This article appears in BGN.org and was written by Dr. Paco Sandejas last April 21, 2004.
Finally! Last February, the Advanced Research and Competency Development Institute (or ARCDI) began operations in the Northgate Cyberzone (Alabang). ARCDI, a non-stock, non-profit foundation, was borne from work by PEZA, SEIPI, EIAPI and other SMEs, ASTI (of DOST), the EEE Department of UP, the Brain Gain Network, and ñ more importantly ñ many private individuals who forgot corporate affiliations and were personally very supportive of the setting up of a novel IT RD&E and Training Institute.While I truly encourage interested persons to visit the website www.bgn.org for more discussions on why the need for a new RD&E institute and www.arcdi.com for specific information on ARCDI, it would be great to share the birth of ARCDI in this column.
The vision of ARCDI is to make Philippine high-technology companies more globally competitive by providing a venue for world-class professional-level training, advanced research, development and engineering (RD&E), and new venture incubation.
Special mention must be made of founding directors Francis Ferrer (acting President) and Atty. Lilia de Lima, Director General of PEZA, who together led the sponsoring government agency to fund and yet step back to allow a private sector group, many of whom are executives from SEIPI, EIAPI and the Brain Gain Network, to set ARCDI's industry focused direction. Dr. Delfin (Jay) Sabido, former head of ASTI and now CTO of Ayala Corp's IMI and EAZIX (www.eazix.com) is also huge supporter of RD&E in the Philippines as the former engine at ASTI that pushed ARCDI's foundation and now as a private sector director of ARCDI. According to Jay, "ARCDI is a very much needed initiative for the semiconductor and electronics industry of the Philippines to survive and grow. To be world-class, our human resources have to be world-class, and this is what we hope to achieve with ARCDI ."
Present activities at ARCDI include:
A. Market focused high-quality Technical Training and Education - Engineers in electronics manufacturing have already taken courses on electrostatic discharge, statistical process control and design of experiments. Design engineers engaged in RD&E over-subscribed to the first professional course on basics of wireless and RF electronics.
B. Collaborative Research, Development and Engineering (RD&E) activities relevant to member companies - The RD&E labs will support the continuing advancement of instructors themselves and provides hands-on lab training to engineers. The first three labs will focus on wireless communications systems, computing systems and software, and microelectronics design.
C. Sharing of Scarce Resources - such as state-of-the-art laboratories with the required hardware and software, video-conferencing and communication facilities, seminar rooms, and an up-to-date library. Professors in UP and the other universities have expressed the desire to avail of equipment in other campuses or corporate labs. Corporate engineers are willing to share their resources and in turn use the brains and tools of the academics. Because all these resources are relatively costly for Philippine entities, sharing while respecting intellectual property rights is a win-win proposition.
D. An efficient, high-quality of life, physical Convergence Center for Synergistic Interaction between technopreneurs. Be they engineers & scientists, investors, business service providers, marketing professionals, visionary managers or staffers. Be they Filipino or non-Filipino. Be they locally based, tourists or balik-bayans (the target is to attract the Brain Gain home ñ do register your resumes at the Brain Gain website, the www.bgn.org database will be used to contact resources).
E. New Venture Incubation - One of the most desired side effects of such an Institute will be similar to Stanford University's ability to be the Valley's magnet for the best engineers from the country and worldwide, for the largest Venture Capital community, and for all other people and services needed to create successful start-up ventures. It is envisioned that ARCDI will successfully anchor the limited number of business service specialists for high-technology such as venture capitalists, IP lawyers, product marketing experts, headhunters, IT infrastructure consultants, and IT cluster real estate developers.
While, ARCDI has just opened its doors, I'd like to share other examples of activity beyond those already explained above. A number of companies and top universities are planning to fly-in a world-renowned American expert to train our top engineers and professors on embedded linux as the OS of cutting-edge consumer products. Soon after, the trainees will be the mentors of the many other engineers that need similar professional training. In manufacturing, SEIPI companies wish to move up the value-chain and offer testing services to their MNC customers. However, in order to provide this new line of service, a large number of engineers are needed who are trained in the basics and applications of semiconductor physics or electromagnetic theory, as the case may be. SEIPI's training arm is developing with ASTI and UP this level of professional education to be offered at ARCDI.
I'd like to end with a response to the oft repeated question: what will differentiate this Institute from previous centers of excellence? While the future is always uncertain, the ARCDI Foundation is structured to be led by private sector stakeholders in a win-win partnership with a visionary group of government industry promoters and leading academic and RD&E institutions. Of course, the proper selection of visionary, expert, tried and tested, principled, and properly-compensated management is key to the successful execution of this vision. Furthermore, a well selected advisory board of Silicon Valley and Japanese high-tech leaders with impeccable credentials (really! No BS!) will help guide the Institute in wisely using its limited resources and conducting its economically self-sustaining activities. The dream is that ARCDI will create or incubate the first successful Philippine company to list on the NASDAQ with its own branded software or hardware product offering. ARCDI is great news and a warm ray of hope to technopreneurs, indeed. (go ahead, you can now bookmark www.arcdi.com to stay on top of real high-tech human resource development in the Philippines). |
