UGM Medical students have earned three awards in the Siriraj International Microbiology, Parasitology and Immunology Competition (SIMPIC) 2016 that was held at Mahidol University, Bangkok, from 17-22 March.
UGM sent a team consisting of Parangeni Muhammad Lubis, Hamzah Muhammad Hafiq, Maria Fransiska Pudjohartono, and Jessica Woen. The awards they won include individual achievement for Parangeni Muhammad and two bronze medals for Maria Fransiska and Hamzah Muhammad Hafiq.
Parangeni said the olympiad was joined by 260 participants that were divided into 52 teams from world universities, including from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, and Bangladesh.
"In this competition, all participants competed with each other in microbiology, parasitology, and immunology," he said on Monday (11/4).
All teams had to go through a selection to be able to win. Written test and identification were given to each individual. Then, the grades of each were accumulated for each team. The 24 best teams went to the semifinals.
"The UGM team went to the top 12 in the semifinals. But, unfortunately, we had to stop there,” he said,
Despite this result, the UGM team won awards individually based on the grades they accumulated during selection.
"Although we failed in the semifinals, we were not beaten. We were even surprised that we had the individual awards," he said. He hoped in the future the UGM team would bring more awards individually, even becoming winners as a group.