
In decades of conducting the NSTW, techno-exhibits have been its bread and butter in terms of providing major attractions for the week-long celebration. Mainly because it truly represents why NSTW has been celebrated every year which is to let us enter and experience an ideal community where science, technology, and innovation work for its people and offer appropriate and timely solutions to their real-life problems and limitations.
For this year, once you stroll around the exhibit hall, you would have a better understanding and appreciation of how research and development (R&D) projects and innovative products and services developed by our local scientists, engineers, and researchers could address the actual concerns in the areas of Agriculture and Food Security, Health, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or STEM Education, Job Creation, Sustainable Environment, Transport Solutions, Energy, and Logistics, Blue and Green Economy, and International Linkages. All of these are anchored towards this year’s NSTW theme “Agham at Teknolohiya: Kabalikat sa Maunlad at Matatag na Kinabukasan and all of them are enabling every Filipino to have a much better life.
Some of the technologies included are e-vehicles, bamboo dryer, LISA Robot, AI-driven Integration of Genomic, Ultrasound, Serum Biomarkers, and Clinical data for Early Diagnosis of Liver Cancer, DOSTRUCK, BANDALA for Textiles as well as mobile applications on disaster risk reduction such as Hazard Hunter PH and GeoRisk and many more.
Meanwhile, for #TeamBahay or #TeamOpis, don’t worry, you can still experience the 2022 NSTW vibes through a virtual exhibit platform which will be open starting November 23. http://nstw.dost.gov.ph/exhibits2022.php.
- Seminars/Webinars and other NSTW special events
If you are looking for a more in-depth type of learning experience from our DOST experts, researchers, and scientists, just check our 2022 NSTW General Program of Activities: http://nstw.dost.gov.ph/activities2021.php. For five days, we will have technical presentations, project launchings, career talks, round table discussions, and TED-Talk-inspired presentations on various topics related to this year’s NSTW theme and thematic clusters. Of course, aside from the opportunity to gain additional and relevant knowledge, some events will provide you certificates, tokens, and other exciting prizes for your active participation in their respective activities.
- Once in a lifetime interaction with our modern-day local S&T Heroes
Most of the time, we coin the NSTW celebration as the gathering of some of the brightest minds and innovators in the country. There is a popular belief that NSTW provides a perfect venue and opportunity for every one of us to meet, greet and have a life-changing conversation with some of the finest scientists, researchers, engineers, and educators in the country. Either in an exhibit booth or in a seminar that you will be attending, picking their brains and sharing each other’s stories and perspectives would truly be a worthwhile experience.
- It is an enjoyable and meaningful experience!
No doubt that experiencing NSTW, even a day in our week, is totally a fun learning experience for everyone. All of us would have the chance to feel, see, and touch how those science lessons and experiments being taught in the classroom and laboratory actually work and can affect ourselves and our loved ones, directly. It is becoming more enjoyable right now in the age of social media as we can capture all these fun memories with our friends and those photos, stories, or reels uploaded to our Facebook or Instagram accounts will remind us of the good things we can benefit from science. More
than that, your posts and stories could be the spark of something new and exciting. Something that could become special and relevant as more people would get interested in what NSTW is all about… of what DOST is all about and what Science and Technology are all about, that most often than not, we tend to overlook.
As we all celebrate the 2022 NSTW, it is beyond showcasing the latest innovative technologies and products, and it is beyond honoring the great Filipino scientists and engineers we have right now. It is more about giving us all the platforms and venues to work together in making sure that all of us have a great level of awareness of the practical benefits of Science and Technology and rely on it for several decisions in our lives. Because Science is for the People, we working as ONEDOST4U to make things happen!
So, to everyone, see you next week at the World Trade Center mga Ka-Agham at ating ipagdiwang ang galing ng Likhang Pinoy! (By Allan Mauro V. Marfal, DOST-STII)
