DLSU Civil Engineering Students Shine as Finalists in the 1st National Undergraduate Seismic Design Challenge

 Last Friday, April 17, 2026, Civil Engineering students participated in the 1^st National Undergraduate Seismic Design Challenge – Beat the Quake National Showdown: The Main Shock as finalists. Before this is a qualifying round, Beath the Quake Regional Qualifier: Ground Shaker (NCR leg), which was held last March 5, 2026, where they placed 9th out of 35 participating schools, combined across all regions, excluding the top 3 of each region. Only the top 3 from each of the four regions, named as Conquerors, and the remaining top 12 from the overall tally, named as Avengers, with a total of 24 participating schools, will be able to move to the next stage as finalists.

The twist was that the Conquerors had a total construction time of 3 hours and 10 minutes, while the Avengers would start 30 minutes later, with a total construction time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. Despite the handicap placed on the Avengers, the DLSU team was able to complete and submit their tower with a total construction time of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, and is the 9th participating school that finished early, which finished ahead of more than half of the participants.

The National Champion from the main event is awarded to Cebu Technological University - Dumanjug Extension Campus, the 1st Runner Up to Southern Leyte State University, and the 2nd Runner Up to Cor Jesu College.

The Civil Engineering students representing De La Salle University from the photo, from left to right, are: Mikel Aaron F. Capobianco, Jeremy James M. Enaje, and Yiesha Kyra N. Estrada, alongside their coach, Engr. Badong Olaivar.

 

Jan Vincent Simbol – 2nd runner-up at ASEP StructWhiz Challenge

 Jan Vincent Simbol, BSCE undergraduate student of the DLSU Department of Civil Engineering placed 2^nd runner-up in the 9th StructWhiz Challenge hosted by the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) on April 18, 2026 at the Hive Hotel, Quezon City.. The StructWhiz Challenge is a student competition on civil engineering undergraduate students focusing on subjects related to the structural engineering specialization.  The questions come from courses like Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Structural Analysis and Design, Earthquake Engineering, Prestressed Design, Bridge Engineering and the National Structural Code of the Philippines. In the morning, a qualifying multiple choice exam was given where about 100 students coming from various CE schools over the country participated. In the afternoon, the top 20 scorers in the qualifying exam were selected to participate in the live question and answer round. The Q&A round consists of three batches of 10 questions each (Easy 2 points, Medium 3 points and Difficult 5 points) for a total of 100 points.  The top 3 schools in the final round were Cebu Technological University - Dumanjug Extension Campus, Far Eastern University and De La Salle University. At the moment, since the 1^st StructWhiz, no student has qualified yet as a “Struct Wizard” where the required score in the Q&A round should be at least 70 points.

Jan Vincent Simbol (Right) – 2 nd Runner Up Winner at SructWhiz 2026

Jan Vincent Simbol (Right) – 2^nd Runner Up Winner at SructWhiz 2026

The ASEP past and present officers and StructWhiz winners. Dr. Andy Oreta and Engr. Ariel Santos (4^th and 5^th from left) were the one of the founders of the ASEP StructWhiz.