YOGYAKARTA – Students of Faculty of Medicine UGM have won the Siriaj International Microbiology, Parasitology, and Immunology Competition (SIMPIC) 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand from 11-14 March. The UGM team represented by Nurkholis Bramantyo, Eric, Stevanie, and Lilie Fransiska have beaten 33 teams from Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, and China. “This is the first time the UGM team won the annual competition,” said Stevanie to reporters in the Faculty of Medicine UGM on Monday (18/3).
In the competition that tests student skills in microbiology, parasitology, and immunology, the UGM team beat two teams from Thailand, Chiang Mai University and Khon Kaen University in the finals. Eric said they were more tested on immunology disease cases. They had to explain in details about the cause, risks, and medical treatment to take. “We were able to answer all the questions and got a 10 while the other teams got below 5. We were declared the winner,” Eric said happily.
dr. Tri Wibawa, PhD., their mentor, said the preparations were made since end of last year. Their victory proved that the learning process at Faculty of Medicine UGM is competitive. The student centered learning and problem based learning applied at UGM has enabled the students to learn faster related to clininal and medical problems in tropical diseases. “They are able to have a good command of it in their third year,” he said.
The SIMPIC event involved 8 teams from Indonesian universities (UNDIP, UNAIR, UB, UNAND and UNPAD) as well as Osaka Medical College, Jepang, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan, and University of Queensland, Australia.