As many as 400 participants have completed the Vocational School Graduate Academy (VSGA) program running from 1-31 July at Vocational School UGM. It is part of the Digital Talent Scholarship program initiated by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics to prepare human resources in technology.

“Digital Talent Scholarship is organized as one of programs of excellence to build human resources in digital technology,” said Head of Human Resource Development in the Ministry, Zulkarnain, in the closing ceremony of VSGA on Wednesday (31/7) at the School’s Library.

The Digital Talent Scholarship has four categories of training and certification: Fresh Graduate Academy, Vocational School Graduate Academy, Coding Teacher Academy, and Online Academy. It is a collaboration with 30 universities and 23 polytechniques across Indonesia.

The VSGA program running at UGM focuses on competence improvement of vocational school graduates who have yet to seek jobs. There are 4 training areas offered here: Junior Graphic Designer, Junior Web Developer, Junior Mobile Programmer, and Intermediate Animator. The 72-hour program consists of offline training, add ons, competence testing, and certification which is based on the SKKNI by the LSP.

“All the participants have done competence testing and 98 percent of them proved to be competent. We hope the program would benefit the human resource quality in Indonesia,” said Zulkarnain. He added that the ministry was trying to create a balanced ecosystem in maximizing the triple-helix (government, private sector, and educational institutions) roles to be facilitator and accelerator of the digital economy.

Dean of the School, Wikan Sakarinto, S.T., M.Sc., Ph.D., said the material for the training had been designed in line with digital technology development and industrial needs. The participants are expected to be an individual who is able to compete in the digital era and adjust to the work market. Their competence is expected to improve so it can reduce unemployment rate and meet the skilled human resource needs in technology.

“The material that we designed is current. The participants need to show that they pass competence testing. This should be able to reduce the unemployment rate,” he concluded.

Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18184-sekolah-vokasi-ugm-latih-400-talenta-digital-lulusan-smk

The Faculty of Animal Science UGM helps West Bangka develop livestock through the West Bangka Livestock Potential and Innovation Research Team from the UGM Faculty of Animal Science in Muntok, West Bangka. The team was led by Dr.Ir. Bambang Suwignyo, MP, IPM, Dr. Ir. Sigit Bintara, MS, IPM, Dr. Siti Andarwati, MP, and Dr. Rio Olympias S, M.Sc.

According to Bambang Suwignyo, they have conducted a study for about 2 months in the area. The results of the study found that there is a potential for livestock development in West Bangka supported by the landscape. In general in Sumatra, there are still many large fields with grass, some are rubber plantations and some are oil palm plantations.

Bambang stated that the potential for grass from oil palm plantations alone can be used for more than 61 thousand livestock units or the equivalent of 46 thousands of cattle weighing 300 kg or the equivalent of 77 thousand sheeps.

“The potential for this development is seen from the trend in the last 5 years before 2018 which tends to increase so that it is increasingly convincing that the integration of cow palm oil which is formulated with supporting regulations will accelerate its development,” said Bambang in a release on Wednesday (31/7).

Meanwhile, Dr. Sigit Bintara stated that industrial growth related to the livestock sector, such as feedmill made from raw materials from oil palm industrial products, will complement the economic movement of the livestock sector. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the community’s capacity to synergize potential and obsession.

“Delivery of content is related to skills and vision to the community by optimizing the role of West Bangka agricultural development workers,” said Sigit.

Head of West Bangka Regional Body for Planning and Development (Bappeda) Drs. Muhammad Soleh, hopes that the study by the UGM Faculty of Animal Science Team will be a recommendation that can be followed up by the West Bangka Regional Government.

“If there are things that need further study, of course it still requires help from the UGM Faculty of Animal Science team,” said Soleh.

Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18183-fapet-ugm-bantu-bangka-barat-kembangkan-peternakan

The UGM Team of KKN PPM (Student Community Service) collaborates with the Directorate General of Transmigration Area Development, Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration to revitalize the transmigration area in Rasau Jaya Satu and Rasau Jaya Tiga Villages, Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan. 

In the two villages, the 27 students implement a range of programs, starting from building a river water purification infrastructure to developing a tourism object of sunflower garden.

“Several programs have been implemented and will be continued to the upcoming 18th of August,” said Ahmad Agus Setiawan, ST., M.Sc., Ph.D. as a Field Supervisor during a visit to the villages along with the university officials and District Government of Kubu Raya, Saturday (27/7/2019). The attending university officials include the Vice Rector for Partnership and Alumni, Dr. Paripurna, S.H., M.Hum., LL.M., Vice Rector for Research and Community Services, drg. Ika Dewi Ana., M.Kes., Ph.D., and the Rector Secretary, Drs. Gugup Kismono, M.B.A., Ph.D.

The Programs in Rasau Jaya are concluded into four main focuses, such as sustainable development, improvement of human resources capacity, agro-industry 4.0, and health revitalization. The water purification becomes one of the primary focuses because the river water condition widely utilized by the community in their daily lives is not clean.

The students Coordinator, Monika Listania Yuliandari, said that the river water in the village is brownish red with a TSS (total suspended solids) level of 232 mg/L and pH of 3-4. The UGM team proposes a solution by building a river water purifier that can lower the TSS level into 68 mg/L with a pH of 6-6.5, therefore, it will become more feasible to use for shower, wash, and toilet.

The installation of water purifier is made using affordable and accessible materials through a process of coagulation, sedimentation, and filtration. In the process, the river water is pumped and flowed through chlorine that functions as a bacterial killer. The water is contained in a water tank for coagulation process with a pH up and PAC addition and to be sedimentated afterward. The clear water is then filtered to remove the remaining solid materials into the storage tanks for later use.

“This water purifier is made simple so that later it can be replicated by the community. The water purifier construction requires quite an economic cost,” she explained.

Additionally, the UGM team also restores the tourism object of a flower garden in Rasau Jaya Tiga known as ‘Rajati Flower Garden’. The garden which was opened in 2013, said Monika, has potentials to be Pontianak’s leading tourism object by optimizing its tourism aspects including access, amenities, and attraction.

“In the UGM team’s master plan, Rajati Flower Garden is developed from its aspects of attraction by adding types of new flowers and some photo spots as ‘point of interest’ and initiating characteristic Rajati souvenirs,” added this student of Faculty of Engineering.

These student community activities become a part of the cooperation program between UGM and the Ministry which was initiated in 2018 for 3 years. Besides Rasau Jaya, a similar program is also implemented in 5 transmigration areas in multiple provinces.

Director General of Transmigration Area Development, Muhammad Nurdin, stated that the transmigration areas still have major potentials to promote food independence. Therefore, cooperation with UGM is a strategic step to encourage the optimization of the functions of transmigration areas.

 “We can still see the transmigration areas that are not yet optimal. Therefore, the revitalization program becomes essential in improving productivity,” he said.

The cooperation with the campus, he continued, is implemented primarily in an attempt to improve the quality of the human resources in line with the physical revitalization program that includes infrastructures and production process.

“If the program succeeded, then it can be used as a model to be implemented in other areas,” he added.

Other than the two leading programs, the student activities also include programs of human resources development, such as handmade batik workshop, agro-industry 4.0 programs including workshops in e-commerce and production of corn and pineapple derivative products, as well as health revitalization comprises of the socialization of stunting and health week.

The Kubu Raya District Government appreciates the programs that have been implemented by the UGM students. They welcome the students’ ideas and innovation well as it can contribute to inspiring the community to collectively develop the village.

“I am content to accept these students, especially from a prominent campus, such as UGM. I hope there will be more ideas and thoughts that can be strengthened further by their presence here,” said the Regent of Kubu Raya, Muda Mahendrawan.

In this visit, there is also a signing of a memorandum of understanding between UGM and Kubu Raya District Government regarding the cooperation in the field of government organization, development, and community through the practices of university mission in education, research, and community service.

Source: https://ugm.ac.id/en/news/18176-ugm-students-build-water-purification-infrastructure-in-rasau-jaya-transmigration-area

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, with an estimated 17,000 islands, and is located in a very dynamic region between the confluence of the world’s major plates and between two oceans. This causes the Indonesian region is very vulnerable to various disasters due to tectonic, volcanic, hydro-meteorological. One of the most affected areas is the small and outermost islands in Indonesia. 

Based on this, the Center for Marine and Resource Studies on July 23 received a visit and held a discussion with the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction of the National Disaster Management Agency (PRB-BNPB) Dr. Raditya on the topic of management models of small islands and outer islands of the emergency embankment islands, with a case study of Islands Sangihe-Talaut (Sulawesi-North), Maratua Island (East Kalimantan) and Tanimbar (Maluku). BNPB, i.e. INARISK, which can be accessed online and distributed throughout Indonesia. 

Some of the agreements and discussions that resulted from the discussion of the plan that will be followed up in the form of cooperation between PUSTEK Maritime and BNPB, among others are related to the study of optimizing the use of INARISk, a mitigation management model for the strategic and outermost small islands that uses high potential needs.

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) students have developed a tool to convert anorganic waste such as plastic waste into bio oil and biogas.

The instrument called AL-Production is made by Mechanic Engineering and Forestry students Yanditya Affan Almada and Refandy Dwi Darmawan.

“We develop a technology that can convert inorganic waste like plastic into fuel through a pyrolysis process,” said Affan on Wednesday (31/7) in a press conference at UGM.

The students employed a pyrolysis process to heat the plastic without oxygen in a certain temperature and distillation techniques. A pipe is connected to an airtight, high pressure tube made of stainless steel. Energy resources use electricity to act as a heater.

“We used fire energy resources initially but the temperature could not be controlled. So later we use electricity and the results are more optimal,” said Affan.

First, the plastic waste is put in the airtight tube and heated up to 450-550 C degrees. After 30 minutes, oil drips through the tube.

Affan had produced 6 heaters since starting the research in 2015 while in high school. In 2017 he made a small tool with a capacity of 2 – 3 liters selling at Rp20 million. Affan also once made a medium-size tool with a capacity of 10 liters which costs Rp35 million.

Affan said the tool uses electricity for heating. Other tools available in the market use fire energy, which makes it hard to control the temperature.

“There are heating devices abroad, but they are just for heating or material testing. Our tool is equipped with a distillator that can be used for the pyrolysis process to convert the plastic waste into fuel,” he said.

Currently, Affan continues to develop the tool after having received grants and mentoring from the UGM Student Program for Entrepreneurship.

“I hope this tool can be a solution to plastic waste problems in Indonesia,” he said.

Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18178-mahasiswa-ugm-kembangkan-alat-untuk-ubah-sampah-plastik-jadi-bahan-bakar