Featured Post

LIST | Persons who can go out during mandatory COVID community quarantine

On Wednesday, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases revealed a complete list of persons exempted f...

Sunday, November 29, 2015

LIST | 5 awesome Filipino innovations you might not know

Did you know that aside from the creativity that we Filipinos possess, we also have that ingenuity, street-smart attitude, swag skills, and innovative thinking that bring us at par with our international counterparts? In a recent post I made, I talked about several Pinoy entrepreneurs who made it or are currently making it BIG including SALt (salt-powered lamp) innovator Engr. Aisa Mijeno. Now, let's talk about more products of Filipino minds!

Set aside all Filipino problems that brought us to the international headlines (e.g. tanim bala scam). Skip Filipino entertainment-related developments that always get some attention anywhere. Here are five awesome Filipino innovations you might not know, but will now learn about. Enjoy!

1. Plastic-to-Fuel Converter

Screenshot: Youtube channel Reuters

Bacolod native  Jayme Navarro utilized a way to turn thousands of trash into fuel such as diesel, gasoline, and kerosene. The incineration and conversion process begins when the plastics are shredded and dried, which are then placed into an air-tight chamber for decomposition. The plastic granules inside undergoes smelting and evaporates, the vapor of which becomes distilled into the different fuel variants.

The result is a cost-effective way to produce cleaner, cheap fuel from plastic.

2. Amphibious Tricycle (featured in my first blog Spotlight Philippines)

Video Source: Youtube channel Top Gear Philippines

Designed by a group of Filipino inventors and innovators led by Dominic Chung and Atoy Llave, the Salamander amphibious tricycle is the first of its kind to be created. It is a tricycle that can wade through the waters especially when heavy flooding takes place. This water-and-land traveling tricycle is definitely what the country.

3. First Windows graphics accelerator chip

Dado-Banatao
Image Source: Imbenta.Net

Yep, there were a few Filipinos who had the chance to venture into and explore the world of tech when the industry was just starting to grow. The first single-chip graphical user interface accelerator which enhanced computers' performance was developed by Filipino entrepreneur, engineer, and philantropist Diosdado Banatao. The innovation has allowed computer users to use graphics for commands and not the usual typed commands in older computers.

Aside from the graphical UI accelerator, he was also behind the 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator, the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and transreceiver chip, and the first system logic chip set.

4. Improvised Medical Incubator, Weighing Scale and Warmer


Image Source: Imbenta.net

Credited for her contributions to the field of medicine, National Scientist Dr. Fe del Mundo is truly a woman, although not known to many Filipinos, who deserves all the love and respect of her countrymen. She became the first Filipino woman and the only woman to have enrolled at the Harvard University School of Medicine during her time. Among her priceless accomplishments, a makeshift incubator that can be used in rural areas without electricity was one of the game-changers at that time. It was composed of two native differently-sized laundry baskets placed one inside another. She also made a cloth-suspended weighing scale for infants and a bamboo warmer for newborns with special care needs.

5. Furniture from Forest Waste

Image Courtesy: Naturecast.com

Let's talk green! Featured on Rappler, Naturescast is a wood-like material actually composed of forest waste (twigs, branches, leaves) which are then ground and bound to form stylish and sturdy furniture from chairs and lamps to walls and ceilings. Some of the products of Nature's Legacy, the company behind Naturescast, are being used by outlets like The Body Shop.


There's just a lot of development nowadays that Filipinos do. Just think about the numbers of start-ups that have flourished in the country. Don't forget the inventions and researches that are being conducted inside top universities.

Other innovative products that Filipinos can usually think of, because they're just seen and heard on the news, are the e-jeepney, yo-yo, patis (fish sauce), body heat-powered flashlight created by Ann Makosinsk, low-cost landslide sensor, Project NOAH and its Philippine-made MOSES tablet, and of course, the Aurelio supercar. But did you also know that Filipinos also innovated an electric firecracker (Elektro firecracker), a 3-in-1 ANOS Patriot fire truck, and an improvised community guard baton? 

Feed your curiosity. Search them up! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment