By John Benedict.
IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals added another stepping stone to their journey towards increasing opportunities for the Young Professionals in the region by hosting the first ever IEEE Young Professionals track in an IEEE Conference. The event was hosted in line with TENSYMP 2016, on the 8th of May 2016 in Bali, Indonesia with the participation of Young Professionals from Indonesia and several other countries who attended the conference.
The meeting started with Amanda Julia Isa (Indonesia Young Professionals Representative) introducing the guests for the day. The Young professionals Chair of IEEE Indonesia Section Ms. Nia Kurnianingsih then gave a brief talk on the formation of the Young Professionals chapter which was followed by the inauguration of the Young Professionals chapter of IEEE Indonesia Section by Mr. Ramakrishna Kappagantu (IEEE Region 10 Director) and the other dignitaries; Dr. Kukjin Chun (Direct Elect, IEEE Region 10), Dr. Takao Onoye (Treasurer, IEEE Region 10), Mr. Satriyo Dharmanto.
The next session was by Mr. Nivas Ravichandran (IEEE Region 10 Coordinator) who gave a brief description of IEEE, Vision of IEEE Young Professionals of Region 10, various activities the young professionals can volunteer in and so on. The challenges faced by the young professionals, their expectations in career development and how IEEE Young Professional Affinity Groups can play a major role in catering to these expectations were nicely explained by him. He also apprised about AIYEHUM and encouraged the Indonesia Section to actively participate in it.
The next two sessions were lined up to give the participants a broader view on the emerging technological concept of Internet of Things (IoT) and how it can be deployed to contribute to the betterment of the society.
Mr. Satriyo gave an informed speech about IoT and its impact in the present context and also about the possible applications in the future. Prior to that he explained how technological progress has become a considerable driving force behind economic growth, citizen engagement and job creation. Also he stated that Information and communication technologies (ICTs), in particular, are reshaping many aspects of the world’s economies, governments and societies using statistical data. He also presented about Indonesia’s ICT development objectives for the years 2015-2019 which mainly included 100% coverage of telecommunication and internet access, high speed internet access, optimizing spectrum frequency use and a connected government network. Then with a brief introduction to the concept of IoT and its characteristics, Dr. Satriyo enlightened the audience about the key enabling technologies in IoT such as RFID and related technologies, Sensor technologies, Smart technologies (intelligent networks), and Nanotechnology etc. He explained how we could envision a ‘Smart World’ through this concept of IoT and how the ‘intelligence’ could be incorporated to everything around us. He elaborated about concepts such as smart cities, smart environment, smart water, smart home, and advancements in retail industries, and logistics etc. The audience was able to gain an insight into the research being carried out in each of these areas such as Bus Passenger Information System, Air Quality Monitoring System, and Fire Forest Detection System Based on Wireless Sensor Network. Finally, he explained the theoretical aspects related to the development of an IoT application. The audience was amazed at how IoT could contributes towards enhancing the quality of life.
Giving another perspective to this IoT concept, Dr. Lukito Edi Nugroho then spoke about IoT in community development. He explained how IoT can be used in rural villages taking examples such as precision farming, smart fisheries, home industry automation, and intelligent village etc. He highlighted about a possible challenge that can incur in these situations due to a culture clash and explained how to give a smooth transition to the people to align with the technology usage. He also described about different stakeholders involved in a case like this and importance of managing them carefully. IoT has a big potential to improve socioeconomic welfare of rural communities, but it will raise some important non-technical issues. It will need a multidisciplinary approach to push IoT to traditional communities. Dr. Lukito explained how community development programs can be good candidates for IoT adoption to such communities.
The afternoon session was conducted by IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT). This was steered by Mr. Subodha Charles who briefly presented about how half a million engineers can change the world. The guest speaker, Dr. Linawati then spoke about the humanitarian issues faced by Indonesian communities. She expounded about issues such as health problems, education problems and poverty in Indonesia and also about projects where technology is trying to eradicate poverty in the country.
Next, a SIGHT activity (an ideathon) took place which involved asking the attendees to come up with unique and sustainable solutions to problems across the world. This invoked positive responses and after an hour of brainstorming, the attendees came up with some inspiring solutions such as reusing of old cars, recycling waste and redistributing those. The Day ended with the attendees interacting with the volunteers who came down to the session. The certificates were distributed and the feedback from attendees was collected.
All in all, this meetup was a rewarding opportunity for all the participants. Despite this being the first event of this kind by IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals, the event was fruitful and productive, where a countless number of encouraging feedback from the participants mark the proof of success.
John Benedict.
