A team consisting of Yogyakarta State University (YSU) students succeeded to grab a silver medal at Innovation Practices Education and Industry Exhibition 2016 (I-PEINX 2016) in University of Technology Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia (14/3). The students comprised Fauzi Solichin (Informatics Engineering Education), Indra Dwi Suryanto (Electronics Engineering Education), Mega Ayu Wulandari (English Education), and Amin Sri Wahyu Ningrum (Chemistry) under the supervision of Andik Asmara, M.Pd.

The event was attended by over 100 inventors, consisting high school students, college students, and lecturers from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Afghanistan, and several other countries. All participants were divided into categories namely social science, science and technology, best of the best (social science), and best of the best.

The YSU team belonged to science and technology category with the work entitled “d’Form Simple and Accurate Formalin Food Detector Using Artificial Neural Network”. The category was very much challenging since the rivals were mostly lecturers with expertise in their respective field. The YSU team was considered the youngest team in the category.

The competition was in the form of exhibition where every single participant was given supporting facilities including booth to display their products. The materials to be provided were namely posters, articles, innovative products, and other supporting tools such as images and related certificates. The judging included two stages, which were product presentation and question-answer session in English by two judges. Several questions addressed by the judges in the session were regarding the work, production cost, implementation, and potential for patent.

Fauzi and his team faced several obstacles in the making of the instrument, trial, preparation, and time management between group members. However, this was a challenge to meet for the success of the team. He himself hopes more teams from YSU can perform and contribute in international competitions to bring a good name to Indonesia in international scale. (Amin)