TWO groups of students from the Technological Institute of the Philippines bagged awards in the recently concluded 2023 Annual Research Awards.

TIP Quezon City Industrial Engineering students Allen Serrano, Francine Daphne Carigma, Cyrdio Adrian Dela Peña, Irah Scott Naldoza, Jemuel Tan and Neriel John Villamor earned the Outstanding Research of the Year award for their ‘HeatFlask’ project.

They also won the Best Commercialization Research category of the event hosted by the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

HeatFlask is a self-heating container for people who are looking for a safe and convenient way to warm up canned food and drinks in the absence of a stove or microwave oven. It is made of stainless steel with a heat pack inside to facilitate the reheating process.

“We just thought of other alternative methods to heat up food products and that is how we came up with ‘HeatFlask,’” Carigma said.

According to TIP, the team left many rooms for improvement in terms of product design as it is currently limited to reheating canned goods.

Engr. Jaypy Tenerife, the group’s adviser, commended the students for their level of commitment in developing a good business model that emphasized the unique selling proposition of their prototype.

“It (HeatFlask) really showed a lot of promise as a business concept. I think that became our edge compared to the rest of the entries,” Tenerife said.

Meanwhile, TIP Manila Civil Engineering students Lyn Gutierrez, Annedrei Figueroa, Jamniel Danish Gonzales, and Russel Veraña were named first runner-up in the Best Scientific Research category of the competition.

They were recognized for presenting a research on viable strategy to protect the structural integrity of buildings.

Dubbed ‘Enhancing the Seismic Resilience of 42-Story Reinforced Concrete Structure with Fluid Viscous Damper System Using Modal Decomposition Method’, the study isfocused on developing a cost-effective approach to install energy dissipating devices in high-rise buildings.

Fluid viscous dampers work by absorbing vibrations or seismic waves from earthquakes to mitigate, if not eliminate, cracks and fissures that may otherwise result in significant property damage.

The system is quite expensive though, depending on the scale of the construction project.

“In structural engineering, we refer to it as the ‘optimal damper placement’ problem, which many structural engineers are still trying to solve today,” group adviser Engr. Dustin Glenn Cuevassaid.

“There are several ways to address this, but the team adopted the modal decomposition method because it is more efficient and you get the same performance,” he added.

With the theme ‘Resiliency and Sustainability in Times of Post-Pandemic: The Commitment of Serving the Country through Engineering, Science, and Technology,’ the 2023 ARAW awards welcomed 97 submissions from different schools nationwide.

It was organized in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology-Technology Application and Promotion Institute.