A Visiting Professor's Journal: Eugene Noh

The Innovation for Social Impact Partnership’s Visiting Professors activity aims to support higher education institutions in implementing their Technopreneurship subject and incubator management operations. Eugene Noh of the University of California Berkeley was one of the Visiting Professors deployed last year. He supported the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) in Cagayan de Oro in August 2019. As a Visiting Professor, he had the opportunity to exchange lessons, practices, and experiences with USTP on technopreneurship teaching and incubator management. 

As we open 2020 with the next batch of international professors supporting Philippine universities, learn about Eugene’s visit as he narrates his personal experience being immersed at USTP.

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Cagayan de Oro was never on the map for me. Even after I decided to go, I found myself having to explain to people where in the Philippines Cagayan de Oro was: Northern Mindanao. If they happened to know Mindanao, it was because of the news stories about the decades-long conflict with Islamic separatists on the island. But knowing that Cagayan de Oro (CDO) was a safe city and given the special opportunity to share my experience in building and managing entrepreneurship programs at UC Berkeley, I was excited to spend a week at the ​University of Science & Technology of Southern Philippines​ (USTP) in July 2016. USTP had recently been selected by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to be one of the first TechHubs in the country, and they were teaching the Technopreneurship 101 course for the second time. There was a lot of excitement about these new programs, and they had a motivated core team of faculty along with the support of the university president. But there were many questions as well. How would they manage an incubator without any previous experience? Where would they find mentors in CDO? Once they had developed investable startups, where would they find early investors?

Three years later, in August 2019, I was back in Cagayan de Oro as a Visiting Professor at USTP with the ​Innovation for Social Impact Partnership ​(ISIP), a project co-implemented by the United Nations Development Program​ (UNDP) and the ​Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), with support from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines. In the months leading up to my deployment, I was in regular contact with the USTP faculty whom I worked with previously in order to plan my activities for the upcoming visit. Although those conversations gave me a sense of how the programs had developed since my last deployment, I knew that I wouldn’t fully understand until I arrived.

“USTP has much to be proud of, and I couldn’t help but feel honored to have a small part in supporting their achievements.”

I was nothing less than amazed by the progress USTP had made. In 2016, there were few promising student startups, no incubator, no local investors, and we wondered out loud how the startup ecosystem would develop in CDO. If you had told me in 2016 that the USTP incubator, CDO Bites, would have a current cohort of nine startups and would be partnering with local investors, I would have found it very hard to believe. So when I learned of these developments during my recent deployment, I was surprised and thrilled by the progress made in such a short time. Of course, after every accomplishment and milestone, there are new challenges. Nonetheless, USTP has much to be proud of, and I couldn’t help but feel honored to have a small part in supporting their achievements.

USTP has effectively positioned itself as a hub of entrepreneurial activity in CDO. There are local startups that were founded outside the university that have come to USTP to benefit from the mentoring and the community of startups at CDO Bites. As a sign of their broader regional impact, CDO Bites has an ongoing roadshow that introduces students to entrepreneurial thinking at local schools like Xavier University and Capitol University but also farther away at USTP Claveria and even Central Mindanao University in Bukidnon. During my deployment, USTP hosted a roadshow stop for ​Pilantropo​, a nationwide platform to promote technology-driven social ventures and in March 2019 convened the ​USTP Innovation Summit​ to promote economic development through innovation and entrepreneurship in northern Mindanao.

One of the most surprising developments has been the rise of interest from local investors. A major concern three years ago was where potential investors would come from, since it was unlikely that Manila-based or global investors would be looking to invest in CDO-based startups. So it was an exciting and impressive development when I learned that CDO Bites had been cultivating relationships with local cooperatives that wanted to explore startup investment as an addition to their investment strategy. USTP scheduled an investor forum during my deployment where I gave an introduction to investing in startups. The next day I was present for the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between USTP and the cooperatives to formalize their partnership to recruit, incubate and invest in local startups.

“In so doing, [USTP is] enabling [their stakeholders] to assert their agency over their circumstances and giving them new opportunities for self-determination. ”

As someone who works with startups in Silicon Valley, I’ve seen the potential dangers of unhealthy hype around entrepreneurship and startups. Only time will tell the degree to which these efforts in startup promotion will result in economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation. But I believe that there is something deeper going on here. USTP is equipping its students and startups and their local and regional partners with the skills to recognize social problems and economic opportunities and to build solutions and products to address them. In so doing, they are enabling them to assert their agency over their circumstances and giving them new opportunities for self-determination. I can only imagine what will happen in another three years.

Eugene Noh
Program Director
National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps (NSFI-Corps)
University of California Berkeley

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Eugene has been part of a past Visiting Professors deployment in 2016 also at USTP. Being able to establish a strong linkage with the host university, he was able to witness the progress USTP has made over the last three years. 

The call for international professors to join the Visiting Professors 2020 is still ongoing. Immerse, share, and grow in a local social entrepreneurship ecosystem. Unlock collaboration opportunities and solve ecosystems together with the host university. 

Apply now as a Visiting Professor to the Philippines!

The Visiting Professors is one of the activities of the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership, a project co-implemented by UNDP Philippines and PhilDev Foundation, with generous support from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines.