MANILA — Ayala Corporation and the UP Engineering Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (UPERDFI) are partnering to advance collaboration and capability building on artificial intelligence (AI) and data science to support industry and national development.
The partnership seeks to support the UP College of Engineering’s AI Program, the country’s leading education institution focused on this field, through scholarships and research funding for graduate students, and faculty AI projects. The partnership will run through 2026.
At the signing ceremony held on Jan. 15, Ayala Corporation was represented by Karl Kendrick Chua, managing director and group head for data science and artificial intelligence; Francisco Romero Milán, managing director for corporate resources and chief human resource officer; and Jaime Urquijo, chief sustainability and risk officer.
Ayala Corporation president and CEO Cezar Consing and chief finance officer Albert de Larrazabal also attended the program.
Meanwhile, UP was represented by Maria Antonia Tanchuling, dean of the UP College of Engineering, Angelito Bermudo, President of UPERDFI, and Pros Naval, head of the Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence Group and AI program chair.
“Through the Ayala and Nation-Building Projects, Ayala teams and UP Engineering faculty can collaborate to develop solutions for the most pressing needs of the industry and the nation. Through this collaboration ably supported by Ayala Corporation, we shall endeavor in delivering impactful projects to benefit our country and our people,” Tanchuling said.
Ayala has a dedicated Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence team (AC Analytics), which leads data and analytics work across the Ayala Group, focusing primarily on building data maturity, analytics capacity, and data solutions, especially for emerging business units. As such, AC Analytics is essential to helping fulfill Ayala’s purpose of building businesses that enable people to thrive.
“AI and data science are critical to generating insights and ideas for better decision-making that can help us deliver on our purpose to build businesses that enable people to thrive. We appreciate the opportunity and are excited to work with UP in advancing knowledge in these fields that benefit both industry and the country,” Chua said.
