By: Rey Anthony Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 9, (PIA)—At least three Bohol leading programs get cited as innovations that assure the region’s hitching into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe).
FIRe, is that technological revolution and the fourth major industrial era after the 18th century Industrial Revolution characterized by mechanization.
This industrial revolution uses a fusion of technologies that steps into the boundaries of the physical, digital and biological spheres, and is marked by technology breakthroughs in robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, the internet of things, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), decentralized consensus, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), additive manufacturing/3D printing and fully autonomous vehicles.
This revolution will fundamentally change the way we live, work, and relate to one another, explains Sec Pernia, in his keynote message.
In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before, and therefore the government is now attempting to integrate a comprehensive response that involves stakeholders from the public and private sectors to academe and civil society.
At the Regional Forum in Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Creating Central Visayas Future Today, participants took a closer look at the Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) of Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) in Jagna, the Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) of Bohol Island State University (BISU) and the creative industries for development movement as visible tools Boholanos and Central Visayans can maximize to hitch into the FIRe.
Forum participants including major socio economic planners led by Secretary Ernesto Pernia, regional, provincial and municipal planners, artists, business sector, local government representatives, civil society leaders and the academe all agreed that while the region lacks appropriate technology, resources and assets that would slingshot it to the FIRe, it is also not a factor stopping Visayans from preparing for its impacts.
Stepping in to the occasion, CVIF’s process based DLP has been a FIRe supportive learning program that is eyed to assure that the region would have an ample share of critical minded science-based future leaders, based on the presentation by Dr. Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido.
With the DLP as disaster-resilient, low-budget education using parallel learning groups, activity-based multi-domain learning, in-school comprehensive student portfolio, and strategic study and rest periods, it has been credited to have drastically improved students’ performance.
Moreover, the government’s FabLab now at the BISU, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-provided access for local scientists into the modern world of invention and sits as the incubation hub for modern ideas by local designers, explains Department of Trade and Industry’s Nanette Arbon during the forum.
FabLab Bohol’s upcycling equipment, the heat press has been a toy for local designers who have been perfecting the upcycling of single-use plastic, into other reusable materials and its laser cutters have helped local designers create novelty jewelry and household decorative items.
The region’s hailing of its creative industries as partners in development is best pictured by the setting up of the Regional Development Council’s additional committee which sets up the arts and design directions.
The three programs have been acknowledged as keys in the region’s leap of faith into the FIRe.
The regional forum was brought to Bohol by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, National Economic Development Authority and BISU. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)