News and Features
Engineering Teachers Get To Be Smart Engineers
[July 10, 2007/ Manila] - For two weeks, 24 teachers from different schools nationwide experienced what it’s like to be a Smart engineer.
"The Smart Faculty Immersion is beneficial in exposing us to the actual network environment," says Enrico L. Manalo, an engineer who teaches at the Technical University of the Philippines (TUP) in Manila.
Faculty immersion, which was first conducted last year, is a component of the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP). A tertiary education program of Smart Communication Inc. (SMART), SWEEP is a first-of-its-kind industry-academe partnership that seeks to improve the level of technology and engineering education in the country.
Through faculty immersion, teachers from SWEEP partner schools have the opportunity to work in Smart as "temporary" engineers. Immersion includes content/technology discussions and training with Smart engineering groups. The teachers receive an allowance during the immersion period.
"For the first seven days, the faculty stays in the operation maintenance center at the switching exchange office," explains Engr. Pros Rosacay, a supervisor from Smart's network services division. The teachers are then taught transmission facility, switching exchange, call scenarios, etc.—basically, a lot of GSM data.
"Then, they have three days of fieldwork," relates Rosacay. "They join engineers who are deployed to do restoration work during outages." During this time, teachers go to the cell sites and learn about transmission, microwave and the BTS (Base Transceiver Station). "The teachers already know the theoretical side. On site, they can apply what they know."
The 24 teachers, who were endorsed by their respective deans, were deployed in different locations nationwide such as in Cebu and Davao.
Rosacay says the teachers are assigned in PLDT/Smart offices that are relatively near their schools. In the PLDT-Smart Quiapo facility, for instance, two teachers from schools within the vicinity were accommodated for faculty immersion.
Reggie Gustilo who teaches Electronics, and Voice and Communications at the Ateneo De Manila University in Quezon City was assigned to a Smart facility in the Greenhills area. He says he is very pleased with the equipment and the hands-on training.
"I'm already familiar with the theories so when I saw the equipment, I already knew their functions. This is my first time in this kind of work," shares Gustilo.
At first, he familiarized himself with the equipment and the switches. "I tried punching in the switches, and on my seventh day I helped remap the BTS," says Gustilo, who joined the Smart engineers for fieldwork at several cell sites including the one at UP Diliman. He plans to integrate the hardware knowledge he’s gained into the course that he teaches in Ateneo.
"The success of the training depends on the eagerness of the trainee," shares Rosacay, who mentored a teacher from the University of Makati. "He has to ask questions so that we know what he needs to learn. When the teachers ask about the different flows, it is also challenging for us because we need to go back to the theoretical side. So, it helps both parties. They learn the actual application and we get to review what we first learned a long time ago."
Joey D.V. Evangelista, an engineer who teaches at the Sienna College of Taytay, says the program helped him recall what he learned about data communications and mobile communications. "This is helpful for me as a teacher since I can pass on the info to my students," he says.
Aside from exposing the teachers to the practical application of theories, Rosacay says one of the objectives of faculty immersion is also to impart the Smart culture. "The best way for them to get acquainted with the way we do things is to experience it. We show the teachers how the engineers work, and how we relate with each other."
SWEEP plans to offer faculty immersion as a continuous program component every summer.
Gustilo hopes that he can participate again in the future. "Next time, I would like to be involved in Network Operations Center (NOC) Planning. NOC is the central office that's monitoring the work we're doing right now and tells us what to do. I'd like to learn how they map the transmission lines and how to keep information in the database." @
