Six teams from five countries have made it to the finals in this year’s annual CIOB Global Student Challenge, in which university students vie to run the most successful virtual construction company.
In the seventh year of the competition run by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the six teams emerged as frontrunners out of 51 original entrants.
They are:
- CIOBNB: Chongqing University, China
- DGC Toronto: George Brown College, Canada
- Base Build: RMIT University, Australia
- Skywalker Construction: Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Sang Neggala: Universitas Indonesia
- Glasgow Construction Corp: Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland
Teams are made up of full-time students studying for a degree in the built environment.
They compete by acting as boards of directors of virtual construction firms using the MERIT program developed at Loughborough University.
It requires teams to take decisions on staffing levels, estimating and bidding, managing cash flow and capital, and seeking investment opportunities.
The competition takes place in stages over a number of months.
After several weeks learning the software and how to play the game, teams start playing competitively with other teams.
The CIOB said this year promises an exciting final: "Chongqing University and George Brown College have been unequivocally battling it out for the top two spots almost the entire competition so far, aside from a brief period in which Universitas Indonesia, last year’s winner, broke into the top two."
Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the finals will be conducted online.
Track the teams’ performance during the finals by following the CIOB’s Twitter feed: @theCIOB
Image: Teams compete by acting as boards of directors of virtual construction firms (Motortion/Dreamstime)
