NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPING SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY IN INDONESIA

Today, I joined an interesting national conference presented by Faculty of Engineering UNS entitled “Membangun Simbiosis Perguruan Tinggi dan Industri di Indonesia (Developing an symbiosis between University and Industry in Indonesia)”. The speakers were people having experiences in this area, such as Prof. Aziz Djayaputra and Ir. Andi Kurnia (LAPI ITB), Prof. Kuncoro (Dean of Faculty of Engineering UNS), Ir. Bambang Pamudji, MM (GM PT Wijaya Karya), and Dr. Agus Widodo (CEO PT Indra Karya).

Dr. Agus gave us an understanding that university and industry are need each other. University is theory-based, otherwise industry is practice based. Hence, it can be built concepts between them: teori yang dipraktekkan (theory that is practiced) and praktek berdasarkan teori (practice-based theory). Besides, university is science-based, then industry is business-based. So, it will grow a concepts bisnis berdasarkan ilmu (science-based business) and ilmu yang dibisniskan (science as business commodity). Surely it is undeniable that the university become a supplier of manpower for industry. This proves that between university and industry can not be separated.

Prof. Aziz Djayaputra and Ir. Andi Kurnia from LAPI ITB gave an example how to sell science. In LAPI, science become business commodity. Their research area is geotechnical engineering. So, they build an industry which is selling services in area related to geotechnical engineering, such as survey and research. It was very interesting. I hope I can imitate the concept on my peer-group. However, I have to translate the content of this conference on my research area, food technology.