The pandemic has brought about drastic changes to our personal and business lives and in particular how we carry out our financial transactions and access Government Services. These services have mostly moved online.
It has slowed down business operations, closed borders, disrupted daily life but on the other hand, it has accelerated digitalisation in a way that could not have been predicted.
“It feels like we have experienced 5 years of digital transformation in 5 months” said Jim Cavanaugh, Vice President – Asia Pacific and Japan, AppDynamics. “Everything was moving in that direction, but COVID-19 has really accelerated the process.”
OpenGov recently had the opportunity to speak with Jim Cavanaugh, Vice President – Asia Pacific and Japan, AppDynamics, a Cisco Company about the effect the pandemic has had on digital transformation, the digitalisation acceleration that has taken place over the last 5 months, the increased pressure it has put on businesses, those already well established online and for those who have had to make that transition out of necessity and in a short space of time.
We spoke to Jim about the online customer journey and how online consumers have high expectations and less tolerance for latency. Also asked him on how AppDynamics have the solutions and tools to support businesses with the challenges they face in this pressurised environment.
Pandemic has caused increased pressure for digital services
The increase in online users has been due to necessity in this current pandemic, and in turn has put huge pressure on government online services and digital transactional services to provide high standards of online service.
Consumers are using apps for their finances, shopping, deliveries, food and transport. And as consumers rely more heavily on apps to get things done, they also expect their experience to be simple and seamless.
According to Jim, today, online consumers have higher expectations of “a perfect digital experience and have less tolerance for latency or challenges. The ‘new normal’ is a consumer wanting a ‘flawless digital experience.’”.
Users have less tolerance for bad online customer experience and the online customer journey is so important, it could be the difference between winning or losing a customer.
Technology to Enhance User’s Online Application Experience
AppDynamics is well placed to support organisations from the tremendous pressure they face in today’s climate. Offering niche services such as being able to visualize revenue paths and correlate customer and app experience, to finding and fixing app issues.
Application performance monitoring – they can actively monitor, analyse and optimise complex application environments at scale to end-user monitoring which optimises key business transactions with a complete view of the customer journey.
They also leverage AI and ML to allow the organisation in real-time to fix complicated processes in the background, without interrupting the online customer. AppDynamics use AI and ML in anomaly detection, it gives the end-user real-time analytics of how people are using the app and can resolve challenges without human interaction.
“The real magic is providing the real time correlation between user experience and the business outcome. Our customers are using that to take market share, increasing the top line and reducing costs on the bottom line”
Digital Banking Success Depends on Good App Experience
The Banking Sector was already moving more and more towards digital banking, offering banking services online and through apps. Singapore is a good example of how the financial sector is experiencing an increase in digital banks. The Monetary Authority Singapore recently selected 14 digital banking applications out of 21.
And as Digi banks use apps as their sole touchpoints, the performance of their apps and technology becomes paramount to meeting the regulatory guidelines and consumer expectations. With only 17% of customers who experience hiccups in their digital experience indicating a willingness to contact service providers for troubleshooting assistance, the 83% of lost customers indeed raises alarm bells on the need for fast, efficient and robust applications.
Given e-banking providers hinge their survival on application performance, addressing gaps and weaknesses in their digital strategies is the key to digital banking success. Proactive monitoring is the key to exceeding regulatory as well as consumer expectations through the employment of proactive monitoring via AI or human intervention and reducing MTTR, hence making reduced downtime a reality.
AppDynamics provides the insights needed around key issues in real-time — before they impact customers. They provide end-to-end visibility to drive application and business performance. A solution that is key in the current situation with an increased focus on online services and higher expectations on user experience. For companies to succeed in this climate they will have quickly identify the weak points in the customer experience online and remedy those immediately so to not lose their client to another service provider and the gain market share.
The Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) announced the launch of “HKSTP InnoAcademy” on 7 October 2020. The Academy is dedicated to the continuous nurturing of young technology talent to inspire and drive success in Hong Kong’s innovation and technology (I&T) industry.
The HKSTP InnoAcademy aims to boost Hong Kong’s I&T competitiveness with a sustained series of programmes, including training and value-added support to upskill technology talent from various sectors into future leaders. The day also marked the inauguration of eight high-potential talents from the first cohort of HKSTP InnoAcademy’s signature “Technology Leaders of Tomorrow” (TLT) programme, as they embark on an extensive 26-month journey within the Hong Kong Science Park ecosystem.
Since enrolment began in July 2020, the TLT programme received an overwhelming response with over 600 applications from graduates in Hong Kong and across the globe, which are the world’s top 50 universities in 2020. Among the many applicants, 60% of them were holders of a Master’s degree or PhD, majoring in Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, Information Technology or Data Science.
The CEO of HKSTP stated that talent development, attraction and retention are crucial factors in sustaining the growth momentum of Hong Kong’s I&T sector. HKSTP recognises that grooming quality talent into inspiring and standout leaders is a critical ingredient to maintaining the city’s global competitive edge.
The mission at HKSTP InnoAcademy is to build the ideal I&T breeding ground to nurture future technology leaders and pioneers. With HKSTP’s extensive ecosystem, the Park and its partners will work together to develop forward-looking learning and training programmes tailored to young graduates and mid-level professionals.
HKSTP InnoAcademy will focus on developing young talent across HKSTP’s strategic technology areas, including Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, Biomedical Technology, Data and Smart City and FinTech, as well as establishing partnerships and connections with key industry leaders, training providers and tertiary education institutions. The continuous learning approach provides talent with multiple career pathways to join the I&T industry while supporting future skills acquisition.
TLT Programme Offers Diverse Opportunities
The eight selected talents from the first cohort of the TLT programme will first enter a two-month HKSTP internship and enjoy valuable exposure to Hong Kong’s leading I&T ecosystem. From there, each talent will take a 24-month full-time R&D role at one of HKSTP’s partner companies for continued career mentoring and development.
Beyond the current TLT programme, InnoAcademy will continue to roll out an extensive range of talent development and training initiatives, in collaboration with major academic and industry partners to unleash the potential of young graduates and equip them to become a driving force in the future of Hong Kong’s I&T sector.
In July 2020, HKSTP launched the Technology Leaders of Tomorrow Programme (TLT Programme) which aims to nurture future technology leaders in Hong Kong and has been designed in collaboration with 11 leading HKSTP’s partner companies at the pilot stage. The programme is now calling for ambitious graduates across the city who are committed to an I&T career to submit applications.
The HKSTP CEO had stated that The Park is committed to accelerating the growth of Hong Kong’s innovation and technology through supporting the development of local start-ups and introducing young people to the promising career prospects and rich opportunities in the industry.
The WA Energy Minister Bill Johnston has congratulated Western Power on the successful deployment of 52 stand-alone power systems (SPS) at properties throughout the Mid-West, Goldfields, eastern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions. The final SPS unit commissioned in this roll-out, in Wansbrough, is a trial unit that will supply two customers – another Australian first.
Stand-alone power systems are a more efficient option than traditional poles and wires, to supplying electricity to households or businesses, and typically includes solar panels, a battery and back-up generator.
The 52 units will replace around 230 kilometres of overhead powerlines, at an average of 4.5 kilometres per property, all of which would have needed to be replaced at a significant cost. This also results in improved land amenity for farmers and reduced risks of collisions or bushfire.
An SPS is part of Western Power’s service area but operates independently to the main network. The 52 unit roll-out follows a successful pilot involving six stand-alone power systems in 2016; it exceeded expectations with customers avoiding over 200 hours of power interruptions over the three-year trial.
Deploying stand-alone power systems has generated direct benefits for the State economy through supporting WA small businesses, and creating new jobs and training opportunities. The deployment beyond the trial phase was made possible by the McGowan Government’s Electricity Industry Amendment Bill 2019, which passed earlier this year.
The Energy Minister stated that the stand-alone power systems are a cost-effective and innovative approach to providing power to WA’s regional customers. Using SPS is part of the McGowan Government’s commitment to providing reliable and safe power to customers that are on the fringe of the grid. The government has made significant headway in transitioning towards a low carbon future with the recent release of the Whole of System Plan, DER Roadmap, the big battery and commissioning of SPS technology.
The basics of SPS technology
Murdoch University notes that Stand-alone Power Supply (SPS) systems are small-scale (<50 kW) self-contained units, providing electricity independent of the main electricity grid or mini-grid network. These systems are sometimes also known as Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) systems.
In Australia, most electricity is supplied by utilities or electricity corporations from power stations via power supply networks, called grids. These main grids provide power to the majority of Australians using many large coal and gas-fired power stations, large hydro generation schemes and more recently, some smaller-scale wind farms and photovoltaic systems. Remote towns like Port Hedland, Mt Isa and Coober Pedy are not serviced by the main grid and have gas or diesel power stations or combined diesel/wind power stations to provide their power via a mini-grid.
SPS Systems (SPS) in Australia
In Australia stand-alone and hybrid power systems are used widely in remote areas to provide power for the following situations: small holiday homes and shacks, boats and recreational vehicles, small rural farms (single homes), large station homesteads (with multiple residences), remote aboriginal communities, small mining operations, and various telecommunications applications. While the total number of systems in Australia is not accurately known, it has been estimated as being more than 10,000 systems.
Main Component Technologies
SPS systems range from small petrol generators able to power appliances directly, to more complex installations using only renewable energy, with a combination of both also being possible. An SPS system that has a combination of energy sources is termed a hybrid SPS system.
Disabled people continue to be disadvantaged by their limited ability to engage with digital and online services, according to a new report: Digital inclusion user insights – Disabled people. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) estimates that around 20% of all New Zealanders are digitally excluded. This essentially means that this community does not have the skills or access needed to participate in the online world.
The purpose of this research was to understand the perceptions and feelings about digital inclusion from people with disabilities as they go about their daily lives. The goal was to understand the key pain points for individuals, what they liked about the current system and what improvements could be made to ensure a more equitable digital environment for all.
For disabled people, one of the most vulnerable communities, this research highlights how the experience of engaging with digital services could be leaving disabled people behind, increasing the number of people who cannot easily and confidently use the internet and online services.
Adam Stapleton, Programme Delivery Manager, Digital Public Service branch at DIA said, “The report highlights issues that have impacted disabled people’s ability to easily and confidently use the internet and digital services. COVID-19 has exacerbated some of these issues and yet also produced an environment where new insights to improve digital inclusion can be embraced and used. This is a real opportunity to create traction.”
The research report gives disabled people a voice and outlines their lived experience in terms of being digitally enabled. It outlines 5 key findings which could help improve the design of websites and online services, making an impact on how disabled people experience the digital.
The report includes insights from disabled people and 5 recommendations for Government on how to increase digital inclusion.
- a need to enforce or incentivise application of the Web Accessibility Standard
- a call to increase the co-design of accessible, digital services
- strong demand for digital skills training from within the disability community
- demand from the disabled community for affordable access to digital tools and technology
- a call to explore employment and post-employment support for the disabled community.
The findings highlight that vulnerable communities like those of the disabled people community will continue to be disadvantaged by their ability to engage or not engage with digital services. The report shows that government agencies can design and provide services differently to be more inclusive for disabled people.
Making digital inclusion a priority
In 2019, the New Zealand government laid out the Digital Inclusion Blueprint and Action Plan, a vision and roadmap working to ensure that all New Zealanders can participate in, contribute to and benefit from the digital world. The Blueprint sets out 4 roles for government in building a digitally included New Zealand: lead, connect, support and deliver.
That vision continues to come to life in the 2020 Digital Inclusion Action Plan which outlines the range of government activities underway and planned to make a more digitally inclusive New Zealand. For example, focusing on closing digital skills gaps for whānau (extended families and communities), iwi (Maori community or people) and small businesses to support them in being able to better engage digitally. Another key part of the work is the user experience research work — a series of 7 user experience reports to understand the perceptions and feelings about digital inclusion.
The goal is to understand the key pain points for individuals of vulnerable communities. What they liked about the current online environment, what they do not, and what improvements could be made to make it a more equitable digital environment.
These reports are more than words on a page. These reports will be used to inform, advise and help people in government and the community who design and provide services so that they can be more inclusive for disabled people.
“Closing the digital divide is something we all need to work together on. Reading the report, consider how to use the findings applied to ongoing or new digital strategies is going to be key to creating the traction needed for disabled people to get the benefits of the internet, connectivity and connection,” confirmed Adam Stapleton, Programme Delivery Manager, Digital Public Service branch at DIA.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) and HTX have developed, and are currently testing out, a training system known as the Enhanced Live Firing Range System – ELFRAS, that is aimed at enhancing firearm training delivery.
The system uses multiple sensors and analytics to improve the shooting performance of officers undergoing firearm training. This is also in line with the Home Team’s (HT) drive to better leverage technology to enhance learning outcomes for HT officers.
The sensors capture human factors such as weapon handling, breathing, shooting posture, gaze fixation and visual alignment. An embedded Advance Performance Enhancement & Analysis Range System (APEARS) software analyses data collected through these sensors and provides real-time recommendations to help improve the officer’s subsequent shots.
The features of the sensors are as follow:
Weapon Handling. A sensor attached to the weapon tracks the movement of the weapon before, during and after the trigger is pulled. It also identifies trigger pulling techniques applied by the officer.
Breathing. A sensor, fixed at the shooting lane, tracks and shows whether the officer’s breathing technique affects the movement of his weapon while firing.
Gaze Fixation. A sensor in the form of a pair of spectacles tracks the officer’s eyes during firing, including whether the officer focuses on his aiming or blinks his eyes while firing.
Shooting Posture.A body posture camera, fixed at the shooting lane, captures the officer’s body movement and compares it against the recommended shooting postures.
The Human Factors and Simulation Centre of Expertise (HFS CoE) of HTX worked with SPF to identify the full spectrum of performance-related human factors indices and to define the engineering design to instrument the shooting lane with these sensors.
Ying Meng Fai, Acting Director of the HFS CoE said, “The system provides information on the shots and real-time analysis of human factor indices such as weapon handling, breathing, shooting posture, and visual alignment. This way, timely and targeted feedback can be provided to the officers to improve their proficiency.”
The ELFRAS system also features a target sensor system that performs automated scoring, captures and displays the location where each shot lands on the target board in real-time.
This information, together with recommendations generated by the APEARS software, is presented on display panels placed beside and above the officer, to provide both officer and trainer immediate insights on the shooting performance.
This allows the trainer to provide comprehensive and timely guidance to the officer. The team has also designed an intuitive ‘one glance’ user interface for ELFRAS which enables the trainer and trainee to rapidly visualise and mitigate critical performance gaps.
Superintendent Joseph Yoong, Head of the Instructional Technology Division of the SPF Training and Capability Development Department, and member of the ELFRAS project team, said, “As part of our efforts to be a learning force with world class training, the Singapore Police Force leverages technology, such as ELFRAS during firearms training, to enhance our training delivery and effectiveness, so as to better prepare our officers for their work at the frontline.”
Currently, the project is undergoing a trial at the Home Team Academy live firing range. The trial which started in June 2020 is expected to end in February 2021. The trial is conducted with selected officers undergoing pistol and revolver training.
PHOTO CREDIT: HTX
The digitisation and digitalisation of the Malaysian economy is an important factor in the changing society today as most countries are re-emerging by adopting new norms due to pandemics affecting various sectors. This unprecedented situation has led to irregular structural changes in past lifestyles.
However, a majority of the population does not have much choice because they have to adapt to the new paradigm as past practices have to be changed forever. It is important to acknowledge that this crisis is causing the emergence of change agents that trigger a new digital era.
The industrial revolution that bloomed about 200 years ago has exposed humans to technology has now entered a new phase which is the leap into the Industrial Revolution 4.0 or IR 4.0. Despite the belief that IR 4.0 will remain, the implementation of these technologies will determine which societies will progress and which ones will be left behind.
Just as steam engines trigger the use of fossil fuels to aggravate the current climate crisis, the power of IR 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, material internet (IoT), robotics and crypto will determine the quality for human beings whether they provide well-being or vice versa.
Taking on the responsibility of digitising Malaysians who are ‘affected’ by this transformation, the role of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is being implemented accordingly. The agency is responsible for ensuring the widespread dissemination and use of IR 4.0 tools in advance so that the community is aware of the challenges that are inevitable not only in Malaysia but also globally.
Considering that more than 90 percent of businesses in Malaysia are categorized as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), it is an essential requirement for this group to be given ‘digital power’. Therefore, the focus is also given to MDEC for the digitization and digitization of family-based businesses.
Investment through training, subsidies, incentives, grants and loans are all important to achieve the goal of digital participation, especially during these challenging times, MDEC is in a unique position to encourage grassroots engagement by sharing resources that fairly involve all stakeholders in society.
The main philosophy that drives the penetration of IR 4.0 technology in the Malaysian digital economy is to achieve common prosperity for all citizens. The current global crisis is an opportunity to place the country in a position from where it can prepare for a better future with greater possibilities as well as by placing the community at the centre of IR 4.0 technology.
Another article notes that MDEC aspires to firmly establish Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN, a regional digital powerhouse launching global champions to lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). It also aims to ensure the digital economy will drive shared prosperity for all Malaysians by accelerating our digital economy growth, ensuring it is inclusive and rewarding for all, focused on the key drivers: empowering Malaysians with Digital Skills, enabling Digitally-Powered Businesses, and driving Digital Sector Investments.
At the cusp of the 4IR, Malaysia is blessed with the chance of re-engineering the human experiment using technologies that decentralise authority and de-emphasise divisions along the lines of colour, creed and country – what the Japanese have coined as “Society 5.0” – and the nation has adapted as “Malaysia 5.0”.
The term describes the next stage of the evolution of societal communities. The quest for Society 5.0 is built around the needs of a human-centred society. MDEC envisions playing a leading role in catalysing this transition to Malaysia 5.0 as a new narrative for introducing emerging technologies which are essential tools in the new Malaysia 5.0 digital economy.
With Malaysia 5.0, it can contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy, where greater well-being is possible for all citizens regardless of age, ethnicity, and class.
The Indonesian manufacturing sector is seeing comprehensive changes in businesses across the spectrum, that is leading to accelerated progress to Industry 4.0 standards. This increased pace is being driven by efforts to increase productivity, efficiency and safety to adapt to the new normal brought about by the pandemic. Speaking at a virtual event, Webinar of Industrial Powerhouse in the Making: Invest in Industry 4.0, Director-General of Resilience, Territorial and International Industrial Access (KPAII) of the Ministry of Industry, Dody Widodo felt that current transformation efforts are critical to encouraging economic growth and competitiveness of the country.
Digitisation and technology have brought a marked improvement in the productivity of the domestic manufacturing industry after being hit by the COVID-19. As of September 2020, the utilisation of the manufacturing sector reached 55.3%, an increase of 15-25% from the previous 30-40% at the start of the pandemic. He was confident that efficient and effective digitalisation would connect companies with domestic and international markets through an integrated supply chain network. Countries that have low transformation performance characteristics will face high costs due to unreliable capacity and efficiency, as well as major barriers to integrating and competing in global supply and value chains.
Dody acknowledged the undeniable role of the internet has had in changing the way of doing business, including in the industrial sector. Industry 4.0 is driving the increasing trend of automation, such as through the Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine and human-to-machine interfaces, artificial intelligence, digitisation in manufacturing, and other advanced technologies. According to him, the new paradigm shift in manufacturing today is the result of the use of the internet which allows real-time communication between machines and humans- leading to an era of smart products and smart services.
To prepare for the Industrial 4.0 era, the Indonesian government has launched a road map for Making Indonesia 4.0. Initially, there were five sectors that received development priority – food and beverages, textiles and clothing, automotive, electronics and chemicals. However, learning from the pandemic, the Ministry of Industry has added two critical sectors to be included in the Making Indonesia 4.0 program – pharmaceutical industry and medical devices. With this, there are seven priority sectors.
These seven sectors are key sectors in the world economy and Indonesia is striving to become one of the major global players in these. The main goal is to have Indonesia in the top 10 countries that have the strongest economy in the world by 2030.
OpenGov Asia recently reported on the Ministry of Industry’s launch of the Startup4industry programme as another concrete step to implementing the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap. The nation is confident that this strategic initiative will bridge the needs of industry and the community with the role of startups as technology providers. Startup4industry, built on the theme “Indonesia Is Confident in Domestic Technology” 2020 aims to deeply technology to have a positive social impact on citizens and mitigate the impact of the pandemic in the industrial sector.
Investment in Industry 4.0 technology will increase competitiveness and added value and, to that end, the government has carried out various strategic activities as part of the implementation of Making Indonesia 4.0. These include 2019 Indonesia Industrial Summit, preparation of Indonesia’s 4.0 Industry Readiness Index (INDI 4.0), the IKM e-Smart program and the appointment of an Industry 4.0 lighthouse company in Indonesia.
To attract investment related to industrial technology 4.0, the Ministry of Industry has proposed various incentives for industry players, including a super tax deduction of 300% for industrial companies investing in R&D (including technology 4.0) and 200% for industrial companies investing in vocational education.
Further, to maintain business continuity of the industrial sector in the country, the Ministry of Industry has granted an Operational Permit and Industrial Activity Mobility (IOMKI) for business actors who meet the requirements based on Circular (SE) of the Minister of Industry Number 4 of 2020, SE of the Minister of Industry No.7 / 2020 and SE of the Minister of Industry No.8 / 2020. As of October 2020, 18,183 IOMKIs have been issued for various industrial sectors with total employment of 5.15 million people.
The pandemic has caused widespread devastation across the world with cases inching towards 43 million even as the death toll crosses a million. The Philippines is also struggling to deal with the COVID-19. The country has recorded 370 thousand cases with fatalities touching 7,000 in this last week of October.
Researchers across the world are working ceaselessly to try and get a comprehensive picture of the virus, its epidemiology and management. Such large-scale, glocal research has been made possible with supercomputing facilities that can perform high-speed processing and computations.
Wide interconnectivity and global reach give it the capacity to empower multi-disciplinary efforts in medical and health research across facilities and experts spread across wide geographical areas. The incredible processing and analytic powers drive advancements in the development of treatments, vaccine and management of all diseases and pandemics, such as the COVID-19. Supercomputing facilities can process massive amounts of data, speed up simulations and provide large amounts of space need to store data and analytics. These capabilities allow access to virtual machines, massive cloud applications and coordination on a global scale – produce results a thousand times faster.
The Computing and Archiving Research Environment (COARE) is a supercomputing facility at the Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI). The facility provides free services to researchers, scientists and students who need high computational resources, access to virtual machines and data archiving services. Currently, COARE has allocated its resources to institutions and researchers dedicated to dealing with COVID-19.
FASSSTER and TanodCOVID
Developed by the Ateneo de Manila University’s Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research (ADMU-ACCCRe) and in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Manila-National Telehealth Center (UP-NTCH) and the Department of Health-Epidemiology Bureau, the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (FASSSTER) is a pandemic intelligence monitoring that assists the government’s real-time decision-making processes for COVID-19.
FASSSTER’s data warehouse features multiple modules used for collating, storing and filtering real-time information sourced from various health records and reports. Data from the warehouse is fed to a dashboard that produces analytical projections and computations that help decision-making processes and disease response.
One component and data source of FASSSTER is TanodCOVID, which helps people track and monitor COVID-19 symptoms and report it to their local health authorities through a self-reporting tool. Since March 2020, the COARE facility has been of crucial help to FASSSTER and TanodCOVID, providing access to its virtual cloud services to help them in their complex mathematical models and data warehouse needs.
COVID-19 Operations Center Monitoring System
The COVID-19 Operations Center Monitoring System is a data platform used by Local Government Units to help in management, tracking and monitoring of COVID-19 cases. The system consolidates COVID-19 data that is easily viewed on a dashboard. It includes visualisation features like heat maps and charts for monitoring at the municipality up to the barangay level and modules for encoding patient information and assigning patient records for contact tracing. COARE assists this platform by storing and analysing data through virtual servers.
Philippine Genome Center Research Initiatives
The Philippine Genome Center (PGC) of the University of the Philippines-Diliman is a genome-focused institution that currently prioritising research on COVID-19 – centred on phylogenetic analysis, computational studies, evolutionary analysis, molecular biology and in silico detection of COVID-19. COARE supports PGC by providing researchers access to the facility’s supercomputing services.
Folding@Home Project
Folding@Home is an R&D project that helps combat worldwide diseases through research carried out through distributed computing. From March 2020, COARE offered its supercomputing resources to F@H research efforts by installing a dedicated folding node. Through this node, the project was able to utilise COARE’s resources for computational drug design, protein folding, molecular dynamics, and other COVID-19-related computer simulations.
University of the Philippines Cebu’s CovCheck Application
The Department of Computer Science and the FireCheck team of the University of the Philippines Cebu is developing a web application, CovCheck, that enables Local Government Units to manage and respond to the transmission of COVID-19 through the collection of data from constituents who have self-assessed and self-reported for COVID-19 symptoms. At present, COARE has helped by hosting the web application on its virtual servers.
ACCELER8 Project for SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutics
Faculty members and scientists from the University of the Philippines-Manila, Philippine Genome Center-Mindanao, and De La Salle University Manila are working on a research project – Advancing Antivirals through Combined Computational Design and Emerging Omics to Leverage Repurposed and Natural Drugs for SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutics (ACCELER8). COARE has given ACCELR8 researchers access to its supercomputing services to help them conduct simulations and data analysis on computational drug design and omics.
