RAMP of IPB: Students as the Potential Agents for the Development of Innovation of Technology
Director of Recognition and Mentoring Program (RAMP), of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Dr. Aji Hermawan, MM., stated that student is the potential agent for developing innovations and inventions of technology, and disseminate them to the public. "Students could be utilized as agents to promote the innovation and invention of technology, and pass them to the public to address the problems they encounter in their life," explains Dr. Aji who is also professor of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, who was interviewed in the opening ceremony of 2012 i-STEP, on Monday, 2 July 2012.
He suggested, that students could play an effective role as a bridge between the the university and the communties as “users” of the university products. Therefore, since 2006, each year RAMP IPB has been organizing events for empowering innovative students or innovation developer for the community through technopreneurship or technology-based entrepreneurship training courses.
The technopreneurship training was packaged in the "intensive-Student Technopreneurship Program" or commonly named i-STEP, which was held for two weeks, and was participated by technopreneurship experts both from the campus, bureaucracy and the businesses. For 2012 i-STEP program or the seventh time of its kind was participated by 50 participants from 20 leading universities in Indonesia. The participants were well-selected canditates from hundreds of i-STEP proponents.
2012 i-STEP was officially opened by Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs of IPB, Prof. Dr. Yonny Koesmaryono, on Monday, 2 July 2012 at IPB International Convention Center (IICC), Bogor. A series of training program was centered at on CICO Resort, Cimahpar, Bogor. For 2012 i-STEP, IPB RAMP planned to implement it into two types of training, namely “One-day Technopreneurship Workshop/One-STEP” and Intensive-Student Technopreneurship Program / i-STEP.
The training course was intended to foster the ideas or technology solutions and transform it into a business. The two-week i-STEP training course was carried out based on the in-depth and structured-curriculum to assist the participants how to start evaluating a business idea, to develop the production technology, to protect the findings, to establish a business, marketing, financial management and investment, and expand its impact on society or the market.
"The objective of i-STEP is to support students in creating the invention and innovation that affect the communities to speed up the process of creating an idea or innovative ideas or solutions or applications of applied technology," explained Dr. Aji
RAMP IPB believes that invention and innovation is a potential solution to the problem of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. However, creation of invention and innovation in Indonesia has not yet provided optimum benefits for the community, so we need an approach to formulate them.
"RAMP encourages the development of technologies that fit to the needs of the communities, applicable, and environmentally friendly. The technology developed is also expected to meet the commercial characteristics in order to provide the best selection at affordable prices for the communties whose economy are weak," concluded Dr. Aji. (Wied).
