— Solar energy, the most common and scalable renewable energy, has a huge potential to supply the increasing electricity demand. Hence, proper site selection for deploying solar PV systems is required. This paper presents the development of a solar suitability map to identify potential sites for solar PV systems in the selected areas in the Rinconada District of the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. ArcGIS analyzed the annual average solar radiation, weather datasets, and geographical conditions and performed suitability mapping combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify the weights of the nine criteria of suitable site selection. Based on these factors, twenty-seven (27) barangays were found suitable, where the central and eastern parts of Barangay Malawag in Nabua and a massive part of Barangay Causip in Bula are the most suitable locations for large-scale solar PV installation.

This paper discusses the development of a low-cost embedded-based electrooculogram (EOG) blink pulse classifier. A signal conditioning circuit from a single quad operational amplifier (Op-Amp) and an Arduino based on the ATmega32u4 AVR 8-bit microcontroller board comprised the major components of the embedded-based classifier. The evaluation of the nearest neighbor algorithm classifier resulted to an accuracy of 87.14%, precision of 93.33% and sensitivity of 80.00%. Further, based on the participants who evaluated the drowsiness detection system the results were 3.38 and 4.13 with verbal interpretations of comfortable and very convenient respectively.

CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) emphasizes new approaches in engineering education, and provides students better learning experiences which will prepare them into the real-world of engineering works. This CDIO approach has been adopted by several universities around the world. In the Philippines, this approach has been introduced to several universities and colleges more specifically to engineering programs. Engineering programs at Camarines Sur Polytechnic has been in its third-year since its introduction of CDIO in 2017. This study was developed to evaluate the current state of the engineering programs on how well it lines up with the 12 CDIO standards using the CDIO’s 6-level self-evaluation rubric. Results showed that there are improvements on the ratings in 2020 as compared in 2017 where CDIO framework was first introduced in engineering programs. Standards 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11 were rated 4 which confirmed that the engineering program complies with the standards. Standards 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 12 were rated 3 which confirmed that further development and improvement in these standards are sought. Compliance and alignment of CDIO standards to Commission on Higher Education (CHED) standards and quality assurance systems including Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (AACCUP) and Philippine Technological Council (PTC) has been presented and found that CDIO standards conforms with the various quality assurance systems. Plans of action were developed for continuous improvement processes.

Pulse rate (PR) measurement is an essential physiological parameter commonly used to diagnose or monitor various medical conditions, including sleep apnea and other cardiovascular diseases. PR measurement is usually taken using commercial pulse oximeters, photoplethysmography (PPG), or electrocardiogram. However, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of telemedicine or the non-contact approaches to the safety of medical professionals and patients in the prevention of spreading the disease has become evident. This paper presents a system for pulse rate estimation from facial videos utilizing dynamic ROI tracking and color magnification. It has been a significant challenge for physiological parameter measurements using a video-based approach due to noise caused by motion artifacts. The experimental results showed that the proposed dynamic face ROI tracking, compared with the other tested tracking algorithm, has improved the performance of pulse rate estimation by reducing the effects of motion artifacts in extracted facial videos.