The PHL-Microsat program is the country’s first initiative in developing the country’s capacity in space science and technology. Through its four years of implementation (2014-2018), it successfully launched two microsatellites: Diwata-1 and Diwata-2; and a cube satellite, Maya-1. It is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), monitored by DOST-Philippine Council for Industry and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) and implemented through the University of the Philippines Diliman and the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI). It is also done in collaboration with Hokkaido University and Tohoku University in Japan.
Project 1
Headed by Dr. Marc Talampas of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (UP EEEI), focuses on the development of the microsatellites.
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Project 2
Headed by Engr. Alvin Retamar of the Advance Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI), takes charge of the ground receiving station for the Philippine Microsatellite.
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Project 3
Headed by Engr. Mark Tupas of the Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry (UP-TCAGP), is in charge of the Data Processing, Archiving and Distribution subsystem development.
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Project 4
Headed by Dr. Enrico Paringit of UP-TCAGP, is in charge of the Calibration and Validation of Remote Sensing instruments.
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Project 5
Headed by Dr. Gay Perez of the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (UP IESM), leads the development of remote sensing data products.
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Program Leaders
Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Jr.
Program Leader, STAMINA4Space (June – December 2019)
Program Leader, PHL-Microsat (2014 – September 2018)
Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Jr. was the leader of the PHL-Microsat and STAMINA4Space Programs and Acting Director of the Department of Science and Technology Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the (DOST-ASTI) before he was appointed as Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Director-General in January 2020. Dr. Marciano obtained his BS Electrical Engineering from UPD and his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He was a JSPS Fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2003, the UP-Dado Banatao Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) in the University of California Berkeley and at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2007 and 2009, he was a Visiting Associate Research Scientist in UCSD. From 2013-2016, he served as the Interim Director of the Institute for Information Infrastructure Development (IIID) of the Philippines-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) under the Philippines’ Commission on Higher Education (CHED). He is concurrently a Professor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD).

Research interests: Wireless communications; Radio frequency spectrum management and policy; Rural connectivity and emergency response communications; Development of small satellites for scientific Earth observation, and geospatial AI.

Dr. Marc Caesar R. Talampas
Program Leader, PHL-Microsat (September 2018 – June 2019)
Dr. Talampas is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute. He was also the Project Leader of PHL-Microsat’s Bus Development Project. He obtained his doctoral degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 

Research interests: Instrumentation Embedded Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks

Timeline of Events
Check out the program's highlights below.