Bibikost, The Work of IPB Students for Boarding Seekers’ Solution
At that time it was in the first level at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), students were required to live in the dormitory of the General Competency Education Program (PPKU). While staying in a dormitory, many students have started looking for a boarding house because their stay in the dormitory is limited (only one year).
“To find a suitable boarding house, I have to go to the location directly and I feel it is less effective especially in time,” said Stiffen Firdaus Solagrasia, initiator of Bibikost, a student of the IPB Agribusiness Department.
Starting from this, Stiffen with Kharist Hidayat (Department of Agribusiness), Kautsar Ibrahim Hilmi (Department of Computer Science), Nada Widyanto Rizki (Business School) and Jasmine Khoirunissa (Department of Computer Science) took the initiative to create Bibikost.
“Bibikost is a chatbot platform so questions about boarding around IPB can be automatically answered by our admin. Currently, Bibikost can be added through a line application and there are already approximately 1200 users,” said Hilmi who plays the chief of technology.
They have discussed Bibikost since they were still living in the dormitory, precisely in 2017. According to Kharist as Chief Marketing, bibikost was initially marketed to IPB students only. However, because of the many requests from other universities regarding the facilities offered by Bibikost, they will plan to expand to other campuses.
This innovation won 1st place in the IPB Faculty of Economics and Management Business Plan competition and the Busines Cooperative Week competition organized by the Student Cooperative of the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Science and Culture.
“Competition is one of the ways we develop this bibikost. By competing, in addition to being able to increase abilities and colleagues, our work is increasingly familiar to ordinary people. We hope that bibikost can be a solution for the anxiety of overseas children especially in finding boarding houses,” he said. (RYS)
