Mindanao Summit Blog

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲: 𝗗𝗘𝗩𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝘂𝗸𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 🚀 DEVCON Bukidnon opens our brand new Chapter Showcase series, and as part of celebrating 17 Years of DEVCON: Engineering an AI-Ready Nation, there's no better chapter to start with. Beyond the numbers on the cards, this chapter's reach tells the fuller story: students, educators, freelancers, out-of-school youth, and MSME owners all found a seat at their events this year, proof that inclusive tech is not a tagline but a practice. The year ran deep. MAVIC debuted at She is DEVCON: Shertified, a two-day event that also hosted a codecamp and breakout sessions tailored per audience. Startup Weekend Bukidnon 6 pushed aspiring founders to turn ideas into viable solutions. Q4 alone added Campus DEVCON at NBSC, trainings on livestreaming and event management, DIGI MC, the ICT Solutions Showdown, blockchain learning with Avalanche University Connect, an AI workshop with OpenxAI, and a community Tech Drive. And the From Basics to Brilliance journey starts where sustainability should, with capacity building for Luyungan's teachers so tech expertise stays in the school long after the program ends. In the words of the DEVCON Bukidnon team, "impact is not measured solely by the number of events or participants, but by the depth of connection we create with the communities we serve." This is what an AI-ready nation looks like when it's built chapter by chapter. A new chapter takes the spotlight every week. Swipe through, then find yours. 👉 Follow DEVCON Bukidnon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devconbukidnon 👉 Register at devcon.plus and discover a chapter near you: https://devcon.plus/ #DEVCON #DEVCONPH #17YearsofDEVCON #DEVCON17 #EngineeringAnAIReadyNation #DEVCONBukidnon #ChapterShowcase

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀, 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀: 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗘𝗩𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝗞𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 🤖🛠️ What you're watching isn't a toy demo. These are some of our advanced AI hardware for kids! The micro:bit V2 and the TPBot Smart Car are sophisticated hardware units traveling nationwide with DEVCON Kids, landing directly in the hands of Filipino youth—many of whom are writing their very first lines of code on devices they can physically touch, build, command, and deploy. As a core pillar of our 17-year milestone theme, Engineering an AI-Ready Nation, these tools turn abstract programming logic into physical reality. While not every local chapter has hands-on access to the TPBot yet, our highly portable micro:bit and Hour of AI toolkits completely smashed goals in 2025! Together, we reached 3,825 students, activated 180 volunteers, trained 100+ teachers, and executed 29 successful events across 32 schools nationwide. Access, not ability, is what holds Filipino youth back, and every single session closes that critical gap one hour at a time. To scale this verified impact through 2026, we need technical mentors to volunteer on the ground and corporate partners to sponsor more hardware kits for high-need communities. 💪🚀 Ready to contribute to national programs deeper? Apply as a Cohort 5 AI Engineering intern, jump into our community channels, or tag a sponsor or partner below who should help fund our next hardware roadshow! 👉 Follow DEVCON Kids on Facebook to see our toolkits in action: https://www.facebook.com/DEVCONKids/ 👉 Sign up to volunteer, earn community points, and make an impact: www.devcon.plus 👉 Ready to dive deeper? Apply for a Cohort 5 slot today: https://devcon.ph/jumpstart-internships/ #DEVCON #DEVCONPH #DEVCONKids #HourOfAI #CreativeRobotics #DEVCONPlus #DEVCONJumpstart #17YearsofDEVCON #EngineeringAnAIReadyNation #microbit #tpbot #robotics #STEMPhilippines #AIForFilipinos

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲. 🤖 Behind Kai's cardboard face is a serious piece of engineering: the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, a developer kit built to run AI workloads entirely on the device. No cloud calls, no server round trips. The camera feed, the computer vision inference, the motor responses that mirror your movements: all of it is processed locally, in real time. That is edge computing, and it is one of the most in-demand skill sets in AI engineering today. Getting there is the hard part, and that is where the DEVCON Jumpstart Cohort 4 AI Engineering Interns did the real work. Running computer vision on an edge device means optimizing models to fit limited memory, managing latency budgets measured in milliseconds, and understanding the CUDA-accelerated pipeline that makes real-time inference possible on hardware you can hold in one hand. And NVIDIA now sits on top of the interns' day-to-day stack: Claude Code, Micro:bit, Qwen, and Google AI Suite, the same tools they build and ship with every week. Here's the exciting part: Cohort 5 is starting in a few weeks, and it picks up right where this build leaves off. If you want to learn edge AI by actually building it, apply now before the slots fill up. And while you're at it, join DEVCON+ to earn points, find opportunities, and stay plugged into everything the community is building. 👉 Apply now for Jumpstart Cohort 5: devcon.ph/jumpstart-internships/ 👉 Join the community on DEVCON+: devcon.plus #DEVCONJumpstart #AIEngineering #EdgeAI #EdgeComputing #JetsonOrinNano #NVIDIA #ClaudeCode #Microbit #Qwen #GoogleAI #ComputerVision #TechInternship #DEVCONPH #DEVCONPlus #FilipinoBuilders #PhilippinesTech

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁. 𝟭𝟳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻, 𝗗𝗘𝗩𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱. 🚀 DEVCON Philippines kicked off its 17th Anniversary with the HQ national launch, and it used the stage to announce its boldest mission yet: democratizing access to AI. Founder and President Winston Damarillo reminded how the open source movement helped put powerful tools into everyone's hands. He sees today's AI moment the same way, because the technology only creates real change when access is shared, not locked behind a privileged few. As he put it: "We cannot be happy with just consuming AI. Our new mission is to create AI, to create solutions powered by AI, and to make sure that the Philippines democratizes access to AI so everybody gets access to it." That vision came to life through the voices building it. Ms. Pam Damarillo of DEVCON Kids reminded everyone that "talent is universal, opportunity isn't," and that access, not ability, is what holds Filipino kids back. Megan Uyao, who joined DEVCON Kids at 12 and now serves as its Ambassador at 17, made the case for programs like Hour of AI 2026: "Sometimes all it takes is just one hour for students to realize that their future could be something else, something better." Executive Director Dom De Leon emphasized that true innovation isn't just building the future—it's ensuring everyone can reach it. He reported that DEVCON reached 19,000 geeks face-to-face nationwide in 2025 led by Bukidnon, Iloilo, and Manila, and announced upcoming nationwide Open Source AI Code Camp running offline models like Gemma and Qwen, and a 5th cohort of AI Engineering Interns building on NVIDIA Jetson Orin and Claude Code for Non Profits. 17 years of building, and the celebration is happening nationwide. Join in, learn about the latest internships, and find local events near you on DEVCON+, the community's new centralized platform now on beta. 👉 Join the nationwide celebration: https://devcon.plus/ #DEVCON #DEVCONPH #17YearsofDEVCON #DEVCON17 #DEVCONKids #EngineeringAnAIReadyNation #AIForFilipinos #OpenSource #DEVCONPlus #FilipinoBuilders

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲'𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗶, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱. 🎁 As DEVCON Philippines celebrates its 17th Anniversary, we want to give a huge shoutout to Sui for being a driving force behind this year's journey. Through the Build Beyond initiative, Sui has been supporting and empowering Filipino geeks, students, and developers to learn more and build more on emerging technologies, bringing Sui Move smart contract education to chapters across the country. That kind of partnership is exactly what keeps our community moving forward. And yes, there's swag involved. These Sui merch giveaways have already been shipped out to Iloilo, Bukidnon, Laguna, and more chapters coming soon, landing at Sui Code Camps and DEVCON events nationwide. Show up, learn something, build something, and walk away with more than just new skills. But wait, there's more. Exclusive Sui merch is coming soon to DEVCON+ Rewards. Earn points, redeem merch, and find jobs, all in one platform built for the community. Now on beta, so register and start leveling up. 👉 Register at www.devcon.plus #17YearsofDEVCON #DEVCON17 #DEVCONPH #BuildBeyond #BuildOnSui #SuiNetwork #SuiMove #DEVCONPlus #EngineeringAnAIReadyNation #FilipinoBuilders #CommunityFirst #EmergingTech

Happy 17th Anniversary, DEVCON Philippines! 🥳 Thank you for your unwavering commitment to building this community and empowering the next generation of innovators. As shared by our Founder and Program Director, Ms. Pam, "Seventeen years of making space for developers, for dreamers, for people who believe technology should serve everyone." It was truly evident in the countless lives touched and the doors opened for so many aspiring learners. And thank you for making space for us, the DEVCON Kids. Here’s to many more years of dreaming, building, and creating impact together! #DEVCONPH #17YearsOfDEVCON