08/09/2026
Salamat po, UPLB! ๐๐คโจ๏ธ
BUILT FOR ELBI ๐ฝ๏ธ๐ป
At just 19, Aedrian Fabula Ponce, a sophomore BS Applied Mathematics student at the University of the Philippines Los Baรฑos, turned a common campus problem into a student-built digital solution.
His project, UPPETITE Elbi, is a food-discovery web app designed specifically for the UPLB community. Instead of simply listing restaurants, the platform helps students answer a more practical question: โI have this much time before my next class. Where can I realistically eat?โ
The idea came from everyday student life in Elbi, where food choices are everywhere but time between classes can be limited. Recommendations are often scattered across group chats, Facebook posts, friends, and map apps. UPPETITE was created to make those choices easier by considering a studentโs location, next destination, and available break time.
Ponce developed the project largely on his own, handling the coding, interface design, research, restaurant data, recommendation logic, routing, testing, and maintenance. Features such as Smart Picks, Explore, and Freshie were built around how students actually move, eat, and adjust to life in Los Baรฑos.
By early September, UPPETITE had reached around 800 active users and thousands of interactions. It also became part of UPLB Tools, alongside other student-built platforms serving the university community.
For Ponce, one of the biggest lessons was learning to build before feeling completely ready.
He advises fellow students to start with a problem they understand well, create the smallest useful version, let people use it, and improve based on what users actually need.
What started as a simple question about where to eat between classes eventually became something hundreds of students could actually use.
You may access the UPPETITE here:
https://uppetite.uplb.tools