IPB Students Created Android Apps to Preserve Local Culture and Environmental Learning
The problems happening in Indonesia encourage students to think more creatively in finding the right solution. Two of these problems are the declining awareness of Indonesian citizens about the importance of protecting the environment and preserving local culture. Beginning with a sense of belonging for Indonesia, student of the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Muhammad Murtadha Ramadhan, nicknamed Ado, together with his team, created educational applications to be used as media for environmental and cultural learning.
Ado has a myriad of outstanding achievements during his college days in IPB. His creative ideas have brought him to many national and international events. One of the prototypes created is an educational application about environmental learning for children called Fun Walking Enviropedia. This app uses Technology Augmented Reality inspired by Pokemon Go games.
This application prototype uses two-dimensional card scanned through android device. Furthermore, the image on the card will appear on the mobile phone screen in the form of three dimensions. "I try to awaken the environmental sensitivity in children in an interesting way. The children will not only involve in classroom learning but also in outside learning," Ado said.
The concept of this app has successfully delivered Ado to become the Most Outstanding Student of IPB 2017, the 6th National Outstanding Student in 2017, and the participant of International Student Summit Conference hosted by Tokyo University of Agriculture in Taiwan last September.
Recently, Ado and the team won the Best Presentation award in the Business Model Canvas Competition held by the IPB Business School on October 22, 2017. Bringing a new prototype concept, Ado entered into 10 finalists for the final round with other students from Brawijaya University, Sumbawa University, North Sumatra University, and others.
The application prototype called "Cultural Bridge" is a unique application to learn about local culture in Indonesia. This application connects between cultural actors in Indonesia with foreign people or tourists who want to learn culture practically through a short class of cultural learning.
"This prototype has never existed before, and we are trying to give new ideas to preserve local cultural wisdom in Indonesia," said Ado. Their first experience in winning this award led Ado to participate the next business competition later this year.
Ado has a dream to develop these prototypes into applications that can be used by many people. However, there are still some obstacles in realizing his dream, among other funding sources. But for Ado, his movement to continue creating new innovation will not stop just like that. (TK)
