Call for nominations: MWF searches for next outstanding engineers

Photo & Words by: Julianne Gabis

The Manila Water Foundation (MWF), together with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine Technological Council launched the Prize for Engineering Excellence on Tuesday, February 13 at the Seameo Innotech, Quezon City.

MWF President Geodino Carpio, PTC Founder Dr. Lydia Tansinsin, and DOST Assistant Secretary for International Cooperation Dr. Leah Buendia led the unlocking for the 2019 nominations.

The Prize is the first and only award-giving body in the country dedicated to outstanding engineers committed to uplifting communities through their inventions and projects engaged in the fields of water, sanitation, environment, and sustainability.

Now on its 3^rd run, the Prize is a biennial nationwide search for excellent engineers born from Manila Water’s search for award-winning engineers that will help them improve the water system in the country especially in marginalized communities and sectors.

Having no recognizing body for engineers at the time, MWF came up with an idea inspiring passion to make a difference, and outstanding commitment to the development of communities.

“We took it upon ourselves to make a little bit of a contribution towards encouragement of engineering in the country because we rely upon engineering ourselves,” said President Carpio.

The foundation is once again on a mission to find a maximum of five licensed or certified engineers with good moral character who have made remarkable positive impacts to their respective communities in the past 10 years. Each will receive a cash prize of PHP500,000 and a specially designed trophy and medal.

“This award is a testament that Filipinos are world-class innovators,” said DOST Assec. Leah Buendia.

Nominations and deadline of submission of complete entries is on June 28, 2019 and the awarding ceremony is set on February 2020.

Within its three runs, six engineers have already been bestowed The Prize since its conception in 2015 with the most recent one, Dr. Ricardo Orge, an agricultural engineer from the Philippine Rice Research Institute. Orge emerged as the lone winner in 2017 for his invention of a machine designed for processing rice hull.