The Banoo UGM team won the annual Thought For Food Challenge 2020. The Banoo UGM team was declared the champion after eliminating 5,200 applicants from 175 countries.
The Banoo team consists of 5 UGM students and alumni, namely Lakshita Aliva Zein (Fisheries 2016) and alumni Fajar Sidik Abdullah Kelana (Mechanical Engineering 2012), Azellia Alma Shafira (Management 2016), Muhammad Adlan Hawari (Electronics and Instrumentation 2015), and Fakhrudin Hary Santoso (Fisheries 2015). They succeeded in developing a microbubble generator (MBG) equipped with IoT-based sensors and solar panels to increase 40 percent of fish pond productivity.
Lakshita Aliva Zein said the Thought For Food competition was organized by an organization engaged in entrepreneurial innovation for world food and agriculture on October 16, 2020, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This competition managed to break the record with the highest number of registrants compared to previous years.
“There are 5,200 registrants from 175 countries around the world. From 5,200 registrants, ten teams were selected to be finalists who were invited to pitch about the solution ideas from each startup,” said Aliva, at UGM Campus, on Wednesday (2/12).
Banoo, a fishery technology startup created by UGM alumni and students, was one of the ten finalists selected. This team was then given the opportunity to pitch about the solutions offered for world food innovation in front of several judges.
“Banoo innovated microbubble generator (MBG) technology to improve pool water quality with the help of Internet-of-Things (IoT), consists of a sensor to activate the microbubble generator automatically,” she explained.
Using this MBG technology, said Aliva, it can increase the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water so that fish growth will be better, the harvest period will be faster, and ultimately the income of fish farmers can increase. With the solution offered, the Banoo team won first place in the Thought For Food Global Challenge 2020 competition and won the main prize in a TFF Grand Prize of USD 10,000.
“The Banoo team managed to eliminate nine other finalists who competed on the final night of the Thought For Food Global Challenge 2020, which was held online. According to the judges’ assessment, the innovation made by the Banoo team in the fisheries sector is feasible,” said Aliva.
In addition, the technology developed by the Banoo team can be applied by small-scale fish farmers. The simplicity of the Banoo team’s solution, which addresses water quality in fish farming ponds, is considered to impact food security, the environment, and the economy.
Furthermore, Aliva said that in addition to winning the TFF Global Challenge competition, in 2020, the Banoo team managed to become finalists in prestigious world-class competitions such as the MIT Sustainable Food Systems Challenge 2020 and Young Social Entrepreneurs 2020 organized by the Singapore International Foundation. Last October, the Banoo team also had the opportunity to attend the Kick Andy event with the theme “Indonesian Youth Shaking the World”.
“We plan in the future, the Banoo Team will mass-produce MBG equipment so that fish cultivators in Indonesia and abroad can experience the benefits directly,” she explained.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/20442-tim-banoo-ugm-juara-thought-for-food-challenge-2020
