Cashless WiFi Access Wins at DOST Grassroots Innovations Expo
Back in the days before the onset of digital currency and online games, our parents and grandparents used play money that was bought from the corner store to use as “currency” when paying for goods in a make-believe palengke or sari-sari store, or maybe for a round at the board game monopoly.
Well it’s 2025 and ordinary paper can now used as “currency” to pay for a very 21st century need: WiFi access.
In another case of a need being the best inspiration for innovation, a group of senior high school students from Caybiga High School in Bagbaguin, Caloocan City- Kristoph Abanid, Sean Antano, Ayessa Mae Bataan and Marivine Manalang- saw that students were having difficulty getting access to WiFi to support their studies. Their solution: the P.A.P.E.R. WiFi, which stands for Paper as Payment for Educational Resource, a WiFi vending machine that feeds on ordinary paper.
The way to instant WiFi is simple- just insert any bond paper into the machine’s lid, the infrared sensor inside the machine detects the paper, and just like that you have access to one minute of WiFi at 50 Mbps.
Aside from providing affordable WiFi access, the innovation, which the students developed with the help of their coach, Ms. Vea Marie Ibardaloza, also supports the Circular Economy movement by finding another use for paper that would have otherwise ended up as garbage. The papers that had been fed into the machine are then either recycled or sold to a junk shop to generate income to keep the operation running and to cover internet costs.
The P.A.P.E.R. WiFi is still in its infancy phase. Its young innovators are looking to develop the machine further, first by working on the lid so that the machine can be fed papers other than ones the size of a bond paper. Another idea is to include an automatic shredder to the machine to make it easier to recycle the generated paper. Being forward thinkers, the students are also thinking of seeking patent protection for the infrared sensor that they are currently using.
The P.A.P.E.R. WiFi as Payment for Educational Resource debuted as the National Capital Region’s entry to the 2025 Grassroots Innovation and Circular Economy (GICE) exposition where it won the second prize. The 2025 GICE Expo was held during the celebration of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) National Science, Technology and Innovation Week which was held at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte.
DOST’s GICE program, a platform under the Department’s Grassroots Innovation for Inclusive Development (GRIND) Program, aims to encourage and promote local innovations to come up with practical, community-driven solutions that improve the quality of life, boost economic productivity, and ensure inclusivity in national development efforts.
By Pinky Foz Marcelo
