National University students were hailed champions in the recently-concluded Synergy Electrical and Electronics Engineering Summit 2016 held last November 8 at Benitez Hall Theater, Diliman, Quezon City.

Team NUvators composed of 5th year Engineering students Jan Kevin Alfaro and Arianne Yzabell Jequinto won the first place in the Ingenious Ideas category during the summit organized by University of the Philippines-Engineering Radio Guild.

The competition encourages students to think outside the box in order to solve problems relevant to today’s society.

The duo presented the winning paper “The ECHO” (The Economic Housing) which is a type of building management system applied to houses that is also focused on the design and use of renewable energy. The paper featured a roof design that uses the reflective property of the materials used, the use of transparent PV panel to lessen the use of electrical lights, and a combination of automatic ventilation system and air conditioner that uses no electricity.

According to CoE Dean Alexa Ray Fernando, it took them around two months to prepare for the competition.

Dean Fernando also shared that he is proud of the students since this is not the first time the university dominated the said competition. National U has been consistently on the top of the contest bagging the top spot for several years now.

“The Synergy itself, the whole competition, we’ve been joining it, I think for the last three or four years consistently they are getting places, either champion or first runner up. It is good to feel that the students of NU especially Engineering are consistently exhibiting the same skills and hopefully they will get better and better.”

Dean Fernando also reiterated that this kind of competition truly helps them in preparing the students for the future.

“One of the directions of the college is technopreneurship. Aside from teaching them the competencies that they’ll need, the students can’t really assess their capacity and capability if they won’t be able to apply it. We use the technical knowledge that they acquire to propose and create a new idea for the industry. Competitions like this one that generate new ideas can help them to be more creative, to be more abreast with the current technology.” Dean Fernando said.

Alfaro and Jequinto both received a plaque of recognition and trophy plus the chance to be recruited by some of the largest electrical and electronics companies in the future.