We just might be seeing a much-improved railway system here in the Philippines in the future. Not because of big-ticket projects like the North-South Commuter Railway, but because of a new partnership between LRT-1 operator Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) and the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU).
With the help of LRMC, ADMU’s School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) will begin offering elective courses on transportation engineering. The preliminary courses planned for the next school year are namely: ‘Course 1: Transportation and Society,’ ‘Course 2: Principles of Railway Transportation,’ and ‘Course 3: Railway Management and Engineering.’
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Course 1 will be an interdisciplinary elective (IE) open to any Ateneo student who has taken the Science, Technology, and Society (STS 10) subject. Course 2 is a technical IE course for students with majors under the Department of Electronics, Computer and Communications Engineering. Course 3, meanwhile, is a major elective with Course 2 as the prerequisite—this is open to all Computer Engineering students taking the railway engineering track as well as to all students taking the minor program in railway engineering.
LRMC will also be the laboratory for a new five-month internship program that will begin in SY2022-2023. Selected interns will gain exposure to railway maintenance and construction and project management.
As the partnership progresses, LRMC and ADMU will also collaborate further to address challenges in the railway industry and the transportation sector in general.
“LRMC has been planning and preparing for this collaboration with Ateneo. We live in an exciting time for our railway sector, with several infrastructure projects taking shape and a call for more sustainable modes of transport is being pushed,” said LRMC President and CEO and Advisory Board of the Ateneo Research Institute of Science and Engineering (ARISE) member Juan Alfonso. “This initiative also underscores the importance of the private sector and academe collaboration to bring about for students learning that is rooted in a real-world setting.
“SOSE is hopeful that these new electives will be available to Ateneo students within the current school year. If the electives generate enough interest, a specialization track on Transportation and Railway Engineering for ECCE could prove viable,” said SOSE dean Dr. Raphael Guerrero.
