UPIEAA’s 2016 Student Symposium Experiment is a Success!

While planning for the October 22 alumni homecoming, the UPIEAA board wanted to try something never done before – holding a student symposium or conference just before the homecoming event. And over four months, the board finalized the conference program, that included intriguing-interesting topics such as supply chain management v.2 & e-commerce by the senior manager of 701Search Becca Ricalde, block chain technology and bitcoin by the co-founder of Satoshi Citadel Industries John Bailon, and system solutions to Metro Manila traffic by the CEO of Belwether Advisory, Rene Santiago. The icing on the cake was inviting DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Peña to give the keynote talk on ‘S&T Priorities and the Role of Industrial Engineers in the Development Agenda’.

Nearly 100 students came, plus a smattering of alumni and former UPIEAA stalwarts like Kevin Hartegan-Go, Bernie Abis. Karl Riego, Wins Mirasol, and Ricky Peña. UP students included not just from UP College of Engineering but also from the College of Business Administration. Attendees also came from the Mapua Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and as far as Tarlac State University. Drink and food sponsors for the afternoon included Del Monte and Ferino’s Bibingka.

Given the success of the first conference, chances are the next generation of UPIEAA board members will be emboldened to mount a second one, with the same or even better mix of interesting IE-related topics by luminaries, to again coincide with the 2018 IE alumni homecoming.

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