Recent Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan (XU) Industrial Engineering Department alumni, Shelley Anne Gail Cagaanan and Johannie Mae Uy, emerged victorious in the Undergraduate Research Competition sponsored by Daikin Applied during the 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, held in Tokyo, Japan, from 10-12 September 2024.
Their research, titled "A Two-Stage Redistricting-Location Problem in Emergency Evacuation Planning," secured first place, showcasing their innovative approach to a critical issue. The study presents a two-stage redistricting-location problem in the context of emergency evacuation planning, addressing the multi-objective fair redistricting problem by re-evaluating pre-existing district assignments to optimize equitable population distribution and hazard risk mitigation while ensuring spatial adjacency and compactness. The optimal redistricting solution then informs the second stage, a facility location-allocation problem, which determines the optimal locations for short- and long-term evacuation centers and allocates districts to the selected facilities.
This paper was also their Final Year Project for their degree program, which won both Best Final Year Project for the Disaster Resilience Category and Best Final Year Project for the Industrial Engineering Department during the College of Engineering Final Year Project Display and Presentation held at Limketkai Mall last 23 February 2024.
The 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management served as a global platform for academics, researchers, and industry professionals to exchange ideas and advancements in Industrial Engineering and Operations Management. The conference attracted participants from 34 countries, including Australia, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, the UK, and the USA. Over 280 papers and abstracts were submitted, with more than 200 accepted for presentation and publication.
Notably, several institutions from the Philippines participated in the conference, including the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Bulacan State University, De La Salle University (DLSU), the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Adamson University, and the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD). UST was also a contender in the same category, the Undergraduate Research Competition sponsored by Daikin Applied. Among all the participating schools, Xavier University stood out as the sole Mindanao institution in the competition.
Dr Bonn Kleiford Seranilla, the faculty adviser from the XU Industrial Engineering Department, also received individual recognition, winning first place in two separate categories at the conference, highlighting his significant contributions to the field.