CIOB announces winners of its sixth Global Student Challenge

A team from Indonesia has been announced as the winner of the sixth annual Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Global Student Challenge competition, after facing a fiercely competitive international field. Kanigara Banu from Universitas Indonesia are the first Indonesian team to make the finals. They collected their award from CIOB President Professor Charles Egbu at his Inaugural Dinner last night, in one of his first official acts as President.

The winning team receives £2000 in prize money, along with access to a unique mentoring programme, with industry leaders offering advice and guidance to support their professional development.

In previous years, the final has seen a number of familiar faces. This year was no exception with four of the final six teams coming from institutions that have made the final before. However, there was only one UK-based finalist for 2019 - Resilient Construction from Glasgow Caledonian University, who are following in the footsteps of other Glasgow teams who made the final - and went on to win - in three of the previous five years.

The other finalists were:

• KLMN Construction Group - George Brown College, Canada 

• Toomer Oaks Construction - Auburn University, USA 

• HOTPOT CREW - Chongqing University, China 

• Design & CurStruct - Curtin University, Australia 

The CIOB’s annual Global Student Challenge, which is open to full time students, is a real test of construction industry know-how, taking place in stages over a number of months. The competition provides a realistic simulation where teams, made up of three or four people, act as a Board of Directors running their own company.

There’s a “Foundation Years” stage which takes place five months before the finals. This is where you learn how to play the game, running a virtual construction company in a simulated environment using the MERIT software, testing out different strategies and refining tactics for the competitive game.

The “Early Years” stage starts a few weeks later and teams play competitively with other teams across the globe, making decisions that influence the success of their companies.

Teams from universities all over the world entered the 2019 competition, with the six teams scoring the most in the early rounds being invited to the finals in Edinburgh as part of the CIOB’s annual Member’s Forum.