Help us get to UK and present our research work!

Hello!

We are a group of four Materials Engineering undergraduate students from the University of the Philippines Diliman who have been accepted for presentation and publication at the 9th International Conference on Key Engineering Materials (ICKEM) on March 29-April 1 at Oxford, UK. (website: www.ickem.org)

Our study, entitled Assessment of the Degradability of Commercially-Available Biodegradable Plastic Utensils in Soil and UV , basically talks about our investigation of the degradation behavior of three brands of biodegradable plastic utensils subjected to different stimuli. From that investigation, we have then estimated the full degradation periods of the samples from each brand. We recognize the significance of our chosen topic as the world is now faced with a dire dilemma on solid waste management, primarily due to plastic products. With this, it is important to explore the viability of biodegradable plastic products in addressing the aforementioned problem.

Just this 28th of January, we have received the acceptance letter to the conference, indicating that we are eligible for presentation and publication in the conference proceedings ( Key Engineering Materials; ISSN: 1662-9795). While we are overly elated by this development, our group is now faced with a different problem: how to fund ourselves for the trip.

This is why we are humbly requesting you, dear reader, to help us get there to the conference by donating any amount to our cause. The amount that will be raised here will be used to fund our (round trip) airfare, which costs PHP40-50K per person . Any excess amount will be allotted for our accommodation and living expenses/pocket money.

Should you opt for (BPI) bank deposits, instead of through PayPal, the bank account details are as follows:

BANK: BPI Family Savings Bank

ACCOUNT NAME: Karl Vincent Alvarez

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6916-2036-81

It's a lot, we know, but every peso pledged will be a peso less in our goal of reaching this conference. This undertaking is, by far, the greatest highlight of our college undergraduate lives. That is why we are doing everything we can to be able to go out there and show the international scientific community what we students have done and what we can contribute for the betterment of the world.

If you've read this far, thank you very much and we are hoping that you'd support us in this endeavor.

Sincerely yours,

Karl, Ina, Eloi, Jairo