UNS — Students of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta successfully took home gold medals at the World Young Inventors Exhibition (WYIE) 2022 held by The International Invention, Innovation, and Technology Exhibition (ITEX), hosted at Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). They are Nugroho Hasan from the Faculty of Agriculture (FP), Ahmad Rifki Hardiansyah from the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP), Rifqi Amrulah Fatah from the Faculty of Cultural Studies (FIB), as well as Luluk Aristiani and Lutfi A from the Faculty of Art and Design (FSRD). This team was supervised by Dr. Sutanto, S.Si., DEA., a lecturer from the Mathematics Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA) UNS.

In regards to this achievement, during an interview with the uns.ac.id team, Hasan revealed that he was grateful. He also recounted his challenges while visiting Malaysia. “I am thrilled to travel abroad and win a competition in my last semester in university. Happy for the opportunity to travel abroad with the team, especially after this pandemic situation, and win a medal. While in Malaysia, we found a ‘Nasi Padang’ stall, which offered a free meal on our last day because the owner was celebrating their birthday. Malaysia is tidy, thus, we love walking.” The challenge was to sleep outside to save budget,” said Hasan, Tuesday (21/6/2022).

In this event, the team succeeded in combining batik design with modern style. They wished to open new spaces for the batik industry in Solo. “This design is motivated by a finding from the previous year’s PKM RSH program that found Batik Laweyan faces decreasing number of buyers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we aim to start a new opportunity for batik production in Solo. On the other hand, there are many young generations who are ashamed to wear batik because of its old motifs. Hence, we combine the traditional batik motifs with a modern theme, the metaverse,” Hasan explained.

To participate in the two-days competition, Thursday-Friday (26-27/5/2022), Hasan and the team needed four months of preparation for the batik design and printing process. There were approximately 200 participants from eight countries who took part in the competition.

In the future, Hasan hopes that UNS students can go abroad to participate in international competitions. “Hopefully, in the future, there will be many UNS students going abroad to participate in international competitions,” Hasan concluded. Humas UNS

Reporter: Zalfaa Azalia Pursita

Editor: Dwi Hastuti