Davao Light and Power Company

DAVAO CITY ー The Aboitiz Group reinforced its long-standing support for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the country as it launched the ‘Kabataan Inyovator: An Aboitiz Robotics Competition’ ー an initiative that aims to support the country’s young scientists, starting with the Davao leg.

Kabataan Inyovator (a play on the words ‘inyo’ which means ‘yours’ and ‘innovator’) aims to introduce innovation in solving community problems through robotics. Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. and Davao Light and Power Company led the competition launch last August 12 in Davao City, capping a two-day training session (Aug. 8 to 9 for elementary students, Aug. 10 to 11 for high school students). It was developed by robotics group Pinoy Robot Games covering robot programming, robot games and dynamic response, and project ideation and evaluation for 20 Davao City public elementary and high school teams.

The competing teams, endorsed by the Department of Education-Region 11, will receive further online training and mentoring from September to November, and compete at the Mindanao-wide Kabataan Inyovator competition in December (under the robot “sumo wrestling,” “line tracing,” and innovation fair categories).

“Education has long been a priority advocacy of the Aboitiz Group. We fully support our young scientists in their exciting pursuit of new innovations that will eventually help build the nation and in turn support our thrust of co-creating communities that are safe, empowered, and sustainable,” said Maribeth L. Marasigan, Aboitiz Foundation First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

In line with the 1987 Constitution’s recognition of science and technology as “essential for nationalism, development, invention, innovation and their utilization,” Kabataan Inyovator represents the Aboitiz Group’s next level of support following its earlier SSES initiatives

Kabataan Inyovator traces its roots back to AboitizPower geothermal unit AP Renewables, Inc.’s Youth Leaders Summit themed “Powering Kabataan Inyovators” in 2018. AboitizPower introduced this brand name which aims to encourage innovation and gives ownership to the summit participants, a.k.a. “Inyovators”, who will develop innovative solutions and process improvements.

Aside from promoting the Aboitiz core values of innovation and teamwork, Kabataan Inyovator aims to provide supplemental support to the beneficiaries of the Special Science Elementary Schools (SSES) through practical applications in the robotics competition and increase STEM brand and corporate social responsibility awareness by allowing youth to apply learnings through invention.

The Kabataan Inyovator champion team will receive an upgraded robotics kit, witness its winning prototype deployed in its host community and closely monitored to assess its efficiency and impact, and represent the Philippines in the World Robot Olympiad in Quebec, Canada.

The Aboitiz Group has been a long-time supporter of SSES development. Part of the Aboitiz Foundation’s P135 million education budget in 2018 was allocated for the development of two SSES and the construction of four SSES classrooms. Twelve SSES teachers were trained while 175 SSES equipment sets were donated.