About UP-ERG

The New Millennium Fever is not the only reason why the people in UP Engineering Radio Guild are raving about the year 2000; the other equally momentous reason: its 66th year anniversary. Yup! Sixty-six solid years of forging camaraderie and harmony among the EEE studentry and the academic faculty. So you thought, our resident engineers don't have the time or capacity to break out of their cocoons and socialize? Wrong! And UP ERG with its brilliant years of perks, firsts, and quirks prove that EEE Student Life is not just about books and high academic standards, but also the rapport formed by people who share the common love for power, radio and electronics.

UP ERG traces its roots to an amateur radio club formed in 1935 by Solon Matthew Dakis together with a bunch of Electrical Engineering friends. The place: Florida Street, Manila. These young pioneers addressed the need to communicate by trying to establish a link with the world outside the outskirts of the university through the use of radio waves. Later they acquired a license to put up a radio station with a call sign KA1UP.

1953 marked another stage in the organization's life. Now in the new campus, the organization found a new home in UP Campus at the same time it was granted its current organizational name, through the efforts of Mr. Javier Pabalan of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Using some old surplus equipment, they assembled a transmitter-receiver set and studied and learned code signals. March 31, 1954 saw the emergence of DU1UP.

The 1950's also saw the rise of the "EE Mixers", a group formed by EE students who know, or at least wanted to learn, how to dance. They paired themselves with girls from Pharmacy, and became a hit during the monthly inter-college socials. Later on, Nursing and other students joined in and the group became known as the Engineering Mixers.

Through the years, ERG has grown and expanded its field from being an amateur radio station into a full-fledged departmental organization of Electrical Engineering students. Its list of projects includes power amplifiers, timers, and decoders. It also became involved in rendering technical services, tutorial lessons, sponsoring seminars and lectures, participating in Basketball, Volleyball, and other sports tournaments, holding parties, and assisting other organizations who need help on problems that are generally electrical in nature. With this expansion came the need for corresponding responsibility, and the demand for more manpower, effort and time for each and every activity.

In the year 1962, while designing the electrical system layout of an industrial plant, a group of senior Electrical Engineering students suddenly started quizzing each other on all the topics they could possibly think of. The following year, the first U.P. ERG Quiz Show was held with most of the science-oriented departmental organizations in the University as participants. This ERG-sponsored contest became an annual project of the organization.

Then the Seventies: a time of uncertainties. Once again, ERG defied the odds by starting the decade right with a freedom concert. This, with a series of seminars, lecture sponsorships, and fund-raising for the ERG Scholarship Program for deserving EE students, highlighted the year 1971.

A year passed, and with it came the expansion of the Quiz Show from an inter-departmental to an inter-university inter-collegiate competition: another shining moment in UP ERG History. Side by side with this project was the completion of the Scholarship Program, giving UP ERG the distinction of being the first departmental organization to do so. And the student to first avail of the benefits of this noble project? Mr. Romualdo Adao. Complementary with the scholarship program, the UP ERG Book Foundation was launched to supplement the reading needs of EE students, and to provide materials for the students to be able to keep abreast of the latest development in power, electronics and computer.

The organization experienced a major setback when the government declared Martial Law. This event resulted in the cancellation of the DU1UP license and the confiscation of the radio instruments. Reawakened in the later part of 1973, the Book Foundation and the Scholarship Program continued with Rizalino Santos becoming the second ERG scholar.

1988 was the year wherein the 17th and final Quiz Show was held. The next year, ERG found itself in economic situation that led to the breaking up of what had been a lifelong tradition for ERG.

In 1994, the Department of Electrical Engineering underwent restructuring, becoming the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and adding two new courses: Electronics and Communications Engineering and Computer Engineering. And so from being an EE organization, we revised the constitution to accommodate students from these new courses, thus becoming an EEE organization

Within the same year, the organization wanted to produce pins, shirts and other paraphernalia. With this and the hosting of the IIEE Regional Quiz Show in mind, the members felt the organization needed a symbol that would represent it. And so came the birth of the new ERG logo. When it celebrated its 60th anniversary, UP ERG had movie premieres, exhibits, seminars, lectures and a Grand Alumni Homecoming.

Last March, 2000, UP ERG had another one of its firsts. It sponsored the 1st ECE Quiz Show. Held at the ISMED Auditorium, it was attended and joined by ECE students from different colleges and universities.

To celebrate our 65th year anniversary, a line-up of activities is prepared for the whole year like film showings, the 2nd Annual ECE Quiz Show, and ERG Week in August.

As we advance to the next generation, UP ERG rises to meet the challenges that may come its way. In ERG, WE CONNECT!