Recently, DTU students excelled in an international competition entitled “2012 - Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering Research in Schools”, held in Taiwan.
IDEERS is an annual creative scientific competition held by the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), the British Council in Taiwan and Bristol University. DTU was the very first team from Vietnam to compete in 2012 IDEERS contest. The DTU team attempted to overcome competitors from all over the world to reach the final ten places. It was an honor for DTU team to receive a consolidation prize by finishing in 7th place. First Prize went to the Chinese University of Technology (CUT) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) came in second.
The DTU team at the competition
It was not an easy job, as the DTU team had to compete with others from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, all of which have had more experience dealing with earthquakes.
Models used in the Competition
Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (K15XDD), leader of DTU team said: “We never thought that we could design and build anything we could apply to areas threatened by earthquakes. In addition, there were few reference books or other related materials for us to study or practice with, so we were faced with many obstacles entering the competition. We were very fortunate however, as the DTU Board of Provosts and Dr. Nguyen Tien Thang, a member of DTU Scientific Board in Engineering, gave us their strong support”. In May they quickly prepared for the competition and we were sent to Singapore for a one-week training course from the 5th - 11th of August. Returning to Vietnam, the DTU students spent time finishing their model, under the supervision of Dr. Thang. “We hope that our fine achievement at IDEERS this year will build a foundation for other DTU students in future competitions.”
This achievement demonstrates the ability and talents of DTU and its students in international competitions. The award was added to the growing collection of other prizes, including the First Prize in the Social Venture Plan Competition and the Second Prize in the 2012 International Short Film Competition. Such remarkable efforts will help DTU reach its goal of becoming a truly internationally recognized university.
(Board of Website Editors)