IBM to open its first innovation center in RP

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine unit of IBM will open its first Innovation Center in the country – and the second in Asia – at the UP-Ayala Techno Park in Quezon City.

Although the company refused to disclose the project’s actual amount, the center will focus on developing open-source and Web 2.0 solutions geared towards helping the Philippines move up the BPO chain.

The Philippines “has a big pool of developers who can create applications and solutions that will allow people and corporations to collaborate and gain access to technology," Janet Klein, director for developer relations at IBM Asia Pacific, said during a small media gathering.

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MSc in BioMedical Imaging (BMI)

Funding

In the past three years, we have had several studentships, with EPSRC scholarships covering tuition fees and a maintenance grant of up to £12,400, and Ratiu Foundation scholarships for Romanian applicants. We expect to secure several studentships for the coming academic year.

Some of the opportunities for scholarships, bursaries that are available to Biomedical Imaging MSc students are listed below:

• Ratiu Foundation Studentship [6] - the Ratiu Foundation UK scholarship package includes tuition fees at the home/EU rate, plus a £3,000 scholarship. This scholarship is available to talented Romanian graduates. Further details of this scholarship can be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/recruitment/PG_Funding/Ratiu_Foundation.html [7].
• University Overseas Non-EU Scholarship [8] - For well-qualified candidates, the University offers a number of generous studentships. Candidates interested in applying for a studentship should make an online application for Biomedical imaging MSc [9], and follow the instructions.
• Internal University and External Schemes [10]
• International Postgraduate Students [11]
• Research Councils [12]
• Research Studentships

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P100M allocated to R&D center--Angara By Anna Valmero

MANILA, Philippines--Senator Edgardo Angara said the plan to establish a local research and development institute similar to Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is now in motion.

Angara who heads the Congressiohttp://ohm.ecce.admu.edu.ph/wiki/bin/edit/Blog/BlogEntryXXXXXXXXXXnal Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), said the proposed local research and development institute has an allocation of P100 million in the 2009 National Budget.

A local delegation from COMSTE headed by executive director Gregory Tangonan is set to sign a memorandum of understanding in Taiwan with the ITRI and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI).

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MEMS accelerometers: A fast-track to design success? By Vanessa Knivett

LONDON — Motion sensing, largely enabled by Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers, has taken more than its usual share of the headlines recently. Whilst not a rags to riches tale " accelerometers have been used in automotive applications, among others, over many years " the acceptance of accelerometer-based features enjoyed by Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing remote controls and Apple iPhone's self-orienting display, has brought accelerometer manufacturers attention they could but dream of in year's gone by.

According to Douglas McEuen?, a senior analyst at ABI Research, a handful of manufacturers share the market: "A 'big three' " Analog Devices (ADI), Freescale, and ST Microelectronics (ST) " are joined by just a few others, including OKI Semiconductor and Hitachi Metals America." Other smaller players include Bosch Sensortec, Honeywell, Kionix, MEMSIC and VTI Technologies. Mathieu Potin, MEMS analyst at Yole Developpement, believes the MEMS accelerometer market was worth $876million in 2008 " a revised figure, following the financial downturn.

With the total MEMS market worth an estimated $7.6bn in 2008, the technology is an important contributor to MEMS sales as a whole. Though MEMS accelerometer sales are likely to decrease to $846million in 2009 due to a slump in automotive demand, he estimates that the market will recover to be worth $1.6billion by 2012, fuelled by a boom in consumer applications. For comparison, Yole projects that the total MEMS market in 2009 will be worth $8billion, and by 2012, the entire market will be on the same projection path as accelerometers, to be worth $16.7billion.

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Recession or not, Pinoys still spending for cell load

DESPITE the challenging times, Filipinos continue to set aside funds for mobile phone load credits.

“Telecommunications will be one of the last to go. In fact, some people say maybe food is not actually the last to go [in the Filipinos’ spending preferences] and that transportation would be the last option because people need to get to their jobs. But I really think that telecommunications services will be one of the last to go [in the consumption pie],” said Globe Telecom president Gerardo Ablaza.

This view is consistent with the dynamics of our society since practically every Filipino has a relative working overseas, said the Globe executive. “They need to get in touch with their families and friends and the only way to do that is to call them.”

Telecommunications services, said Ablaza, account for about 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a year.

“We haven’t done a direct correlation between inward remittances and our own revenue performance. But we do know that telecommunications services account for a certain percentage of GDP. GDP, in turn, is partly driven by the flow of remittances because these remittances pay for consumer purchases. But we haven’t established the direct correlation in remittances and telco consumption,” explained Ablaza.

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Japan's electronics giants Unplugged from Economist.com

TO SEE the problems facing Japan’s electronics companies, pop into one of the huge gadget shops in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, the consumer-electronics capital of the world. Nine domestic firms make mobile phones. Then head over to the appliances section: five of the same firms offer everything from vacuum cleaners to rice cookers. Three of them make the escalators that carry you through the shop. In short, the industry has too many companies selling too broad a range of products that overlap with one another.

This “supermarket” strategy, in which each company has a hand in every area, worked well during Japan’s incredible economic boom between 1960 and 1990. “Made in Japan” gadgets, once cheap and flaky, ended up as world leaders in quality, humiliating America’s electronics industry along the way. Consumers at home and abroad snapped them up, generating vast trade surpluses and bitter trade tensions.

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