One of the strategies that Samsung R&D Institute Philippines has employed in order to become a world-class R&D center is to recruit top Filipino talent. We can say that SRPH is surely gaining traction in terms of being the top R&D center in the Philippines because in its employ are some of the highest calibre engineers and developers, but in order for this model to become sustainable, the future generation also has to be equipped with the relevant skills needed in a Samsung R&D Institute.

SRPH has come up with ways to share their expertise as part of their contribution towards nurturing future innovators and engineers in the Philippines, and for the past years it has been doing so through its CSR programs. In 2018, along with the local subsidiary SEPCO, it launched Coding for Kids, which involved teaching elementary school students the fundamental concepts of coding. It was a great success, which led to this year’s program: SPARK11 or Samsung Philippines Algorithm Research for K11.

Launched last July 15 in partnership with Philippine Science High School (one of the top high schools in the Philippines), SPARK11 aims to train Grade 11 students some algorithms that they can implement using Java. Using the algorithms that they have learned, the students will be required to come up with a solution to a relevant social problem (traffic, disaster response etc.)

SRPH and PSHS teams during the SPARK11 launching day (July 15, 2019)

Some of the best engineers from SRPH volunteered to become the trainers for the 10-session program, which ran from July 16 – 30, 2019. From them the students were able to learn about a wide range of topics – from Agile to Graph Theory. Based on the feedback, the students were eager to try out the algorithms they have learned and were requesting for more coding activities as the sessions progressed. Last August 2, the students paid a visit to the SRPH offices to get a glimpse of how it is working in an R&D center, and they were also able to meet their mentors for their research projects

SRPH mentors and PSHS students during the mentoring session last August 2, 2019

On August 30, 2019, the students will be presenting their final output, and the SRPH team is very much looking forward to the creative solutions that the students have worked on. The students have shown great potential for utilizing algorithms and software not only to create good projects but also to discover relevant applications and solutions. Through SPARK11, it has been proven that there is indeed a bright future for young Filipino innovators.

For more information, you may contact the SRPH HR Group or the CSR Core Team.
SRPH HR Group Head: Emmanuel Serrano (ejr.serrano@samsung.com)
SRPH HR CSR Partner: Julie Guevarra (j.guevarra@samsung.com)
SRPH CSR Core Team Head: Meranno Principe (m.principe@samsung.com)