WIT gets P2.7M Research Grant

With the aim of DOST-PCIEERD (Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development) to find solutions to the new normal, the council launched their STRAP (Science and Technology for a Resilient Community against the Pandemic) program where they invite researchers and innovators to propose projects that will help address pandemic and grant funding opportunities to those with promising proposals.

The CRD (Center of Research and Development) of WIT accepted the challenge of DOST-PCIEERD and proposed a project titled “Stunt Science: A Physics Simulator Mobile Game“. This proposed project aims to develop an educational mobile game where players are presented with physics based scenarios as game objectives and they play the game by computing the solution and entering their final answer. The game will then animate the outcomes of the scenario based on the player’s answer using real-time physics and the animation will visually confirm if the answer is correct or not.

Since the target players of the mobile game are high school students, the content is based on some of the topics listed on the General Physics 1 Curriculum which is designed by DepEd (Department of Education) for senior high school education program. The relevance of the proposal to the STRAP program of DOST-PCIEERD is it could be used as supplementary learning tool that the high school students who are attending online classes during the pandemic which they can independently play in their own time and in the comfort of their home.

The proposal of the multi-disciplinary project was led by Mr. Ryan A. Subong, the Director of the WIT CRD, with the collaboration of Dr. Bobby D. Gerardo and Mrs. Alma Jean D. Subong of WVSU (West Visayas State University) Main and Janiuay Campus. The team from WIT will be in-charge for the design and the development of the game while its collaborating partners from WVSU will focus on the evaluation of the its impact to the learning experience of the students.

After several presentations, interviews, and deliberation sessions with the panelists of DOST, DOST-PCIEERD has finally approved the the proposal and granted WIT a budget of Php 2,771,008.00 for a duration of 12-months of research and development. The project MOA between DOST-PCIEERD and WIT has been officially signed last October 5, 2020 and the project has officially started last February 1, 2021 and will last up to January 31, 2022.