THE FACULTY of Engineering made a triumphant return in the 44th Pautakan, bagging the championship in both the individual and team categories of the quiz bee held on April 15 at the Medicine Auditorium.
Engineering, which also dominated both categories in the previous in-person Pautakan in 2019, secured its win in the team category’s final round with a score of 145 points, extending its record number of Pautakan championships to 13.
Led by chemical engineering junior Mayumi Calpotura, the team was composed of freshmen Kathryn Cruz and Kurt Pumicpic, and sophomores Mark Añasco, Kevin Escalante, Sophia Suarez, and James Abris.
Abris represented Engineering in the individual category, securing the championship with 100 points.
“Honestly, we had no expectations,” Calpotura said. “Given that the last time the event was held was five years ago, none of us really knew what to expect so we just focused on doing our best and having fun.”
The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery claimed silver in the team category with 140 points, while the UST-Alfredo M. Velayo (AMV) College of Accountancy secured bronze with 100 points.
“Pinapatunayan lang [nito] na mataba talaga utak [namin],” Abris quipped. “Hindi kami puro aral lang, hindi puro solve ng calculus, pero may buhay kami outside–the fact na nakuha namin ito proves that.”
“We may have won this year’s competition, but I think we still have more things to prove and definitely improve from. We will make sure that we will defend this year’s title in the next edition of the Pautakan.”
Augustine Abat of Medicine took home silver in the individual category with 90 points. Claiming bronze was Faculty of Pharmacy’s Vinci Henson, who logged 80 points.
Engineering topped the individual elimination round with 125 points. Behind were the Faculty of Pharmacy with 110 points, Medicine with 105 points, the College of Information and Computing Sciences with 95 points, and the College of Nursing with 90 points.
In the team elimination round, Engineering placed second with 110 points, trailing behind the College of Education, which scored 120 points. The other finalists were the College of Science with 105 points, Medicine with 100 points, and the College of Accountancy, which broke a tie with the Faculty of Pharmacy in the clincher round, with 91 points.
This year’s Pautakan marked the return of The Varsitarian’s intercollegiate quiz contest, the longest-running in the country, to its in-person format.
Fifteen teams participated in the team category of Pautakan 2024, with 14 of them fielding a representative in the individual category.
They were quizzed on six categories with questions of varying levels of difficulty: easy, average, and difficult. Each difficulty category had 12 questions, with topics ranging from UST history, history, general information and current events, humanities, science and technology, and mathematics.
UST Secretary General Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P. delivered the opening remarks at the competition, where he highlighted the significance of intellectual competitions such as Pautakan.
“Beyond being a mere competition, Pautakan represents a celebration of humanity’s innate capacity for learning and understanding,” Coronel said. “In an era characterized by rapid information dissemination and fleeting attention spans, events like Pautakan serve as poignant reminders of the enduring allure of learning.”
Resource persons for the 44th Pautakan were Jose Victor Torres (UST History), Emmanuel Jeric Albela (History), Jose Ramon Lorenzo (General Information and Current Events), Ralph Semino Galan substituting for J. Neil Garcia (Humanities), Carl Rogel Inocentes (Science and Technology), and Mark Jason Celiz (Mathematics).
Serving as quizmasters were educational content creator Lyqa Maravilla, Thomasian doctor and former Central Student Council president Robert Gonzales, TikTok influencer Lester “Buji” Babiera, and Varsitarian Circle writer and student jock Alyanna Tamaray. with reports from Sofiah Shelimae Aldovino
