Local team wins Thammasat contest

Hosted by Thammasat University together with PTT Chemical, the TUBC 2010 competition named the teams from Mahidol University and University of Melbourne as the runnersup.

This competition involved 15 teams of undergraduate university students from top universities around the world, each team consisting four students. During the competition only 40 hours were given to each team to solve a case study regarding Asean Materials Conglomerate (AMC), a company that deals with petrochemical materials, construction materials and paper materials. The big question was "How can AMC become the leading company in Asean?".

During those 40 hours, they were not allowed to contact the outside world. What they had was a computer where they can search for information. Certain websites such as Facebook and Hotmail were blocked.

"The 40 hours were tough. During the period, we had only 3 hours of sleep as we had to make the most of the given time," said Vorawan Wangpanitkul, a member of the winning team. Vorawan found that the key success to this competition was new ideas. The students need to be innovative and creative.

Joining the winning team were Sasirat Kittichungchit, Karanvir Singh Thakral and Tamonwan Chen, who said that during the competition they learnt about teamwork, how to work under pressure and not to give up and that the most important thing is encouragement and professionalism.