The UP Parser

The following speech was given by Dr. Cedric M. Festin during the Walkthrough of the New College of Engineering Library and Computer Science Building last November 12, 2005. In attendance were President Emerlinda Roman, Chancellor Sergio Cao, Dean Rowena Guevara, building sponsors, members of the COE Library Staff, DCS Faculty, alumni and students (see related article).

We would like to thank you all for taking the time to come here this afternoon, especially since this is not yet the official inauguration of this building. When we first started inviting people to this event it was hard to explain that we have not yet moved into the building and this afternoon is not yet the inauguration. Of course, we would have wanted that, but as you can see, we still have some ways to go.

We invited you all here this afternoon to show you what we have so far and let you know what we still plan and need to do. We wanted to show you where your contributions have gone. We would not have reached this stage without your help, and yet, we also need to tell you today that we still need your help.

We need your help financially, and you have already generously heard our call and have been instrumental in securing funding for this building’s construction. For some, you have given us money to sponsor rooms. For others, you have given us computing equipment that we are already using, even if the rooms here are not yet ready. Still for others, there are pledges, promises to still help and spread the word. Despite these contrinutions and pledges we will still need around 10 Million Pesos more to finish the building and another 45 Million to modestly equip and furnish the rooms you see today.

But more than financial help, we need your input. All this effort is for the purpose of keeping us one of the strongest Computer Science programs in the country, competitive with the best in the region. This is not easy. Our neighboring countries are investing a lot in their computing infrastructures and we need to keep up and overtake them.
To be the best, we need your suggestions on how to strengthen our program. We need world-class and up-to-date reference materials for the Library. We need fast access to the Internet. We need exposure to the latest software technologies. We will also sometimes need you to visit and teach, deliver lectures to our students. We need to go beyond basic knowledge and produce innovative products and services. We cannot accomplish this by ourselves. We need you to help us do this.

In short, we need you to stay with us, continue being a partner, communicating with us what is needed to bolster the graduates we are producing, and how to encourage more students to major in this field. In the end, these students will be part of the graduates from which most of you will be drawing from and we hope that they will work to surpass your expectations of them.

Today we are formally launching the Friends of the UP Computer Science and the Friends of the Engineering Library Programs. Through this, we are formalizing the means through which donors can extend assistance to us. Testament to this is the presence this afternoon of two CS graduates who, in behalf of alumni and friends from Hewlett-Packard Philippines, have heeded our calls for donations. Thus, I would like to end by calling President Roman, Chancellor Cao and Dean Gev to receive the check our alumni and friends from HP, who are sponsoring the Conference room of the Computer Science Department.