The regional science meet, which was made to coincide with the country’s annual National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) celebration, is rotated among the Asean’s ten member-countries and is held every three years.

The event’s opening was attended by Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who came in a formal dress made of indigenous fabrics, particularly piña fibers from Aklan and silkworm from Misamis Oriental, and was dyed pink using young coconut husks.

This year’s celebration is particularly significant for the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) who is marking its golden anniversary. The department traces its roots to the National Science Development Board, which was established by Congress through the Science Act of 1958 upon the recommendation of Dr. Frank Co Tui.

In the run-up to the ASTW and NSTW, the science department published a coffee-table book depicting its 50-year history. The publication, entitled SinAg (a contraction for sining and agham), is a 120-page visual account that chronicles the people and events that shaped the country’s S&T sector since 1958.

One of the activities that accompanied the science week celebration was the formal tie-up of the Asean with the European Union in the area of research and technology.

Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, director general for research at European Commission, said priority areas in the collaboration include nanotechnology, transportation, health, and environment, among others.

It was also during the event that the Asean Foundation, an agency under the regional bloc, launched a PC game called "Asean Quest: Ten Counties, One Mission," as a way of cultivating an Asean identity among the citizens of the group’s member-countries.

One of the high points of the celebration, however, happened right at the start of the week-long festivities when Pres. Arroyo honored a physicist from the University of the Philippines, Dr. Cesar Saloma, as one of the two recipients of the Asean Outstanding Scientist and Technology Awards.

Saloma, the current dean of the UP College of Science, was recognized for his significant contributions in the area of photonics, a science that deals with the generation, control, and detection of light. In his 20-year stint at UP Diliman, Saloma developed novel and cost-effective techniques in optical signal recovery and retrieval.

One of Saloma’s significant researches is the DoST-funded technique in failure detection in integrated circuits (IC) in which the combined capabilities of laser microscope with photon-induced imaging can detect micros-sized failures in ICs.

The technology, being accurate and cheap, could lead to lower production cost of ICs and helps prevent wastage losses in semiconductor industries caused by undetected IC defects. The reduction of waste if likewise good for the environment.