Fruitect

Fruitect is an agriculture startup from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. Their technology makes use of fruit peel from major agricultural produce in the Philippines, including, but not limited to, mangoes, bananas, and pineapples. The fruit peel is exposed to certain chemical and physical processes to create a coating that can be applied to the fruits, delaying the ripening process. Through this technology, Fruitect is able to prevent premature ripening of fruits, thus reducing food loss during the transporting process.

PhilGari

PhilGari is a food technology startup originating from the University of the Philippines – Visayas. It involves the production of cassava granules from a specific strain of cassava. This might not sound interesting at first, but most cassava strains are actually impossible to create granules with, because they only mainly consist of starches, and when being attempted to be made into granular form, breakdown into a powder form, which is why cassava powders are very common, yet granules are not. Cassava also has been found to have a relatively lower glycemic index, making it a good alternative for other carbohydrate sources.

Malipayon

Malipayon is a team of researchers from Western Mindanao State University that is developing a way to convert unused agricultural resources, such as fruit peel and nut pods, into commodities with value such as packaging material, creating sustainable sources of raw materials.

Mr. Jose “Pit” Laquian, Agricultural Attaché, Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Tokyo

Jose `Pit` Laquian is a member of the Philippine Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agriculture Service Corps.  He served as attaché to the European Union including representation to its 28 member states and special assignments to Turkey and the Eurasian Economic Community from 2010 – 2019.  Prior to his posting in Japan in November 2020, he served at the Office of the Secretary – Chief of Staff as special assistant for the conceptualization and development of the Agro-Industrial Business Corridor program among others of the Department.  As head of the Philippine Agricultural Office in Japan, he is tasked to enhance bilateral relations,  promote trade and investment including sustainability in agriculture, and  tap knowledge, expertise and innovative and smart  technology in developing further agriculture in the Philippines.

Mr. JT Solis, Co-founder and CEO, MAYANI.ph

JT Solis is the Co-Founder & CEO of MAYANI an impact-driven, farm-to-table platform empowering over 60,000 smallholder farmers by connecting them to over 11,000 B2C consumers and solid B2B brands such as Shell, Robinsons, WalterMart, UCC Group, and Healthy Options, among others. MAYANI is also the ag-ecommerce partner of the Philippine Department of Trade & Industry for its Online Grand Bagsakan and National Food Fair Project with Grab. Armed with a strong e-commerce experience, JT has driven 15X revenue growth For MAYANI and has catapulted it to rise above 31 countries as a Global Champion of the ADB Hard Hit Economic Sectors Challenge in 2020, as well as the 1st Philippine startup that secured an investment from the Silicon Valley venture capital firm AgFunder. JT shuttles between Manila and smallholder farms in Batangas in his free time.

Dr. Maria Rosario Mosqueda,Dean, College of Agriculture, Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan

Maria Rosario P. Mosqueda is the current College of Agriculture dean of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. She got her PhD in Biological Engineering from University of Saskatchewan and her master’s degrees from University of Georgia (MS Agricultural Engineering) and from RMIT University (Master of Engineering – Quality Management). She completed her bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan.  She was a recipient of a number of scholarship and fellowship grants. Most recently, she is part of the second cohort of the Meryl Williams Fellowship, a women’s leadership program funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

MODERATOR
Dr. Ramanujam Ravikrishna, Director, Glocalink Singapore

Ravi joined Leave a Nest Singapore in November 2019. He has a Ph.D in Life Sciences from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. During his Ph.D he studied intracellular signalling during host-pathogen interactions, using rice blast disease as a model. Prior to joining Leave a Nest, Ravi  worked as Research Fellow at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory , where he studied cell fate specification using C. elegans as a model.  He is currently  the Director of Glocalink Singapore, which is a Agri food-tech focussed investment company with a vision to solve the most pressing problems in food security & advance the future of food and agriculture.

Melody International

Melody International is a Japanese company startup who developed a new kind of medical device. They were established last 2015 and now they would want to introduce their product the “Mobile Fetal Monitor iCTG” which is composed of two lightweight devices in the shape of a heart.  It basically serves to assess the fetal heart rate and uterine contractions of the pregnant woman and its main feature is that it could be used remotely since it directly sends the data to the tablets and PC of doctors in the hospitals via the internet. This in turn improves the convenience of pregnant women since the device could be used in the safety of their homes. They are striving to make the device useable worldwide starting from South-East Asian countries such as the Philippines where they could also solve the country’s issues in logistics and medical care.

OstreaVent

The OstreaVent is an affordable and reliable ventilator for infants. It was invented by a Filipino doctor by the name of Dr. Enrique M. Ostrea and he first got the idea of developing such device after making his rounds in the nursery of a government hospital in Bohol where he noticed that a premature infant was being manually ventilated by a 12 year-old girl using an inflatable bag. Upon inquiry, he found out that it was the only available ventilator for infants and it was a widely known problem throughout the country. Ever since, this experience has never left his mind and so he strived to make an affordable pressure limited and time-cycled ventilator for infants in order to solve this issue in the Philippines. One key feature of the OstreaVent that is not found in other ventilators is its ability to store the data in its computer database which would then be retrieved in an Excel file and transmitted through the internet for analysis of the ventilator’s performance.

Dr. Maria Esterlita V. Uy, Director and Research Associate Professor 5, Institute of Child Health and Human Development – NIH UP Manila

Dr. Maria Esterlita Villanueva Uy graduated with honors at the University of the Philippines – Diliman with a B.S. in Biology. She then pursued a degree in medicine at the University of the Philippines – Manila for 5 years before proceeding to work at the Philippine General Hospital for 2 years as a pediatric residency doctor. She afterwards went overseas to be a training officer in the Neonatology Clinical Fellowship at the Wayne State University – Children’s Hospital of Michigan & Hutzel Hospital, Detroit, Michigan from 1993-1998 where she was also awarded the Wolff-Zeigler Fellows’ award in research. She then came back to the Philippines and received the Balik Scientist Award from DOST in 1998. She has successfully acquired her Masters in Public Health Nutrition from the University of the Philippines – College of Public health just this 2019. Currently, she works at her alma mater, the UP College of Medicine, as an Associate Clinical Professor while also working at the Institute of Child Health and Human Development as an Associate Research Professor.

Dr. Jimmy Jay Bullo, President, Iloilo Medical Society

Dr. Jimmy Jay F. Bullo acquired his degree in Doctor of Medicine at the West Visayas State University before proceeding to do his residency training at the Iloilo Mission Hospital. He currently holds various positions such as being the Training Officer at the Iloilo Mission Hospital since 2009 while also working as a Professorial Lecturer at his alma mater ever since 2008. He is also a faculty at the Department of Preventive, Community, and Family Medicine in the Central Philippine University while also holding a position in the Philippine College of Occupational Medicine – Iloilo-Panay Chapter as a Board Member. He currently holds the position of Regional Director of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians – Visayas Region and assumes the position of Chairman of the Committee on CPD of the same organization. Just this June 2021, he was also assigned as the current President of the Iloilo Medical Society (part of the Philippine Medical Association, PMA).

Dr. Sharon Faith B. Pagunsan, President, Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, Iloilo Chapter

Dr. Sharon Faith B. Pagunsan is an OB-GYN and Family Medicine doctor with a sub-specialization in infectious diseases. She acquired her B.S in Biological Sciences at the West Visayas State University then proceeded to pursue a degree in Doctor of Medicine at the same university. She then did her post-graduate internship at the Iloilo Mission Hospital while simultaneously taking a Masters of Management in Public Management at the University of the Philippines – Visayas. Afterwards, she did her residency training as an OB-GYN at the Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital for three years. In the span of two years from 2012, she worked at the Philippine General Hospital for her fellowship training in OB-GYN infectious diseases. She currently holds various positions such as being an OB-GYN specialist at Maxicare and the CPU Birthing Center, and also being the primary care physician at Medicus Philippines Inc., and is also currently the President of the Iloilo Chapter of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP).

MODERATOR
Dr. Yevgeny Aster Dulla, Managing Director, Leave a Nest Philippines, Inc.

Yevgeny Aster Dulla is a native of Iloilo City. He graduated from the University of the Philippines – Visayas with a BS in Chemistry and after graduating and earning his professional license, worked as an instructor at the University of the Philippines – Manila. He came to Japan in 2013 and joined the Japan MEXT funded HIGO Program of Kumamoto University. Under this program, he received his Master’s in Health and Life Sciences and his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. After graduation, he worked at Intralink KK, a business consultancy firm that supports the expansion of companies into Japan, where he was tasked with assisting biotechnology and medical device companies. In May 2020, he joined Leave a Nest, where he was initially appointed in the Education Development Division and is currently under the Frontier Development Division. In 2021, he was awarded as a Balik Scientist by DOST-PCHRD, and established Leave a Nest’s Philippine subsidiary becoming its first Managing Director.

Engr. Fred P. Liza, DOST AMCen Program Leader and Chief, DOST-MIRDC Materials and Process Research Division (MPRD)

Engr. Fred P. Liza is the Chief Science Research Specialist of the Materials and Process Research Division  of the Department of Science and Technology – Metals Industry Research and Development Center  (DOST-MIRDC) in the Philippines. Currently, he leads the Advanced Additive Manufacturing R&D Program, and Research on Advanced  Prototyping for Product Innovation and Development using Additive Manufacturing Technologies  (RAPPID-ADMATEC) Project. He earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Western Institute of Technology in Iloilo City, and  obtained MS units in Technology Management from the University of the Philippines Diliman. During his 28 years of service in the DOST-MIRDC, he has led the planning and implementation of  various R&D projects, as well as the establishment of strategic programs such as the Die and Mold  Solution Center, Gear Making & Assembly Facility, and Center for Innovation and Advancement of  Manufacturing Technologies (CIAMT). He has several publications and patents, focused around Philippine-centered solutions and innovations.

Ms. Mary Gillian Santos, CEO and Founder, Anihan Technologies 

Gillian has graduated from De La Salle University earning a BS Physics Minor in Economics Degree and is pursuing her MS Economics Degree. Since September 2017, she has worked as a Policy & Business Development Officer for iNano’s several research grants that deal with Nanosensors and Nanocoatings. She has experience in doing research, data analysis, business planning, representing project teams and forming partnerships with the Government & Private Sector as well as pitching projects to Investors and Industry Partners. She is also part of an independent consulting team tasked to do a Buffer Stock Study for the National Food Authority as mandated by Republic Act 11203. Currently, she is the Founder & CEO of an up & coming B2B Agritech Startup named AniTech (Anihan Technologies) on a mission to reduce food loss in Asia and help build competitive agri-value chains through deep technologies.

Mr. Rayjand Gellamucho, General Manager, ISAT University – Kwadra TBI

Rayjand is a strong advocate of supporting homegrown micro/startup enterprises in the region. He is one of the men behind various programs and initiatives in Iloilo like Produkto Lokal, Innovate Iloilo, and Iloilo Startup Founders Circle. He co-founded various startups in Iloilo like MavenTech Solutions, Mulave Studios, and Bakal Lokal.He is also the former General Manager of the Green Technology Business Incubator of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) and Project Development Officer III of DOST Technology Business Incubators Network Portal.  He is also one of the past curators of the Global Shapers Iloilo Hub – part of the Global Shapers Community an initiative of the World Economic Forum. He currently serves as one of the private sector members of the Regional Development Council Region VI, Executive Director of Youth First Initiative Philippines Inc.. One of the startup community champions of the Department of Information and Communications Technology and one of the community advocates of Ideaspace – QBO Innovation Hub. Most importantly, he serves ISAT University as the General Manager of the Kwadra Technology Business Incubator, a DOST funded Technology Business Incubator specializing in nurturing deep technology startups in the Philippines for inclusive growth & sustainable development.

MODERATOR
Engr. Ronezza Delos Santos, Leave a Nest Philippines, Inc.

Ronezza Delos Santos graduated with a degree in BS Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines Diliman. After earning her professional license, she worked at Baguio Water District, a Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation that provides potable water throughout Baguio City and some parts of the Benguet Province. She became an intern for Leave a Nest’s Tech Planter PH, and after which she took the challenge to become one of the pioneer members of Leave a Nest’s Philippine subsidiary to help unleash the potential of Filipinos in science and technology for the advancement of the country.