JAKARTA, Tel-U – The government through the National Research Council (DRN) continues to encourage the formation of research consortia in the country. In addition to supporting the accelerated development of science and technology, the establishment of the consortium was considered very important to integrate a variety of research had been done on their own either by universities or other research institutions.
It was conveyed by Chairman of the Technical Commission on Information and Communication Technology of the National Research Council (DRN), Dr Ir Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, MA during the opening of the Forum Froup Discussion (FGD) Smart Card Consortium, at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Building, Jakarta, Friday (23/7).
“I kept watching, eventhough I’m not too involved for fear of disturbing the process. I am very grateful to universities and industries have contributed to start this initial step,” he said.
The consortium began with the development of Smart Card that had been through various meetings and discussions facilitated by DRN. The result, among others, the commitment of each university involved to implement the results in the smartcard prototype learning system on campus. It will implemented after the program was unveiled in celebration of National Technology Awakening Day (Hakteknas) on 10 August in Solo.
Smart Card can be used to access academic data, payment at a cafeteria or canteen, the presence of students in the classroom, lecture hall management, access to the room, monitoring the campus activity, as well as use the locker, and mailbox.
As a first step, said Basuki, the consortium involves four universities in Indonesia, Telkom University (Tel-U), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), University of Indonesia (UI), and University of Hasanuddin (Unhas). “We should highlight the cooperation, hopefully it becomes part of our step towards technological independence,” he said.
In addition to these four universities, consortium also involved five companies namely PT Industri Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Inti), PT Xirka Silicon Technology, PT Data Aksara Matra (PT DAM), PT Inti Bangun Sejahtera (IBS), and PT Versatile.
Dean Faculty of Informatics Tel-U, Dr Maman Abdurohman ST MT said Tel-U was ready to collaborated with universities and industries in this consortium. “Let’s show the best. If each university has been great at doing research, whether we can work together in this consortium,” he said. (Purel/raf)