T

en students stood before a panel of judges and spoke confidently on a string of seemingly odd topics, such as comic books, rockets, batik, angklung bamboo musical instruments, climate issues and animation.

“To help children understand nationalism better, we should have interesting comic books on the struggle of our national heroes,” physical engineering student Selvi Eka Puspitasari from Surabaya’s 10 November Institute of Technology said during her presentation.

Another presenter, Paskah Handikardo Nainggolan from Semarang’s Diponegoro University told the judges about rocket.

“Developing the aerospace industry can be beneficial for us. It can be used as part of our satellite system and in our nation’s defense, for example,” he said.

He said that Indonesia would gain much respect if it developed its aerospace industry for a good cause.

Selvi, Paskah and 10 others were finalists in Djarum’s Beasiswa Plus program’s 5th annual writing competition.

The finalists came from many universities, including Tanjungpura University in Pontianak, Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Airlangga University in Surabaya, Brawijaya University in Malang and Padjadjaran University in Bandung.

They were selected from 184 students who submitted essays on the themes of competitiveness, technology mastery, cultural richness and nationalism.

Finalists had to present their essays to a panel of judges that included Indonesian Researcher Council chairman Soefjan Tsauri, Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan and MetroTV news director Suryopratomo.

Anies, who was also a juror in 2009, said that the research quality of the participants has been increasing every year.

“Not just that, they seem to never run out of ideas in finding something unique in Indonesia to be the subject of their research. They’re really serious,” he said.

After putting the essays through a rigorous selection process, the judges picked the best three.

Risya Sasri wrote about using solar energy as an alternative energy source for West Kalimantan, winning the first prize and a Rp 20 million (US$2,240) award.

Second place went to Reggie Surya from Bogor Agricultural University who discussed how to can tempeh for export to the international market. He won
Rp 15 million.

Third-place finisher Ferdinand Hidayat of Tanjungpura University wrote about using sugar cane waste to power electric batteries and won Rp 10 million.

Great ideas are nothing if they are not implemented. What will happen to the students ideas?

Soefjan said that research was implemented in stages; nothing could be accomplished in the blink of an eye. “These tremendous ideas are ready to be served, but we need the cooperation from interested parties to ‘cook’ them first,” he said.

Anies added that the involvement of the private sector was important to develop the research, and that it was not only the government’s responsibility.

— Novia D. Rulistia