Oct 2, 2025 – De La Salle University-Manila (DLSU) brought home a prestigious honor from the 2025 International Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering Research (IDEERS) competition, held from September 30 to October 1, 2025, at the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan.
The DLSU team, competing for the first time at the undergraduate level, was awarded the coveted “Structural Design and Innovation Award” for their model, “The Archer”.
The achievement is a significant milestone, as the DLSU team was the lone university from the Philippines to receive a special award at the event. The Structural Design and Innovation Award is a highly selective honor, granted to only six of the 49 participating universities from across Asia, recognizing the team’s exceptional and creative structural concept. This also marks a historic win for the university, being the first award secured by a DLSU undergraduate team on its maiden participation.
The DLSU team was represented by fourth-year
BS Civil Engineering students specializing in Structural Engineering (CIV-STE):
Daryll Hans Go, Aaron Glenn Escovilla, Lance Joshua Irisari, and Jeremy Wynn
Kieffer Yaokasin, under the guidance of their mentor, Engr. Salvador Olaivar.
The DLSU team, Kieffer Yaokasin,
Daryll Go, Lance Irisari, and Aaron Escovilla, with faculty advisor Engr.
Salvador Olaivar
DLSU’s Daryll Go (third from the
right) receiving the Structural Design and Innovation Award
The team’s entry boasted a design philosophy based on “controlled symmetry.” The tower featured a robust, symmetrically braced central spine engineered to provide the immense torsional rigidity required to support a cantilevered mass. Its innovative “pinwheel” column orientation, integrated truss network, and novel “arrow weld” jointing technique, devised to maximize connection surface area, together demonstrated an advanced understanding of load paths and seismic resistance.
While the tower’s forward-thinking design was
its greatest strength, the team faced rigorous dynamic tests during the
competition, consisting of four shaking rounds at increasing intensities of 400
gal, 600 gal, 700 gal, and 800 gal. The model did not advance past the first
round, failing to resist the initial 400-gal earthquake. However, the
experience provided invaluable learning and highlighted the challenging
standards of the global competition. Winning the structural innovation award,
based solely on the design’s outstanding merit, underscores the quality and
ingenuity of the team’s engineering concept.
DLSU Team’s model tower, “The Archer,”
and its exhibit poster, presenting the winning structural design.
Daryll Go, team leader, described the journey as both a challenge and a triumph. “Participating in IDEERS pushed us to bridge the gap between classroom theory and a high-stakes practical challenge. While we were disappointed not to pass the 400 gal test, winning the Structural Innovation award was a tremendous honor, making our five-month preparation worthwhile. It validates our entire design process and proves that our ideas are competitive on an international stage.”
Engr. Salvador Olaivar, the team’s mentor from the Department of Civil Engineering, praised the students’ efforts, noting the support they received from the university. The team’s preparation was aided by the DLSU Structural Engineering division and laboratory, which provided crucial access to its own shake table for prototype testing. “The achievement is a testament to the students’ creativity, hard work, and resilience. The experience has been a powerful avenue for knowledge exchange and will inspire future Lasallian engineers to aim even higher.”
The team’s success at IDEERS 2025 reaffirms De
La Salle University’s commitment to fostering a culture of innovation and
producing world-class engineers capable of solving complex modern challenges.
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