The Philippine election has been concluded as relatively peaceful and successful and we already have a partial and unofficial idea of who will be leading our nation by June. Meanwhile and on the other side of the world, there is an online voting contest that’s definitely worth campaigning for! One of our own Pinoy overachievers joined an international team from the Netherlands. This group made it as a finalist to the prestigious 2016 NASA Space App challenge.
Born and raised in Bataan, 23-year-old licensed geodetic engineer and geomatics specialist John Ray Bergado joined the 2016 NASA International Space App Challenge while he was studying at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. He is currently finishing his doctorate studies there shortly after graduating cum laude and acquiring a master’s degree in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation specializing in Geoinformatics from the same university. Prior to this, he ranked third place in the 2013 National Board Examination for Geodetic Engineers in the Philippines and graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
NASA’s annual contest is a 48-hour spatial hackathon event that enables citizens to act on and propose open source solutions that can have a big global impact. Bergado’s international team named We4people, comprised of 12 persons, created an app called SenseAIR during the Dutch contest held in Noordwijk last month.
The app they created basically records inputs of physical respiratory symptoms (i.e. allergies, cough, sneezing, itchy eyes, etc.) and correlates it to changes in environmental factors. The symptom map produced by the input allows for accurate visualization that can be accessed online or via a smartphone and can easily be compared to existing NASA data on pollutants.
Let’s go and help out our fellow Filipino by casting an online vote. To vote, follow these mechanics:
1.) Sign up at the NASA space apps challenge website: https://2016.spaceappschallenge.org/auth/register
2.) Verify your email.
3.) Vote for the group’s entry: https://2016.spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/earth/aircheck/projects/senseair
Voting will be closed by this Sunday, May 15, 2016. So hurry, click the link, and help increase our kababayan’s chances of making it in NASA’s prestigious global competition!
