One platform
for university research.
Research information system
SURI (System for UPM Research Intelligence) is an API-first Laravel and Vue.js platform at the University of the Philippines Manila that unifies research registration, document management, reporting, and approval workflows — managing 15,000+ records across 50+ users, and replacing manual spreadsheet compilation with reporting that runs in seconds.
The problem
Research administration at a university generates a constant stream of registrations, documents, approvals, and reports. Before SURI, these workflows at the Research Grants Administration Office (RGAO) of the University of the Philippines Manila ran by hand — compiled manually across spreadsheets and disconnected tools.
Manual compilation doesn't just cost time. It fragments the record of the university's research activity, makes reporting a recurring project instead of a query, and leaves approval workflows without a single system of record.
What SURI does
SURI consolidates the research lifecycle into one platform serving 50+ users and 15,000+ research records:
Research registration
Final registration, management, and funding records for university research.
Document management
Research documents handled inside the platform instead of scattered files.
Approval workflows
Workflows that previously ran by hand, tracked and automated end to end.
Reporting
Reports that once required manual spreadsheet compilation now run in seconds.
Architecture & design decisions
SURI is built API-first on Laravel with a Vue.js frontend and a MySQL database. The API-first decision matters because SURI does not live alone: it is designed to join a broader ecosystem of research systems, with authentication and role-based access control treated as architecture, not features.
The next step of that work is RACE, the orchestration layer in development beneath SURI and ARIA, which extracts shared authentication and shared services so future platforms join the ecosystem instead of becoming new silos.
Deployment & operations
I lead SURI's architecture and development and own it through production: deployments, production database architecture, and release management. The platform runs live for the university's research administration — this is operated software, not a prototype.
Outcome
One platform now manages 15,000+ research records for 50+ users, unifying registration, document management, reporting, and approval workflows that previously ran by hand. Reporting that used to mean manual spreadsheet compilation now runs in seconds.
Ruther Bergonia — Software Systems Architect & Senior Full-Stack Engineer, Metro Manila, Philippines. I architected and built SURI end to end. More about Ruther Bergonia.