A little over half a decade ago, AI was just starting to make waves in the country. Two Balik Scientist research projects hosted in the DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) in 2017-18, the ALaM and AI Robot projects, served as early prototypes in exploring the usefulness of Deep Learning to address problems in remote sensing as well as in search and rescue. Those early endeavors served as precursors to the DOST- and PCIEERD-funded Philippine Sky Artificial Intelligence Program (SkAI-Pinas) and Autonomous Societally Inspired Mission Oriented Vehicles Program (ASIMOV), two large-scale pioneering efforts meant to realize the wider use of artificial intelligence and robotics towards solving relevant, practical problems of the nation.     

In a nutshell, SkAI-Pinas seeks to bridge the gap between big data availability and the lack of a sustainable technology-based framework for the widespread, rapid, and democratized development and deployment of remote sensing applications to the Filipinos. On the other hand, ASIMOV aims to develop autonomous robots capable of independent navigation, collision avoidance, vision-based feature detection, and environmental mapping to be deployed in the field under real-life conditions, particularly in unstructured and dynamic environments.

This presentation provides an overview of the SkAI-Pinas and ASIMOV R&D programs, and highlights some outputs of their component projects being implemented in Davao City, namely, the Automated Labeling Machine - Large-scale Initiative (ALaM-LSI) and the Harmonized Aerial Watch and Knowledge-based Survey (HAWKS). 

About the Speaker

Dr. Jose Ildefonso U. Rubrico is a full professor at the University of the Philippines Mindanao. He has significant contributions to UP Mindanao, most notably for bringing in two multi-million flagship programs in AI & Robotics: the Autonomous Societally-Inspired Mission-Oriented Vehicles Program (ASIMOV) and the Philippine Sky Artificial Intelligence Program (SkAI-Pinas).

Dr. Rubrico served as a Balik Scientist, a DOST program encouraging Filipino scientists to come home and share their expertise in the field of science and technology. His expertise and twenty-one (21) year experience in AI/Machine Learning and Robotics helped DOST strengthen its research agenda in areas of AI and Machine Learning as well as High Performance Computing and Data Flow Processing Architecture. For more information about Dr. Rubrico, visit

https://dmpcs.upmin.edu.ph/jurubrico/

Date: July 16, 2024

Time: 10:30am to 11:30am

Venue: F223, Faura Hall, Ateneo de Manila University