The Industrial Engineering Expo (IEx), the annual convention organized by the UP Industrial Engineering Club, returns in 2026 with a renewed focus on advocating for and strengthening local industries. Guided by the theme “Tatag: Reimagining Local Industries,” IEx 2026 positions itself as a platform where students, professionals, and communities come together to rethink how industries can be built from the ground up, staying rooted in local realities, capacities, and needs. It advocates for a shift toward approaches that recognize and uplift underdeveloped enterprises, community-based systems, and sectors with untapped potential.
Building on this advocacy, IEx sessions explore how industrial engineering is applied within local industries and everyday systems. These sessions take the form of talks and workshops that allow participants to choose topics and formats aligned with their interests. Covering diverse themes, the sessions highlight how complex societal challenges require collaboration across disciplines and sectors. By integrating perspectives from engineering, policy, design, and local knowledge, the sessions emphasize the importance of a transdisciplinary approach to problem-solving.
Another major pillar of IEx 2026 is “Praxis,” the convention’s NGO-oriented case competition, with a senior high school and college bracket. Praxis embodies IEx’s commitment to actionable local impact by challenging student teams to develop implementable solutions for partner organizations working directly with disadvantaged communities. Guided by judges from diverse sectors, participants are encouraged to design proposals that are feasible, sustainable, and grounded in local realities, reinforcing the idea that meaningful development begins with understanding and working alongside communities.
Overall, the Industrial Engineering Expo 2026 stands as an avenue for learning, collaboration, and nation-building, inspiring the youth to engage with pressing societal issues and explore how industrial engineering tools and systems thinking can be applied to real-world challenges. By empowering students to rethink systems and apply industrial engineering for social good, IEx continues to shape future leaders who are equipped to contribute to inclusive and sustainable national development.
