DMCI Homes donates P7.5M to boost UP Institute of Civil Engineering's research capability

DMCI Homes, the country’s first Quadruple A developer, has made a P7.5 million donation to the UP Engineering Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (UPERDFI) for the setting up of a structural design engineering laboratory in the Institute of Civil Engineering in the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City.

Held at the DMCI Homes Corporate Center, the donation agreement was recently signed and officiated by DMCI Holdings, Inc. Chairman Isidro Consunji. The donor signatories included DMCI Homes President Alfredo R. Austria, DACON President and Semirara President & COO Victor A. Consunji, and DMCI Homes Executive Treasurer Edwina Consunji-Laperal representing the Friends of Engr. David M. Consunji. Alfonso A. Aliga, Jr., Executive Director of UPERDFI signed as the donee.

In the six-page agreement, the donated amount will be used for the purchase of equipment, software, and maintenance of the computational laboratory to reinforce the instructional and research capability of the UP Institute of Civil Engineering (UP-ICE).

To be used by the students and faculty of the UP-ICE, the facility will involve a suite of design software and work stations, and room furnishings, to better prepare civil engineering students for practice after graduation.

DMCI Homes Vice President for Design and Engineering Adrian Calimbas, DMCI Homes Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Customer Care Jan Venturanza, UP-ICE Director Dr. Maria Antonia Tanchuling and UP College of Engineering Dean Dr. Rizalinda de Leon, served as witnesses to the signing of the document.  UP-ICE Associate Professor Dr. Errol Quinay, lead faculty for the DMCI Homes ICE Laboratory, was also present during the event.

Austria said the donation was in line with DMCI Homes’ corporate objective to help foster engineering excellence in the Philippines through industry-academe collaboration via the company’s Kaakbay sa Edukasyon corporate social responsibility program.

“The facility is part of our continuing discussion with the UP College of Engineering on further enhancing the quality of engineering graduates in the country in an age of technological revolution,” Austria said.

“With UP as the top producer of high-caliber engineers, reinforcing the instruction and research capability of the institution will help the whole industry in the long run to handle the increasing construction requirements in the country,” he added.

For his part, Aliga said that the laboratory implements what he and DMCI Holdings, Inc. Chairman Consunji have been discussing for some time.

“Because the Laboratory will make use of design software commonly used in the industry, DMCI Homes, as well as other structural design engineering companies, can look forward to tapping the faculty and students of UP-ICE to do preliminary design work on an outsourced basis, and to conduct peer reviews,” he said.

Dean de Leon added that the collaborative arrangement has also been one motivation for a global engineering company to invest in the Process Design and Simulation Laboratory at the UP Department of Chemical Engineering, and a mining company to do the same for the Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Laboratories. Both were donated to UP Engineering through the UPERDFI.

The recently signed donation agreement is part of the continuous collaborations of DMCI Homes and UPERDFI to foster engineering excellence in the country.