Recently our SEEDS’ consultant working in partnership with Hasanuddin University in Makassar (Indonesia) was interviewed by one of his students who is part of a journalist team publishing the internal university’s magazine on student life. The main objective was to learn about his educational and professional background but also why he came to Indonesia and how the partnership started with Hasanuddin University.
Our consultant shared about his experience working in the semiconductor industry in the late 1990s and that during this time he developed a desire to pass on his acquired know-how in technology to developing countries. Early 2000 he was introduced to the former head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Hasanuddin University who invited him to help with developing a curriculum in the field of Integrated Circuits and Digital System Design. Soon our consultant learned about the three-fold mandate of Indonesian university: Education & Teaching, Research & Development and Community Service. These fundamental obligations are referred to as “Tridharma”.
Since then our consultant has been involved in various community service programs. Among others he joined a group of lecturers setting up clean water facilities in villages. The more insights of the rural situation our consultant obtained, the more he started to think about ways in which technologies that are available in our interconnected world could become accessible to the village level and thus increase its living standards. The gap between rural and urban society in Indonesia is still very wide. New technologies like drones for spraying pesticides on rice fields are still not trusted and thus most of the farming activities are still performed manually.
During the above mentioned interview our consultant remembered that he had already given a presentation many years ago on how students need to fulfill the role of “in-betweeners” between advanced technologies and its application in rural settings. Students are given the privilege to study at distinguished universities but this also means that in countries like Indonesia they have a responsibility to serve the wider society.
SEEDS continues to be committed to work in partnership with universities in Southeast Asia not only in the academia but also so that the leaders of tomorrow- graduating from universities-can bring key technologies to places where it is much needed.
