#technopreneurship

Me and my groupmates, Angel Jean Obsioma, Ian Gariel B. Ramas, and Francen P. Sellote, roam around the city to look for businesses that we can go to and ask the business owner or staff if we can ask a few questions regarding their business, so that we can gain knowledge and in-depth understanding about how business works, and we also asked permission if it is okay to take a picture.

Hi everyone! I’m back again for another blog. I sincerely apologize for not updating my blog lately. I got really busy at school. I got a free time now though.  Well anyways, so much for that. I hope you’ll enjoy reading my blog as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Have a great day!

Have you ever wondered why is it called “3 Idiots”? If you haven’t watched the movie yet, you would probably wonder why. Why 3 Idiots though? Spoiler alert! Rancho, Raju and Farhan are the “3 idiots” despite belonging to a prestigious university. The reason why they are called three idiots is because of doing silly stuffs and they are way different from other students. The almost 3-hour long movie is considered to be among the greatest Indian films ever made. The film had huge social impact on education systems, not just in India, but across the globe. So if you haven’t watched it yet, you’re missing out! So much for that, let’s get over with the introductions and let me explain why 3 idiots is a “must watch”. Here are some of my reflections after watching the movie.

1.“Life is a race, if you don’t run fast, you’ll get trampled” – Virus.

A famous quote from the movie, 3 idiots. Life itself is NOT a race. It is us, who make it feel like a competition. People around us tells us that we have to always come first. First in class, first in anything that we do. Which usually stems from childhood, where we often hear them say, “you have to be like this”. Which gives the child a mindset that he or she has to excel in order to feel acceptance or belongingness which eventually leads to constantly seeking for validation and approval, making it the only way to reinforce the child’s sense of value and worthiness.

The education system has gradually become only about “who performed the best” and not about “who were able to perform”. Making it look like we are in a constant state of comparison with our peers. Life isn’t a race, nor a competition. Each of us have our own pace. If you get trampled, it’s okay. Stand up, and continue doing things that gives you meaning. Success isn’t measured on how fast you finished or how fast you got on top. There’s always a right time for everything. You don’t wait for it, but you make it happen.

2. Make your passion your profession

This is also one of the most crucial thing I learned from the movie, maybe because I can somehow relate. Programming isn’t really my passion. Although I took BSIT program, my love for science will never vanish. In my case, I had to be practical. Yes, it is not my passion but I believe someday, this field that I have chosen will bring me success. Farhan wants to become a wildlife photographer but he studied engineering to fulfill his father’s wish. He was never happy about it, but his parents were. Rancho advised Farhan to go after his dreams. I saw how passionate Farhan was. But at the same time, he set aside his dreams just to make his parents happy, which makes him a really good son. His father thinks that there’s not that much money in photography, but he said it will make him happy. This is so true even in real life. Some people have all the riches in the world but they never find contentment. Some are not that rich, but they are happy and contented. Life isn’t just about making money, it’s also about being happy. Those two come together. Even if you don’t earn that much when you start doing your passion, eventually, success will come to you because you love what you’re doing, and you are good at doing it.

3. Aal izz well (All is well)

Most mentioned phrase in the movie, the song is also captivating. What do “All is well” mean? We are so focused in achieving our goals for the future, that sometimes, we forget to enjoy things we have at the present. The phrases, “All is well” teaches us that everything is going to be alright. When life goes out of control, just say, all is well. It may not directly solve the problem, but it may increase one’s courage to face it. Positivity has a great impact when dealing with problems we think we can’t solve.

4. The power of friendship

Your friend circle influences your actions. At first, I kind of hated rancho for being such a jerk and a rebel. I felt like he’s influencing Raju and Farhan to be like him. But as the movie goes on, I finally understood what Rancho is trying to say all along. He sees Raju and Farhan as his friends that he doesn’t want them to be eaten up by the poor education system and encourages them to stand up for themselves. I recalled that when Virus told Raju to write a letter to expel him to the school, he can’t do it because he thinks of this parents, his paralyzed father. He said he can’t do it but then Virus told him to put Rancho’s name instead. I felt really bad that I expected him to betray Rancho. I kind of doubted Raju that time but I was shocked to see that he chose to commit suicide instead. He really is a true friend and I’m glad he was safe and recovered eventually. Their friendship is one of a kind, I even think it’s more of like a family. The people we choose to hang out with ultimately influences our actions and our future. Choose your friends wisely.

5. Learning doesn’t end even after you graduate

Education doesn’t stop. People are constantly learning. Education does not only exist inside academic institutions, but also outside of that. Education is not about memorizing, it’s about learning. For me, Silencer or Chatur was really a great student. He was successful at the end right? But he was not that happy. He’s still consumed by the anger he has for Rancho years ago; he thinks that Rancho is not as successful as him. Sad reality, there are successful people that looks down on others. They think that they are on top, they think they are relevant. They have degree and all, but they don’t have the manners. Looking back, Chatur was mostly relying on memorizing stuffs rather than studying about it. I liked how Rancho and his friends taught him a lesson when he gave a speech wherein they changed some of the words to humiliate Chatur. I actually agreed on what they did even though I sometimes think it’s already too much but it was also Chatur’s fault for not giving any effort to research on his speech. You can still learn even you are already working. You learn different things from different people every day. Understand, apply and make a change.

6. Education is a right, not a privilege

Last but not the least, and also one of my favorite lesson. Education is not a privilege; it is a human right. I firmly believe that every person has their right to quality education without discrimination. Let’s recall when we found out the plot twist in 3 idiots. The Rancho we know is not the real Rancho. His real name was Phunsukh Wangdoo. He was a servant boy who loved learning. He agreed to take real Rancho’s name, give him the degree in exchange for attaining the education and the learning he wants. It amazes me how wangdoo (Rancho) doesn’t care about the degree, to him, it is just a title. He cares more about what he learned. He impersonated the real Rancho just to send himself to school. Then it revealed that wangdoo (Rancho) is a school teacher at Ladakh. Wherein children are motivated by love of knowledge, like how schools should be. In addition to being very funny and interesting movie, “3 Idiots” also prompts crucial issues on shortcomings of the educational system and the quest for pleasure and fulfillment,

Blog 4 - March 8, 2024

Artist: Paykhan - Science & Vie Magazine 2023

As part of our Technopreneurship class, my team gave a progress report on our venture in developing an eco-friendly refrigerated fish storage box. While researching thermoelectric cooling and insulation materials, I gained some meaningful insights.

Exploring coconut husks made me reflect on how much ingenuity remains untapped in circular economy solutions. I was amazed by how this abundant agricultural byproduct could outperform conventional insulators while being renewable and biodegradable. I also got excited envisioning how TEC technology could enhance cold chain and food preservation in developing communities, and maybe simultaneously combating hunger, climate change, or proper waste disposal.

Beyond the technical aspects, this project is shifting how I approach design from a sustainability mindset. Instead of optimizing for narrow factors like cost or performance, I'm learning to evaluate a fuller lifecycle picture - materials sourcing, energy use, end-of-life, and social impact. True sustainability means creating ecosystems and thinking about regeneration over degeneration.

This experience illuminated the power of engineering to develop intelligent solutions that harmonize modern needs with environmental rejuvenation. I feel inspired to carry this consciousness forward, finding opportunities to beneficially merge technology and nature's wisdom. As I continue my studies, I hope to further explore biomimetic design principles that allow innovation to emulate net-positive, zero-waste systems. The path to a thriving future lies in realizing our complete interdependence.

In a group, having similarities might be better but if all of you are the same, it won’t work well, it might cancel out yourselves together and both your strong and weak points will clash. Having unbalance mix and an overpowering dominance of monotone-ing attitudes leads to a major and epic failure, how? Well several problems won’t be needing only one solution for all, but a single problem can have different solutions. So having different kinds of thinking and point of views will make a fine tuning of a great band of productive and diverse persons towards greater opportunities.

Well, what am I in a group? I can consider myself as ambivert, but my personality test tells me I’m more of an introvert well, true enough. What can I do? How useful can I be in a group? I could also consider I am a moderate computer knowledgeable guy or simply a “techguy”, I know and also I like to edit both pictures and videos, I also ventured graphic arts in photoshop and experimenting stuffs I like, I tend to explore how far can a pc go and try several interesting software and stuffs, so eventually I learned the basic things about pc’s and my classmates always refers to me about computer problems, even though I’m almost self-taught  about what I know and learned through curiosity. I also enjoy playing video games, especially simulation,  role-playing-games and tactical oriented games, where I plan my approach towards a goal. I also like music and I know enough guitar playing and singing, to the point I want to compose but still didn’t work. I like reading interesting stuffs and my fingers are always restless and liked to do something always, like crafting something when I was young, and now, I got interested in machines and I like to learn more about it, and I really love cars and motorcycles, especially the unique ones, both vintage and sport types. I don’t really like being on social media, because I believe, being famous there doesn’t really define who you really are, maybe a little update about myself is enough for I still want my own privacy, I am not really fond of showing off that’s why, I just like to thank and be proud on what I could do. Interacting with other people? I could easily blend with their characters, and adjust accordingly, maybe that’s one of my strong points but can’t always maintain my aura when looked from the outside from a stranger, I maybe too serious looking and very strict vibe, well partly I am but half be-happy, have-fun and go-with-the-flow person. Having conversation with random person maybe a little hard for me yet but I’ll try my best to be more approachable one.

In a group, there should be at least an introvert and an extrovert, and there are also 3 types of person that should be acting as in a group, namely hackers: the techguy, more on computers, hustlers: the noisy one and the over confident in the group, and the hipsters: the guy in charge of designs and more on organization of the group. Well I could be versatile to these 3 types, but more on hackers and hipsters but lesser on hustlers. Our group, we are composed of four guys, namely; Aaron Guimare, I think he is more capable of being the hustler because he is more outgoing that the rest of us. Paulo Entice, I’m still unsure which would be best fit for him, but he’s the sporty guy in our group, maybe he could do the straining stuffs like going out and doing surveys and gathering data’s for he has more energy than us but goal oriented person. Kent Labis, like Paulo, he is also a sporty guy, both of them are in the same team playing volleyball, but he has a competitive attitude which could also his strong point. In our team, I think this would be enough but I think they will be thinking having me as the leader for I could multitask, It could be fine with me but, it might tire me out of all the task so maybe I’ll just divide the task accordingly as the manager of our team, it may not be good, but I’ll fix our places and functions accordingly to work well on our upcoming projects.

´ ▽ ` )ﾉ  Haroo! Kuroshioo desunee!

Last week, such progress we had accomplished as a team, not just in this matter alone but as well as the requirements for other subjects. However, we did not get these success that easily, we of course struggled and faced such difficulties behind this so called success. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Well, last week, we had presented our MVP during the pitch deck presentation. It turned out just fine though since we’ve prepared for it. Only one of us who do the pitching/talking in presenting our MVP since we talked about that matter and decided that he will do it, though 2 of our team will do it next time. Although I did some little mistakes regarding my part which is controlling the slides but it turned out just fine.  ¬[^~^]/

Also, the one we’ve been really struggling is our thesis proposal defense last Friday. Well, basically it’s our fault since we took it for granted and  weren’t focused on doing it in the first place then realized it late that our progress is way way too slow. It’s like doing the research in eleventh hour like for almost just in three days. Though we manged to finished it but not 100%, still it was approved!.  (~￣▽￣)~

Going back to the main topic, about the pitch deck we’ve presented, it was as well a successful one. A wireframe for our J-LEX laundry service (btw we’ve chanaged the name since it’s cool this way) is presented with its simple step by step procedure. The next step we will do is to engage more costumers and have them use our app and services.  (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞

(PS. we forgot who took the photo of us during our presentation that’s why I posted late coz we were waiting for it... lesson learned: use ur own cp for taking compilation pictures!!!) (ι´Д｀)ﾉ

This last week of our technopreneurship journey felt lighter, but also meaningful, because it gave me time to look back at everything we had accomplished as Tukod Innovators. The major requirements were already finished, yet the experience of our final pitch still stayed in my mind. It was the highlight of our work and the moment where all our efforts were tested.

As I reflected on the Final Pitch Deck, I realized how much time and thinking went into shaping it. From the storyline to the slides, from the prototype flow to the validation results, everything had to be clear, organized, and purposeful. Watching our teammates present felt nerve-racking but also fulfilling. Even though I wasn’t one of the main presenters, I still shared the pressure because the pitch represented all of us, not just the ones speaking in front. It was the final chance to show that we understood the problem deeply and that our solution was built with real insights from the community.

This week, I also found myself looking back at how the pitch deck evolved. At first, our ideas were scattered. But through interviews, customer profiling, games, prototyping, and feedback sessions, our story became more connected. The pitch deck wasn’t just a school requirement, it became a summary of our growth. For me, seeing the final slides felt like a timeline of everything we learned: empathy, teamwork, prioritization, problem-solving, and the courage to stand in front of people and defend our idea.

Now that everything has been presented, I feel both relieved and proud. Relieved because the pressure is finally gone, and proud because we made it through all the challenges. The final pitch showed me that we didn’t just build a prototype, we built confidence, discipline, and a deeper understanding of real-world problems.

This week marked another important phase for our team as we continued shaping our venture and began preparing for the upcoming final pitch. Most of our time was spent working on our prototype and organizing the ideas that will be included in our final pitch deck. At this point, everything feels more serious because we are no longer just brainstorming—we are now creating something that the panel will evaluate soon. The thought of the final pitch makes me a bit nervous, but it also pushes me to be more focused and more involved in making sure our project is clear and well-prepared.

Aside from working on our prototype and pitch, we also completed Game 6, which focused on Market Identification and Sizing. We began with a brainwriting session, where each member wrote ideas quietly about our potential market and passed the cards around to expand and refine the thoughts. Seeing all the ideas displayed on the wall helped us see different perspectives and identify the most important insights for our venture.

Next, we did the Atomize Game, where we took the big concept of our market—TAM, SAM, and SOM—and broke it down into smaller, more understandable parts. By asking, “What makes this up?” we slowly built a pyramid structure that helped us clearly visualize how many people we can reach and who exactly our solution is designed for. This exercise made us realize the importance of understanding our market deeply, not just assuming who our customers are.

To end the activity, we created a WHO–WHAT–WHEN matrix, where each member listed their responsibilities, next steps, and target deadlines. This reminded us that our progress depends on each person’s commitment, especially now that the final pitch is coming soon. The matrix also helped us see who needs to work on what, and by when, which improved our coordination as a team.