This year the 24th Philippine Computing Society Congress was held in De La Salle University Laguna. The Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS) attended the conference and was represented by Carlo Ram M. Ferrer, John Ryan H. Tamano, Rene Antonio Castillo, Mylene B. Villegas, Jan Jozef R. Laguer, and Dr. Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo. Also representing Ateneo was the group of Erick Gabriel T. Lopez and Jose Alfonso H. Barreiro.
The Philippine Computing Society Congress provided many avenues for various parties to come together to discuss relevant issues and studies in the computer science field. The first day of the conference featured various talks and workshops for attendees to join. Rene Antonio Castillo presented his thesis project ‘A City-Building Puzzle Game Featuring Solarpunk Architecture’ during the interactive demos session, and Dr. Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo gave a talk during the ‘Oldies but Goodies’ about Affordances in human-computer-interaction.
The second day featured plenary talks about the studies currently being conducted by professors from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and De La Salle University. The attendees were also given the chance to attend the paper presentations of various students from across the country. The ALLS representatives were among the many paper presenters who were given the opportunity to present their theses. Pablo R. Manalastas presented his work making use of a popular root finding algorithm, ‘Factoring a Quadratic from a Degree N Polynomial Using Newton’s Method’. Jan Jozef R. Laguer presented a creative take on improving upon current Esports technology using computer vision, ‘Incorporating a Computer Vision System to a Web Server to Parse Real-time Data for Valorant Esports’. Mylene B. Villegas presented her thesis project which is centered around Minecraft data as a medium for making ML predictions, ‘Utilizing Machine Learning Methods to Predict Student Re-engagement via Minecraft Data‘. Carlo Ram M. Ferrer presented his work making use of eye tracking data, ‘Modeling Perceptual Organization In Abstract Art Using Eye Tracking Data’. John Ryan H. Tamano, on behalf of his team, presented their thesis project which utilizes serious games as a medium for learning, ‘Halogen: A 2D Simulation Game on Dental Health Challenges in the Philippines’.
The Philippine Computing Society Congress provided many opportunities for the students to engage with peers from across the country to engage in active discussion on various topics in their respective fields. As representatives of ALLs and Ateneo, the students proudly participated in the congress to share their works with their peers. The students would like to extend their gratitude to Dr. Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo for her mentorship of the students, as well as SOSE and ALLS for the financial support.
