The ASEAN Foundation and SAP SE recently announced that teams from Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University (DLSU), and Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), have been crowned national champions at the 2019 ASEAN Data Science Explorers’ National Finals.

The three winners were chosen for the urgency and relevance of their topics, the solutions delivered through their storyboards, and the clarity of their presentations. As the winner, Team Sustainablue from ADMU will represent the Philippines in the regional finals, scheduled in October.

Team Sustainabule composed of Krystel Iris de Castro and Anne Nicole Dolfo from ADMU bagged the top spot with their project focused on job automation and displacement. They presented solutions on how talents can thrive in the digital world by gearing them up for the Industry 4.0, improving the educational systems, providing mid-career training for a successful job transition, and rebuilding an integrated ASEAN labor market.

Patricia Nicole Joyce Cruz and Dominique Hannah Sy (Team Isdabest) from DLSU-Manila emerged as the first runner-up with their project designed to highlight and promote gender equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) industry. They presented data and solutions to help women entering into STEM professions.

Daniel Soriano and Joshua Bacani (Team Celestial-EX) from TIP-Quezon City took the second runner-up with their project on carbon emission management. To create more sustainable cities and communities, they highlighted the importance of alleviating carbon footprint of each country in the ASEAN by using solar panels instead of traditional power plants and replacing mechanical vehicles with electric cars. They also noted the importance of reforestation and the use of CO2 Filters and Air Purifiers.

The competition in the Philippines is one of ten ASEANDSE 2019’s National Finals taking place across the region this September, where the best ten teams from each member state compete for a spot to represent their country in the Regional Finals.

By harnessing SAP’s Analytic Cloud software, each team developed data-driven solutions that highlight six Sustainable Development Goals namely (1) good health and well-being, (2) quality education, (3) gender equality, (4) decent work and economic growth, (5) industry, innovation & infrastructure and (6) sustainable cities and communities and can contribute to solve the region’s most pressing social issues. Coinciding with Thailand’s ASEAN Chairmanship, Thailand will be the host of the competition’s regional finals.

This year, about 624 students from all over the Philippines were trained on the SAP Analytics Cloud. The competition gained 243 registrations. Through this training, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP support students to analyze real-time data of the current social and economic crises in ASEAN member nations and thus provide a solution.

ASEAN Data Science Explorers is a regional program by the ASEAN Foundation and SAP that aims to catalyze activism among university students in ASEAN. Since its inception in 2017, ASEANDSE has empowered over 9,000 youths from 230 higher education institutions in the region with data analytic skills. Competition entries doubled this year with 1,300 student teams from a wide range of disciplines such as political science, engineering, and architecture gleaning actionable insights from data to come up with solutions that have an impact on these areas.