UP Carillon 2022

Science Feature
UP ALUMNI IN DISASTER SCIENCE
Dr. Mahar Lagmay
Image from Dr. Lagmay FB Page
Professor David Guido
Image from Prof Rye FB Page
Professor Ranjit Rye
Image from Prof. Rye FB Page
pool of active scholars engaged in multihazard,
multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral,
and comprehensive disaster risk reduction
and management (DRRM) work. This is
a considerable contribution to DRRM by
both alumni and current members of the
UP community. The Institute’s mandate
covers undertaking research and creative
work, knowledge sharing, education, and
institute building.
Working quietly behind the scenes is a group
of alumni – Lance Lim, Obee Principio, and
Gene Tan, who fondly recalled their experience
as 3rd-year Computer Science students
from the College of Engineering in 2020
when they developed Yani the Endcovbot.
Yani is an artificial intelligence-enabled
Messenger chatbot designed primarily to
answer questions regarding the Corona Virus
pandemic. This covers queries ranging from
pandemic statistics to vaccinatioxn sites,
hospital beds, and ventilator availability –
all critical information that individuals need
to manage the virus in the event they get
infected with it. Yani is also integrated into
the endcov.ph site that is managed by the
UP Resilience Institute (UPRI) team as part
of the UP COVID Pandemic Response Team.
And let us not forget Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Guido David, who applied his expertise
in numerical analysis and mathematical
modeling to Covid-19 scenario building. He
and his childhood friend, Assistant Professor
Ranjit S. Rye of the Department of Political
Science, along with other colleagues, gained
prominence at the height of the Covid-19
pandemic through OCTA Research, their
private polling, research, and consulting firm.
They formed OCTA because they observed
that there was a niche in an area of pandemic
research that their expertise could fill at that
time. The predictive models and pandemic
projections their group produced became
one of the main references that both the
private sector and government bodies relied
on to formulate plans and structure their own
pandemic response.
By Michelle Avelino
Our deeply held tradition to uphold honor
and excellence as members of the University
of the Philippines (UP) community is kept
alive by actively engaging in public service
even after we close the chapter of our
student life on campus. With the Philippines
ranked 3rd among all countries in the 2016
World Risk Index of the United Nations
University in terms of exposure to natural
hazards, one domain where we find our
alumni shaping the discourse in evidenceinformed
policy and scientific discovery is the
area of Disaster Science. The research in the
field of disaster science range from climate
change adaptation to pandemic response.
This article features individuals, groups, and
institutions peopled by exemplary UP alumni
in this field of practice.
First on our roster is the Director of the
UP Resilience Institute (UPRI), Dr. Alfredo
Mahar A. Lagmay, who leads cutting-edge
projects on Resilient Campuses across all
the UP constituent universities. He is also at
the helm of the UP Nationwide Operational
Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) – a research
center for climate actions and DRRM. The UP
NOAH team’s work spans flood modeling,
planning, web-based geographic information
systems, and hazard detection. The output
of their research is freely-accessible and
backed by the latest scientific understanding
of DRRM.
The UPRI is an initiative of the UP System that
aims to commit 5% of its combined regular
full-time academic human resource to a
18 UP Carillon
Images from https://www.facebook.com/YaniEndCovBot
Yani is short for BaYANIhan.
University Alumni Magazine 19