THE UST Civil Engineering team 1 placed 1st among 120 teams from 60 schools nationwide at the National Civil Engineering Quiz Contest sponsored by the UP Diliman ACES held last September 8 at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium, UP Diliman, Quezon City.
Fifth year students Paul Marion Demapelis and Kristoffer Dave Tabong, who received P60,000 cash and medals, snatched the crown from last year’s champion, Mapua Institute of Technology, who placed 3rd after the University of the Philippines-Los Baños this year.
Finishing 4th place last year, Coach Engineer Rajeev Abdullah says the experience and exposure to other quiz contests inside and outside the university made them top this year’s contest.
“I think that it was a game of experience and another factor is the team’s drive to win the game,” Abdullah said. The last time that UST topped the UP Diliman-sponsored quiz contest was in 1996 and 1997.
The team did not have any official training, “What’s interesting is they were able to emerge victorious with very minimal supervision, so I’ve been saying this to everyone, ‘it’s all them,’” he added.
Demapelis and Tabong, Civil Engineering’s top 1 and 2 in the Dean’s List, want to leave a legacy as champions to the University before graduating.
Another UST Team competed and took the 6th place with John Jerome Sy, Kenneth Endaya, and Ricci Ryan Rojo as members.
“The most challenging part is the Environmental Engineering since UP focused more on this topic than we did,” said Rojo, one of the Team 2 members.
Faculty of Engineering Dean Josefin S. de Alban Jr. congratulated both teams and plans to give them recognition during the faculty’s annual Testimonial Ceremony.
“For those who are yet to come, they must be very conscious of their role to inspire people who are following [in] their footsteps,” said Dean de Alban on the winners.
Dean de Alban, furthermore, stressed out the importance of congratulating the ones who did not succeed and said, “The University must give them all the inspiration.”
By Charry Fatima D. Garcia
