By Lindsay Marie Borres, BA ELS-4 OJT

Kristine Calasara is a 3rd year BS Mechanical Engineering student of CPU.

21-year-old Kristine Calasara wasn’t expecting at all that her name would be included in the top 40 qualifiers in CAD competition for Mechanical Engineering students. On March 14, the results were posted on the Facebook page of PSME Mechanical Design and Fabrication Technical Division. She joined the competition with only the intention of gaining experience and just for the sake of joining. Little did she know that she would be proceeding to the next round of the competition, although she believed that her being a qualifier is also because she had Engineer Charles Novo as her mentor.

The Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers – Mechanical Design and Fabrication Technical Division held its first-ever Computer-Aided Competition. It was available to all whether the student is a beginner, a hobbyist or even an expert. Mechanical Engineering Students all over the Philippines who are capable of using all or one of the softwares like Fusion360, OnShape, SolidWorks were eligible to participate.

The third-year Mechanical Engineering student only used Fusion 360 for less than a month. She wasn’t able to use it as much until the CAD Competition was announced but thankfully she was able to figure it out just in time for the competition.

All qualified contestants including Kristine will advance on the CAD Battle Elimination Stage to be held on March 19, 2022. The ME students will be given another plate that they have to finish in a span of 30 minutes. It will be a matter of speed and accuracy with the dimensions.

In preparation for this round of the competition, she uses YouTube to find plates that she can do and also for correction, as much as possible she tries to do at least 1 plate per day.

Kristine is thrilled and grateful to be one of the qualifiers whose skills will prove them worthy to land a spot in the semis and final stage of the competition on March 20, 2022.