Dr. Maricor Soriano: Science for the people
Ever since she was young, Dr. Maricor Soriano has always wanted to help people.
Initially intending to take what seemed like the obvious path—medicine—she eventually found herself pursuing physics instead. She enjoyed it, though when the course soon proved difficult, she almost shifted.
But while the physics professor at the National Institute of Physics may have fallen into her field of study by accident, she found herself falling in love with it eventually. Focusing her study on color, video, and image processing, she has since gone on to take up her master’s and PhD, both at the University of the Philippines (UP), and postdoctoral research at the University of Oulu in Finland.
Now she runs her own lab, the Video and Image Processing group. “Give us any image or video, and we can extract more information from that. Or we can make hardware and software tools for challenging imaging needs,” she said.
Far from the image of a desk-bound science professor, Soriano describes her life as a physicist as “fun.” One of the things she enjoys about her work is the interdisciplinary aspect of it, and understanding more about other fields. Throughout her career, she has worked with experts from various disciplines to create image-related solutions to existing problems.
Upon her return to the Philippines, her desire to help drove her to knock on the doors of various departments and agencies and ask, “What is your pain point? How can we help?”
Through the years, she found herself delving into the worlds of art, cartography, architecture, public health, marine science, and even space.
Recently, her lab finally succeeded in creating an artificial intelligence (AI) model that restores archival plans for historical buildings. The project, which has been in the works for the past 12 years, now uses AI to clean architectural designs by converting them into line art, effectively preserving the intricate details of the plans while it removes stains and reconstructs faded portions.
Sustained collaborations
The 2014 The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service awardee has also had a sustained collaboration with museums for developing tools to analyze and archive artworks. Meanwhile, her collaboration with parasitologists and computer scientists resulted in the development of a near-real-time disease surveillance map by enabling barangay microscopists to take photos of malaria blood smears from their microscopes using smartphones, which they could upload directly to a database using a mobile app and then verify their findings with experts.
After the massive flooding during Typhoon “Ondoy,” she ended up creating COIN (Cartography of Old Informs the New), a system that scans hand-drawn Spanish- and American-era maps of the Philippines and aligns them with Google Earth maps to pinpoint old waterways that have been constructed over. This is important work because such areas, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, are both flooding and liquefaction hazards.
Soriano also became part of the Diwata project, which launched the first Philippine microsatellites. Diwata-1 and Diwata-2 were built by a team of Filipino engineers, researchers, and professors who were taught by Japanese engineers how to make the satellite. However, Soriano said, the team was not able to learn how to make cameras for the satellite.
And so, as leader of the Stamina4Space program’s Optikal (Optical Payload Technology, In-depth Knowledge Acquisition, and Localization) project, she set out to learn not only how to make cameras for satellites but also to do it locally. This meant engaging industries for the eventual creation of a local space technology industry.
Visual records
For the past 10 years, Soriano has also been working with marine scientists to develop technology that has improved the monitoring and mapping of coral reefs—previously a tiring, subjective, and tedious process that relied on satellite imagery, algorithms predicting coral growth, and people having to go underwater to check the coral cover.
The Automated Rapid Reef Assessment System not only stopped the reliance on guesswork but has also enabled the creation of permanent visual records of Philippine reefs.
When the Tubbataha Reef was greatly damaged in 2013, the system had to be hastened. Remotely operated vehicles weren’t an option for third-class barangays, according to Soriano, so they attached a sports kite to a boat and equipped it with a GoPro camera, a stabilizer, and a GPS unit. In her 2014 TEDx Talk, she called this a local solution to a global problem.
Lamenting the lack of Filipino scientists, she mentioned then that we need rooted Filipino scientists to create such local solutions to the global problems we face, like pandemics and climate disasters, because what works for other countries might not work for the Philippines.
That’s why even though it’s not her thing, Soriano still puts herself out there when necessary because “women scientists need more exposure. So this is me doing what I need.”
“It’s like walking the talk, even though I’m embarrassed,” she adds. Noting how the popular TV series “Ang Probinsyano” and “CSI” had created interest in police work and forensics, respectively, she said she hopes that some exposure about scientists will imprint on young people as well. “Imagine if there’s a series featuring a scientist, young people might develop an interest in the sciences.”
She continued, “We lack role models. We need more role models—especially in the sciences and especially among women—to show that, hey, there’s a career for women in the sciences.”
And here’s what she wants the public to know: Having a career in the sciences is not only comfortable, it’s also a lot of fun. Aside from the current challenges faced by those who decide to have a family, the discipline is built on meritocracy and pretty much gender-blind.
