Five Mechanical Engineering (ME) seniors won at the Jollibee Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP) Youth Challenge last August 29, 2018. Arnel Dungo, Tedheus Danao, Roland Lim, Sebastian Ocampo, and Lanz Saludares, under the supervision of Engr. Christopher Isaac Razo and their faculty coach Engr. Rogelio Vicente, Jr. submitted their entry called “Bigasikleta”.
Bigasikleta is a rice milling machine that could replace the traditional way of rice dehusking. The prototype is brought to Sitio Apia in Antipolo City, Rizal since it is one of the most challenged communities due to insufficient supply of electricity and poor access roads.
The team wanted to address the community’s lack of mechanization through the application of their knowledge on machine design and fabrication. Bigasikleta is powered by human pedaling designed to dehusk and winnow rice paddies. The machine was able to produce approximately 92% of well-milled rice same as the commercial rice-milling machines.
“We are innovators and there is a real world waiting for us […] We’ve learned the value of competence. […] We must provide our partner community the best product despite the limited time we’ve got,” according to the team.
Two other entries from University of San Carlos-Cebu also won in the said competition.
Jollibee FEP Youth Challenge is an interschool competition organized by the Jollibee Group Foundation that aims to improve small farmers income by providing trainings to increase the farmers productivity and gain skills in enterprise management. The project started last May 2017 and ended on August 2018. Awarding of the Jollibee FEP Youth Challenge will be on November 6, 2018. Revelation C. Gan
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