The DTU IDEERS team, the only Vietnamese participants, came third in the “Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering Research in Schools - IDEERS” contest held in Taiwan. Forty-two ASEAN universities participated from September 16th to 21st.
The DTU IDEERS team with their model
Participants were given six hours to build a model house of 17 by 17 centimeters, which would be able to withstand an earthquake of 8.0 on the Richter scale. They could use wooden poles and sticks, glue and rubber bands. The DTU team, including Luu Anh Tin, Ha Tuan Anh, Ho Dac Dinh and Nguyen Huu Anh Thang, made a perfect house model weighing 404 grams in only four hours.
The organizers award Certificates of Merit and a Cup to the DTU IDEERS team
Participating the international competition for the first time, Ho Dac Dinh of the DTU International School, said: “This competition has taught me a lot about model composition, design and testing. Our award is the result of our consistently hard teamwork and the strong support of our DTU lecturers.”
Dr. Nguyen Chien Thang, Head of the Student Research Department, said: “As earthquakes rarely occur in Vietnam, the subject has not been integrated into our curricula yet. So the DTU IDEERS team had to research information and house design themselves. Also, two of the DTU team members are second-year students who have never participated in competitions before, so we should be proud of their achievement, which is proof of their enthusiasm and creativity.”
(Media Center)