1st Technical Seminar Year 2016 on Planning A Road Map for Smart Cities

Riyadh – IECEP KSA CRC held its 1st Technical Seminar last 22nd of January at the Orchid Al Mansour Hotel in Riyadh. This seminar kicks-off the first technical seminar under IECEP KSA CRC’s 2016 BOD led by president and chapter governor Engr. Noel Yumul.

The seminar discussed emerging technologies in Smart Cities and was delivered by Engr. Constantino “Sonny” Acance, a Professional Electronics Engineer (PECE) and registered ASEAN Engineer, working as a Project Coordinator in Orange Business Services KSA.

The event started with the registration of attendees by Engr. Perry Camson and Engr. Jerry Corpuz. The technical seminar saw the attendance of 48 participants from different fields of electronics engineering.

1st Technical Seminar Promotional Banner

The program officially began with a doxology from BOD Member Engr. Leo Vincent Lao followed shortly by the Philippine National Anthem and welcome address by chapter governor, Engr. Noel Yumul. Afterwards, VP-Internal Engr. Jonathan Tiston introduced the seminar resource speaker.

Engr. Acance, the resource speaker, then began his discussion of the subject matter starting with a promotional video showing smart city initiatives in the Philippines as well as emerging smart cities in many places around the world. Engr. Acance then engaged the audience with the futuristic and intelligent features of smart cities starting with building automation, energy conservation, and green initiatives for energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources. He further discussed the development of smart cities requiring the assistance of Information and Communication Technologies to solve problems in terms of social, economic and sustainability. In the next 5 to 10 years, a dramatic increase over the uniqueness, affordability, capacity, robustness, security, and quality for fiber optic and high-speed wireless infrastructures will be expected as industries and whole sectors (healthcare, energy, transport, and water) carry out the process of transforming. He further stressed the need to create smart cities, smart businesses leading to smart countries with high-speed communications, smart grids, intelligent buildings, and many other features.

The increasingly interesting and engaging discussion was shortly broken for a fill of refreshments, networking for the attendees, and some important announcements from the BODs on the prevailing events, on-going activities, and upcoming programs for the new fiscal year to be administered by IECEP KSA CRC officers.

Resource speaker Engr. Sonny Acance delivering the subject matter and engaging his audience

Engr. Acance resumed his discussion on the second part of the day’s event covering smart cities planning and service, design consideration roadmap for intelligent city planning, and technical standards. He demonstrated different strategies in smart city planning and a high level approach of considerations to be taken when integrating different elements of smart cities like power, communications, utilities, human element, transportation, and others. Engr. Acance ended his discussion leaving the audience with a more profound understanding of the future of urban and city planning and opened new horizons to the career paths of electronics engineers and practitioners alike.

A light moment during the technical seminar with resource speaker Engr. Sonny Acance and his audience

The latter part of the technical seminar was followed by the usual awarding of certificates for both the attendees and the resource speaker. This part of the event involved a lot of picture taking and fellowship and networking opportunities to widen the reach of the electronics engineers and technician community in Saudi Arabia’s Central Region. This part was concluded by a commemorative group photoop and a short closing remark of thanks and appreciation to the attendees from VP External Engr. Kenneth Vallespin.

The day ended with a blast and everyone went home with newfound knowledge and a sense of fellowship and camaraderie with their peers (and an additional 4 CPD points under their belts too!) – K. Vallespin

Resource Speaker Engr. Sonny Acance flanked by IECEP KSA CRC President Engr. Noel Yumul and 2016 BOD as he receives his appreciation certificate

1ST Technical Seminar Commemorative Group Photo