De La Salle University Manila students won 2nd place at the 8th Industrial Engineering Competition (IECOM) held at the Bandung Institute of Technology, the oldest engineering school in Indonesia.
DLSU’s Team FernTiustic composed of Adrianne Ressa Tiu, Christine Lois M. Fernandez, and Carlos Manuel A. Ilagan brought home a total of USD 3000 cash prize after finishing 1st runner up.
The Lasallian students went up against the winning Team Caelius of Universitas Indonesia and 3 other Indonesia teams in the grand finals.
FernTiustic made it to the Top 5 in the engineering tilt after competing against 82 other teams from across Asia Pacific in the semifinals.
In the final stage, they were given a study case by Gaya Motor Authorized Automotive General Assembler. They also had chance to visit the plants of the company to observe more about the case. At the end of the stage, they were asked to present their solution in front of the triple helix that consists of academics, government, and industry practitioner.
“The competition is about team work, we would never make this far without a good team work,” said Tiu in a release sent to GoodNewsPilipinas.com by Industrial Engineering Student Union of Bandung Institute of Technology, organizers of the event.
The engineering students proved their ability to solve industrial engineering related problems through quiz bee, amazing race, and simulation challenge.
This year’s IECOM theme titled “Rapid Manufacturing,” is mainly identified as the use of computer aided design (CAD)-based automated additive manufacturing process for production. It is part of a larger breakthrough: Industry 4.0, which is known as the fourth Industrial Revolution currently taking place around the globe.
Each team consists of 3 people majoring Industrial Engineering, System Engineering, Engineering Management, or other related majors. All team members come from the same university or institute.
“To win this competition, we also need to learn to be innovative and think outside the box to gain solutions because not everything is academic and also this competition really test our decision-making skills,” said Fernandez.
DLSU’s strong finish this year marks the second time for a Philippine team to reach the grand finals at the engineering students’ contest. In 2016 the Philippines, represented by the University of the Philippines, won the 7th IECOM.
IECOM was first held in 2005 and has since risen as a prestigious contest for engineering students.