Top 20 Pinoy Engineers & Modern Scientists
While Filipinos primarily made names worldwide in the entertainment industry, we are actually known to be globally competitive in the field of engineering and science, too.
Here is a list of the Top 20 Pinoy engineers and young scientists that have become yet another pride for the Philippines.
Carvey Ehren Maigue
Mapua University electrical engineering student Carvey Ehren Maigue, 27, took home the first-ever James Dyson Award for global sustainability for his innovation last 2020.
Dubbed the AuREUS system, the novel material is produced from rotting veggies and fruits. It is capable of absorbing UV light from the sun and converting it to electricity, making it suitable for use for windows and walls. Out of 1,800 submissions from across the globe, inventor James Dyson personally selected Maigue’s AuREUS system to take home the prize.
Jose Mari Tuason
Jose Mari Tuason, a Filipino student at the University of Illinois, and his teammates bagged the 2016 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge sponsored by NASA. For this engineering design competition, Tuason and his team persuaded a panel of space exploration specialists with their innovative concept of enhancing the lifting capabilities of Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) on space stations.
Earl Patrick Forlales
Filipino Engineer Earl Patrick Forlales, 23, brought home the top prize at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Cities for our Future competition. His winning project? The “CUBO,” a low-cost housing design made from bamboo and can be built in four hours.
Patrick Parone and Hannah Ramos
Patrick Parone and Hannah Ramos of the University of the Philippines Diliman were crowned national champions in the 2020 Philippine finals of Go Green, a worldwide competition hosted by technology company Schneider Electric (SE) to inspire students to develop ideas that would influence the energy industry’s future. Their winning project is called “Kislap,” a portable water purifier that generates energy through the evaporation of water.
Mark Kennedy Bantugon
Mark Kennedy Bantugon, a farmer’s kid from Batangas and a graduate of the Philippine State College of Aeronautics with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, was named the 2021 national James Dyson Award winner for his creative usage of pili to develop a “sustainable sealant” for aircraft. From his farming experience, he was able to turn waste pili tree resin into a sealant that prevents fuel leaks in airplanes.
Carl Vincent Camilon Cuyos
Carl Vincent Camilon Cuyos, 18, and his team from Oxnard High School-University of California Santa Barbara were the overall winner of the State Championship in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement-National Engineering Design Challenge (Mesa-NEDC) last 2019.
Cuyos and his team won the competition with their Air-Quality Sensor, dubbed Re-LAQS (Respiratory Local Air-Quality Sensor). The sensor was developed to inform and alert the people who are particularly sensitive to changes in air quality (e.g., the sudden presence of potentially hazardous gases).
Jesraah Nadine Sedavia, Lance Paolo Sacdalan, Christian James Madrid, Zaira Angelica Baliday, and Jerick Timbang
Jesraah Nadine Sedavia, Lance Paolo Sacdalan, Christian James Madrid, Zaira Angelica Baliday, and Jerick Timbang, fifth-year Industrial Engineering students at the Technological Institute of the Philippines Quezon City (TIP QC), won first place in the 2020 North American Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM). Their research focused on innovating the current telemedicine application to make medication and doctor consultation accessible to people through the system architecture, house of quality (HOQ), and multiple regression analysis.
Angelica Anne Munar, Alexis Declaro, Ryan Ramelo and Paulo Santos
Angelica Anne Munar, Ryan Ramelo, Paulo Santos, and Alexis Declaro, students from the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Institute of Civil Engineering, won the championship in the Eco-concrete Competition at the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Spring 2019 Convention in Quebec, Canada. In their winning project, they made ecologically friendly concrete by partially substituting Diliman tuff for cement and reusing discarded glass. They bested schools from Asia, Europe, and North and South America.
Prof. Kathleen Aviso
Prof. Kathleen Aviso, an engineer and the current Assistant Dean for Research and Advanced Studies at DLSU’s Gokongwei College of Engineering, was named one of Asia’s Rising Scientists by asianscientist.com in 2020. This was in recognition of her substantial contribution to environmental research.
In 2008, Aviso also received the Outstanding Scientific Paper Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines. She became a finalist for the 2016 ASEAN-US Women’s Science Prize, as well.
Part of her work is the development of mathematical models to assist agencies and businesses in making sound environmental decisions. At the moment, Aviso is exploring energy systems that integrate renewable energy and conventional fossil fuels in order to meet energy demand with little environmental effect.
Jessica A. de Torres
Jessica A. de Torres, a Filipina engineer, working in the United Arab Emirates, has been named the ‘Highly Commended Plumbing Engineer of the Year’ at the 2020 MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) Middle East Awards. This prestigious award recognizes individuals and firms that have made significant contributions to the sustainable development of the Middle East’s construction landscape.
Gay Jane Perez
Gay Jane Perez, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Meteorology at UP Diliman College of Science, has been named the 2018 ASEAN-US Science Prize for Women, making her the first Filipino to receive the renowned award. Perez was recognized for her outstanding research on precision agriculture and how it can improve productivity in the Philippines by integrating satellite observations with models and ground data to better generate and build agricultural prediction tools. She was also part of the DOST Philippines-Microsat program, which successfully launched Diwata-1 into orbit in 2016.
John Benedict Estrada
John Benedict Estrada, a sophomore from Fresno, California, received the top place at the 2021 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (Regeneron ISEF) for his computer software that correctly predicts drought stress in plants. Estrada created a new scientific model for the Artificial Intelligence Drought Assessment (AIDA) model, which employs an innovative computer program to assist in the detection of drought-related stress in plants via infrared and visible light images from his custom-built robotic camera.
Are there more Pinoy engineers, Filipino scientists, and innovators that should be included here? Let us know.
Comment below section and list down all the Pinoy engineers and scientists that should be included.
* Pinoy engineers (also known as Filipino engineers)
