WHEN Engr. Carl Vincent Malinao of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan walked into the PLDT and Smart headquarters in Makati, it marked a milestone for the academe and the telco industry – that their close collaboration can help shape a professional engineering career. The school first signed up for the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) in 2003.
Fresh off topping the March 2026 Electronics Engineers Licensure Examination, Malinao represents a new generation of engineers shaped not only by the classroom, but by early exposure to real-world technology.
“During my freshman year, I attended a SWEEP seminar on 5G and its evolution,” Malinao said. “Smart also provided antennas, transceivers, and other cell site components to our communications laboratory, which we used in our coursework.”
Malinao graduated summa cum laude—the first in their department to do so—and went on to become the first board exam topnotcher from the university’s College of Engineering.
“Carl is proof that Xavier University can produce top-tier electronics engineers,” said Engr. Lolit Villanueva, head of the Electronics Engineering Department at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. “He has benefited from training and seminars supported by Smart through SWEEP. We look forward to expanding this collaboration to develop more industry-ready engineers and innovators.”
For PLDT and Smart, the collaboration also reflects a broader industry push to stay ahead of rapidly evolving customer needs.
“We are constantly pushing the network forward and exploring what’s next—not just in terms of technology, but in the kind of engineers we need to build it,” said Eric Santiago, Head of Network Strategy and Infrastructure at PLDT and Smart. “Delivering the next wave of customer experience will require engineers who are innovative, adaptable, and ready to work with rapidly evolving digital systems.”
For Malinao, the visit closes a loop—from student learning about emerging technologies to an engineer now poised to help build them.
Launched over two decades ago, SWEEP is the Philippines’ longest-running industry-academe linkage program. It is designed to equip engineering students across the Philippines with hands-on experience, mentorship, and access to evolving network technologies. Now on Phase 5, SWEEP integrates AI, automation, and intelligent systems into engineering education, aligning academic training with how modern telecom networks are now designed, operated, and optimized.
