YOUNG scientists from the northern Philippines have made local crime-fighting less, er, “sketchy.”

Developed by group of students from Saint Louis University in Baguio City, the “potentially groundbreaking” study called iSketch, which allows police and crime investigators to compare hand drawn or computerized facial composite sketches to an online database, was tagged “Best Project of the Year” in the 2012 BPI-DOST Science Awards.

iSketch was one of the six science and engineering projects, which, while competing for cash prizes, scholarship and prestige, reflected not only the best minds among young Filipinos but the harnessing of knowledge to better the lives of ordinary people.

The project offers an alternative to Facefit, a “feature-based computerized composite illustration system” currently being used by the Philippine National Police, especially those in Benguet.

Nonetheless, Sarah Jane Calpo, the BS in Information Technology student who led the seven-member research project, said they hope to see its application nationwide, supplementing the eight FaceFit units in the country that was donated by the Australian government.

iSketch and FaceFit are two approaches in police composite sketches, one of the most crucial investigative tools in law enforcement. There are two modern approaches inw the country: the feature-based, which is like a jigsaw puzzle where law enforcement authorities pick existing facial features to form a suspect’s profile; and, the recognition-based approach, wherein witnesses make choices of facial features at random.

Calpo noted that FaceFit is expensive, with a P250,000 tag price. Updates are also exclusive to licensed users, which can only work with 200 sets of images.

“By using open source technology, we believe a Web-enabled iSketch would be sustainable and cost our government less,” Calpo said.

Ditto for the project developed by Chiliast Juan of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, which proposes the use of a single wire in the distribution of electricity.

Juan said the Single-Wire Earth Return (SWER) electrical distribution system costs 20- to 35-percent less than the conventional three-phase system being used in the country today.

SWER requires fewer poles or poles that are lighter, he said, noting that more than a third of electric poles in the Philippines use the conventional system.

Juan added that the SWER also uses less insulators as contacts between adjacent conductors can’t occur.

The technology is more applicable in sparsely populated regions where energy demand is low.

Juan said he experimented on the technology using a 500-meter SWER line inside the UPLB campus, the soil of which he also sampled and used as one variable. Other variables he said he included were the distance of the single wire from the generator as well as the depth of the soil.

If the government says it is expensive to bring power to 31 sitios that are still not electrified today, then maybe using SWER in rural electrification projects can be an option, Juan said.

The second runner-up winner in the BPI Foundation Inc. and Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-sponsored award, on the other hand, can lower the cost of public health by giving more information on the number of bacteria found in Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) systems.

Titled “Identification and Assessment of Bacterial Bioaerosols Present in [LRT] and [MRT] Stations using Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism of 16S rRNA gene,” the study discovered several disease-bearing germs in these public spaces.

“It was unusual for cyanobacteria to be present in both areas we sampled,” said Maxine Andrea Garcia, a BS Life Sciences student of Ateneo de Manila who conducted the study touted as the first in evaluating the diversity of bacterial bioaerosols in LRT and MRT stations.

Garcia said while still awaiting results of samples they sent to a gene analysis center in Hong Kong, she noted the impact on public health as 16 of 62 bacterial bioaerosols she was able to identify as present in these stations are “opportunistic.”

“This means the bacteria attacks only those with weak dispositions or are immuno-compromised, or have had surgery or recently underwent radiation therapy.”

She noted that it would be wise for these type of people to be advised of the presence of these bacteria so that they can avoid certain hours of the day when traveling.

Garcia tested the air in these stations on three hour sets: early morning, noon and early evening.

Initial results also revealed that Garcia discovered two pathogens one of which is multiresistant and the other causes diptheria.

Hence, by conducting more tests that may confirm Garcia’s findings, the government, she noted, can avoid outbreaks that may cause dents in public-health spending as well as loss in manhours.

Garcia won P10,000 in cash prize and a trophy while Juan, aside from a trophy, was awarded P30,000. Calpo received a P50,000 cash, a trophy and a scholarship for a doctorate degree from the DOST.

The 2012 BPI-DOST Science Awards press statement said it aims to recognize and provide incentives to graduating students in selected colleges/universities who excel in specialized fields of science, namely: mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science and biology.

The other finalists were: “Synergistic Effect of Chemical and Ultraviolet Irradiation on the Biodegradation of Low Density Polyethylene by Aspergillus oryzae” by Marie Gene Cruz (BS Life Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University); “Battery Management System for Lithium-Ion Electric Vehicle Traction Batteries” by Aibar Rabi Rashad Bibi (BS in Electronics and Communications Engineering, De La Salle University); and the “Effects of Chitosan Extracts from Shrimp head wastes applied as fruit coating on bitter gourd Momordica charantia L. Sta. Rita strain [Family Cucurbitaceae; Order cucurbitales]” by Ferdinand Renfred Zapata (BS Biology, University of San Carlos).