Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the World Trade Center, Pasay City, starting on July 17 for the 2018 National Science and Technology Week (NSTW). The event scheduled to run until July 21 will be a treat for S&T enthusiasts, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the lead government agency and host said on July 12.
Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and some DOST officials of attached agencies briefed members of the media during a pre-NSTW press conference in a hotel in Manila.
The DOST has been staging the NSTW every year to “highlight how science, technology and innovation [STI] play a major part in achieving national development.”
In this year’s edition, the week long celebration of STI products and services revolves around the theme “Science for the People: Innovation for Collective Prosperity.”
In an interview with Director Richard P. Burgos, head of DOST’s Science and Technology Information Institute (STII), he cited the difference between past NSTW celebrations to this year’s edition.
“I think it’s really the way we display, or re-exhibit our technologies and developments on R&D [research and development],” he pointed out, recalling that last year exhibits were conducted by sectors.
This year, he explained, gives the visitors an experience, like technologies found in a home set up and those found in school setting.
Four clusters will feature interactive displays of technologies developed by DOST and its attached agencies and its partners.
They are STI at Home, STI in School, STI in Workplace and STI in Marketplace, Burgos said.
As visitors to the NSTW enter the venue, they will be greeted by technologies being used in each of the four clusters and feel the impact of STI in their lives. It is a simulation of an ecosystem of how STI work in unison a community’s progress.
“Science affects us even if we may not know it,” Burgos noted.
There will be games and raffles for the guests who may take home some prizes and tokens.
The NSTW as in years past will feature a main exhibit, various forums, including on updates on the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program and Community Empowerment through Science and Technology.
Guests will have the opportunity to watch films, learn from scientific career talks or how science journalism works through writing lessons.
NSTW is celebrated every third week of July as mandated by Proclamation 169 of 1993 aimed at giving recognition to S&T’s contribution in the country’s development. It also seeks to muster support from the public and private institutions for its sustainable development.
Burgos invited the public, not only the S&T-inclined people, but everyone to what he assured is going to be a huge celebration of the innovations in products and services, many of which are already being used or commercialized.