Individual and Collaborative Work

"No man is an island." This thought is certainly true in the engineering world. Though innovations are usually credited to a certain person, the effort in planning, designing, and learning things would take a village. Honing ones skills is a team effort. And most importantly, projects can be much better in its result when people work together in harmony based on their capacities and abilities. This can be seen in most of the outputs of this portfolio.

With teamwork also comes communication. To make meaningful conversations, come up with great plans, and produce authentic outputs, an open line of interaction must be observed with one another. Communication also entails sharing of one's thoughts, both written and oral.

In this section, some of the highlights that features great planning and communication is seen by its result.

School Organizations

Another opportunity that occurred in my college years is being part of school organizations. Though it inserts between tight schedules and school-related requirement and activities, these orgs are avenue for connections and personal growth that are not found when in classroom or virtual lectures. In my perspective, it challenged my initiative and communication to which I have to meet various personalities and to socialize people regardless of age, sexuality, race, or belief. These groups also honed my interpersonal relationship and teamwork skills, having to become both member and leader in different facets of activities.

Among the organizations I am a member of, the University of San Carlos - Chemical Engineering Society (USCChES) has impacted my holistic development the most. Who would have thought that I would join into the roster of those who vision Excellence and Service in and out of the university. Never have I imagined that I would be communicating with alumni older than my parent, even to the pioneer members of the Society. It was in this organization I was able to be challenged and face rejections and anxiety when faced with problems and uncertainty. Though at times I was not giving my all, USCChES never doubted my skills and abilities. This organization has seen my best and worst. The brotherhood and sisterhood we share will definitely be for keeps, even after I graduate from the institution.

Research and Plant Designs

Teamwork and communication will always be tested when dwelled with interactions and collaboration with other people. There would be no such thing as cooperation nor collaboration when there are no two people present. This is certainly true especially when working with major projects and requirements to ace a great assessment.

Over the course of the program, I was able to team up with various people. Looking through each of the artifacts present in this portfolio, you see that there I have been working with different sets of personalities and working strategies to come up with a particular output. Even with the pandemic that struck the world, communication with people is still present through the use of chatrooms, Google/Zoom meeting rooms, and sometimes face-to-face interactions (with people living in Cebu).

Having to interact with many people, I was able to choose by best partners for my capstone requirements. Rhoel Talandron and Monica Delco are the kind of people who are angst to make things happen and meet requirements on time (though not always...). We never thought of being groupmates during our first year days, having separate sets of friends and acquaintance to interact. But lo and behold, how destined were were to collaborate with our process equipment designs and research project during our third and fourth year requirement. What probably kept us as group is our constant communication with each other. Though at times we have to make arguments of certain points, but we were able to come up with decisions that are agreed by all. The teamwork and strategies we give upon the requirements has been translated to our outputs and assessments over the three semesters of being groupmates.

With these two, we signed up for the research group Advanced and Sustainable Materials (ASM) with Dr. Noel Peter Tan, PhD. that aims to produces sustainable materials that fits upon the concept of a circular economy. Thus, aside from my groupmates, we shared our thoughts with other people and listen to comments and suggestion to further improve our study. From meaningful virtual meeting to memorable physical research meetings (and dinners), the connections that we gain are precious as we venture through the next level of learning.