Villanueva, Gerlyn Noica Rose C.
GE102-K1
Securing the world – bit by bit
The COVID19 Pandemic has brought unprecedented uncertainty in the many areas of
our lives as we face the so-called “new normal”. The challenge is not just to survive but to
thrive in this “new normal”. Thus, this Webinar organized by the Caraga Center for Geo-
informatics (CCGeo) and the Department of Geodetic Engineering was entitled as Responsive
and Intelligent Suppression of COVID-19 and its Social Impacts using Spatial Technologies
providing timely and relevant information to the public during the SciTech4Dev 2020 Forum,
October 14 & 16, 2020.
Five speakers were introduced by Engr. Meriam Satillan during the first part of the
webinar there were three. The speaker of the first topic, Dr. Ma. Regina Justina Estuar the
project leader of FASSSTER is an Executive Director from Ateneo de Manila University.
Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance Using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler
for Early Detection of Diseases (FASSSTER) is used for early prediction and prevention of the
spread of diseases, it is dependent on the actual data generated and fed to the system
providing a rich layout of integrated information that will facilitate in understanding the spread
of diseases such as the Covid-19. Methods are classified as testing-based or model-based
approaches. Reviewing methods in the context of factors other than algorithm performance
highlights important aspects of implementing and selecting appropriate disease surveillance
methods.
Subsequently, Mr. Lean Franzl Yao from the Department of Mathematics in Ateneo de
Manila University and FASSTER consultant discussed about Identifying Barangay hotspots using
Spatial Autocorrelation of high and low infectious rate areas. Geary’s I and LISA are two
statistics that estimate the overall degree of spatial autocorrelation they measure the tendency
of events to cluster or the extent to which points close together have similar values within a
specified area. These spatial phenomena are depicted as points in a map and refer to locations
of events or objects that can be used to monitor the interaction of the indecencies between
localized areas.
The last topic during the first part webinar was about Determining Barangay Relative
risk: A Bayesian Spatio-temporal Analysis of Covid-19 cases in the Philippines by Mr. Daniel
Joseph Benito from the Department of Mathematics in Ateneo de Manila University and
FASSTER consultant. During his talk, the speaker emphasized a series of maps over time based
on a model with Spatio-temporal interaction terms where data are collected across time as well
as space that enables to monitor disease risk of Covid-19 for barangay level.
There were two speakers throughout the second part of the webinar. The first to tackle
was Engr. Roseanne Ramos who is the project leader of TrAMS+ from the Department of
Geodetic Engineering of UP Diliman. TrAMS is an online system composed of geographic and
tracking information of hospitals’ medical supplies. The project used Spatial database
development that constitutes compilation and verification of geographic information from
several sources such as existing databases from hospitals, from the academic community and
from other parties, and social media posts managed to gain a database for supply monitoring.
Lastly, Mr. Nick Tobia a Senior Consultant of Cirrolytix Research Services wherein an
Applied Analytics works in the social impact sector discussed their GIDEON project. Global
Impact Detection from Emitted Light, Onset of COVID-19, and Nitrogen Dioxide is a remote
sensing and mobility-based global COVID-19 impact monitoring platform correlating pandemic
performance with economic and environmental factors. Also it uses previous economic data on
gross domestic product (GDP) and growth rates to forecast the likely outcome of the lockdowns
and other interventions against the coronavirus.
The webinar provided the students and advisers more knowledge on #RESISTCOVID19,
specifically, information about data analytics in relation to economic forecast to promote the
significance of researches and innovations for the country's sustainability and development
featuring spatial technology-enabled applications and studies on combatting societal impacts of
Covid-19.
