KATRINA JOY M. ABRIOL-SANTOS
Institute of Computer Sciences
Outstanding Teacher in Physical Sciences (Senior Faculty Category)
Assistant Professor Katrina Joy Abriol-Santos of the Institute of Computer Science is this year’s Outstanding Teacher Awardee for Physical Sciences Division (Senior Faculty Category). She received the award during the ceremony to mark UPLB’s 109th foundation day.
Her current tasks involve not only teaching but also administrative work, research, and extension activities. On keeping the balance of her multi-tasks, she said: “My teaching responsibilities are my top priority when it comes to working. I try to squeeze in research, extension, and administration work between my teaching and student consultation schedules. These other activities help me gain more experience and skills that are very useful in teaching.”
Asst. Prof. Abriol-Santos started teaching in the institute in 2009 and has since contributed in developing and improving the curriculum. Simultaneously, she has actively participated in national research conferences and garnered various awards and recognition along the way. Her paper have been published in Philippine InformationTechnology Journal (PITJ), Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, as well as in the proceedings of Philippine Computing Science Congress (PCSC) and National Conference on Information Technology Education (NCITE).
Prof. Abriol-Santos’s fields of specialization are Computer Vision and Digital Image Processing and Information Technology. Currently, she is a part of the research team of DOST-PCAARRD in developing information systems for the country’s native pigs, chickens, and ducks breed.
Concurrently, she serves as the head of Communication and Information Technology of the Office of Students Affairs (OSA) and the Computer Training and Extension Division of the ICS. She has conducted training workshops in UPLB and other universities in Laguna and Manila.
“As an educator, I believe in the importance of a strong foundation for learning. This is the reason why I really enjoy teaching fundamental courses like CMSC 11 (Introduction to Computer Science), CMSC 21 (Fundamentals of Programming), and CMSC 123 (Data Structures). For me, it is very important for the students to know and understand the basics before they can understand the more complicated concepts,” she further said in a statement.. (DI Drio)
JASON R. ALBIA
Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics
Outstanding Researcher (Junior Faculty/ Natural Sciences)
Asst. Prof. Jason R. Albia ranks first among his peers in the Physics Division, IMSP, when it comes to research drive and productivity. After obtaining his MS Materials Science and Engineering degree, he continued work with his thesis adviser, Dr. Marvin A. Albao, and served also as co-mentor to undergraduate thesis students.
In 2016, Professor Albia was awarded a start up research grant under the CHED Faculty Development Program II. The project, entitled ‘Defect-mediated stochastic ripening in 1D nanowire formation: A kinetic Monte Carlo Study,’ contributes in guiding experimentalist to design the resulting surface morphology (density and size) of one-dimensional nanowires (depending on the targeted applications, e.g. nanoscale devices, fuel cells, and medicine and life sciences). In 2015, he also participated in the OVPAA Balik-PhD Project of Dr. Allan Abraham Padama by helping set up a parallel cluster for computational researches in materials physics.
In the last four years, Professor Albia has become part in two completed research projects, co-authored seven articles published in refereed journals, and presented papers in several local and international conferences. Together with his collaborators, he currently uses the results of previous work to design an algorithm that maps and record the history of adatom movement at various growth conditions to further elucidate the dynamics of nanostructured material formation. (CMN Piñol)
