UPOU holds webinar on Exploring the Oceans with Citizen Science

The UP Open University (UPOU) Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (OVCAA), in collaboration with the UPOU Faculty of Education conducted the fourth webinar on Research Conversations 2020: Futures Research Series with Dr. Federico Lauro as the resource speaker. Dr. Lauro, an Associate Professor of the Asian School of the Environment and the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering of Nanyang Technological University, gave a talk on the use of “Citizen Science” as a research approach. The webinar was held on 30 June 2020 (Tuesday), 9:00 to 11:00 AM and was participated in by viewers from national and international locations.

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Melinda F. Lumanta describes Futures Research as a set of research approaches used in predicting and anticipating future conditions. The series of talks features experts in scenario building, multivariate trends analysis, simulation approaches, decision support systems and modelling. Emerging and adaptive methodologies are likewise, explored in this forum.

Dr. Federico M. Lauro shared his expertise in developing bioinformatic tools for analyzing and modelling large datasets. He gave a talk on “Exploring the Oceans with Citizen Science” emphasizing that amateurs or non-scientists could participate in scientific research by engaging them in data gathering and analysis and monitoring and evaluation. With a bit of training and the use of modern technology, reliability and validity issues in citizen science could be addressed, according to him. He concluded his talk by saying, “I think the future is now, and I think everyone should be part of it …”

The webinar was moderated by Dr. Myra Oruga, Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Mr. Arman Santos, a UPOU doctoral student of the PhD in Education, facilitated the Q&A part of the webinar.

Sustainable Development Goals

Written by Marian Tatlonghari

Edited by Dr. Melinda Lumanta