Bamboo-Made Mathematical Board Game Wins P500K

A sustainable social project conceptualized by a team of Silliman students won this year’s Benilde Prize for Design Excellence.

“The Bamboard Game Project” is a customizable multi-rule set mathematical board game made of bamboo. It is a board game with a semblance to checkers, only that players (maximum of six), takes turn in answering and forming mathematical equations from the variables on its platform. The player that occupies the most number of tiles wins the game.

The innovative project conceptualized and designed by Computer Science and Mathematics major Khail Santia and Mass Communication juniors Queenie Maria Guibao and Cindy Bonachita, with alumnus and businessman Mr. Bron Teves as adviser, bested over 60 incubation projects nationwide. It received the grand prize of P500,000.

(This year's Benilde Prize winners: (L-R) Mr. Bron Teves, who is the adviser, Computer Science and Mathematics major Khail Santia and Mass Communication juniors Queenie Maria Guibao and Cindy Bonachita.) 

Apart from its innovative design, the Bamboard Game Project carries a unique social perspective. It seeks to help address the local drop-out rate in schools, train carpenters in manufacturing the board game, and earmark a standard percentage from sales both locally and abroad towards support for public schools.

Benilde Prize is dedicated to launching the newest wave of social designers in the Philippines by rewarding half a million pesos grant money in seed funding to students who have creative and sustainable solutions for post-Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals.

In addition to the ₱500,000 grant money, the team will also get the chance to implement their prototype under the guidance of a powerful network of mentors brought together by the Benilde Prize Committee for the first six months of the project’s launch, along with potential collaborative arrangements with corporate, individual, and government partners.

Click to view entry on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-i0HVHZPcw