Recent graduates of the MS Geology program from the Nannoworks Laboratory, Maria Grass Padrique and Meyrick Tablizo, presented their research at the Geological Convention 2024 held on December 4–5, 2024 at Novotel Manila, Araneta City, Cubao, Quezon City. Organized by the Geological Society of the Philippines, this year’s GEOCON carried the theme “Filipino Geologists: Bridging Geosciences, Technology, and Industry for a Better Philippines.”
Grass delivered an oral presentation titled “Enhancing Petrographic Analysis of Geothermal Reservoir Rocks Using Convolutional Neural Networks,” co-authored with an interdisciplinary team composed of Mark Jeremy Narag, Dr. Allan Gil Fernando, and Dr. Maricor Soriano. The study demonstrated how Artificial Intelligence can be trained to assess rock porosity and identify minerals such as epidote, thereby improving geothermal exploration. Her work highlights the potential of machine learning to make clean energy research more efficient, reliable, and sustainable. For this work, she was awarded 4th place for Best Oral Presentation.
Meanwhile, Meyrick presented a poster titled “Stratigraphy of the Proboscidean Fossil-Bearing Units in Luzon Island, Philippines.” Co-authored with Nannoworks Laboratory heads Dr. Allan Gil Fernando and Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay, as well as Dr. Sandra Catane, the study revisited Stegodon and Elephas fossil-bearing localities across Luzon and attempted to correlate horizons using age markers such as tektites and dated volcanic and pyroclastic deposits. Their findings suggest that the island’s proboscidean fossil record likely spans as far back as the Early Pleistocene.