Usher tech to make Philippine communities earthquake-resilient

THE Philippines, which is located in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, experiences a number of earthquakes every year with several faults scattered across regions in the country. With this scenario, a new technology called the Universal Structural Health Evaluation and Recording System or Usher was developed by Dr. Francis Aldrine Uy that will address the risks brought about by earthquakes.

This novel technology was recently recognized by the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation Inc. (BCYFI) Innovation Awards 2023 as the top winner of the P1-million cash prize.

Usher is a building structural health monitoring system that can be used 24 hours, seven days a week, that is composed of three components, namely an advanced accelerograph, a web portal system and a mobile application.

Usher serves as an innovative solution to address disaster risk reduction and management initiatives of both the private and public sectors, especially government agencies and local government units, to determine the structural integrity of public and private buildings. This technology can be installed in public infrastructures like bridges, public and private buildings, and other critical structures, and will help engineers and building owners to regularly monitor the integrity, soundness, and performance of buildings and different structures under seismic and other geological events.

Trailblazing the innovation ecosystem, Dr. Uy created Usher Technologies Inc., a commercialization project of various institutions composed of the following: Mapua Institute, the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) and the DoST-Philippine Council for Industry Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development. The company is an all-Filipino team composed of experts from different fields ranging from engineering to technology to business, and more.

The BCYFI Innovation Awards is a yearly event that recognizes innovators that are organized in partnership with the Shell LiveWIRE Program, the global flagship enterprise program of the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. This award is part of the foundation’s Comprehensive Social Development Program which focuses on different areas, namely education, research and developmental social enterprise.