16th LSI Design Contest 2013: MIT ITB Got Runner Up and The Best FPGA

By Neli Syahida

Editor Neli Syahida

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - A good news was came from School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. Muhammads in Team (MIT) consist of three Electrical Engineering Students, Muhammad Fahreza, Muhammad Firmansyah Kasim, and Muhammad Fadhli Zakiy got runner up position in 16th LSI Design contest on Friday (29/03/13) in University of Ryukyus (Ryukyu Daigaku), Okinawa Island, Japan.

LSI Design Contest is annual competition held by Ryukyu Daigaku, Okinawa Island, Japan. With the theme "Spectral Substraction", it got eight finalists to attend there. Two of eight finalists came from Indonesia, and both of them came from ITB. They are study club in Lecture EL4105 Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) that taught by Dr. Trio Adiono. From Years by years, this lecture was held to motivate students to join related competition. One of the is LSI. By taking theme Noise Cancelling System, MIT tried to innovate Spectral Substraction algorithm and implemented to FPGA. They succeed to make real-time system which erase noise on speech signal and got clear sound.

Since October, MIT begun to prepare everything intensively. By method "Adaptive General Spectral Substraction" Reza and friends started to do experiment. "It's hard to borrow tools needed for expereiment. We have to look for in many of Electrical Laboratories in ITB. After getting board, it just can be used on weekend and must be returned on Monday, so we have to be did simulation seriously even on holiday," Reza, who also got Best Idea Competition in Indonesia Japan-Innovation Convention 2012 said.

"The method that we used in this competition hadn't been on lecture, so we have to search by ourselves from papers or scientific journal. We also ever tried in computer because it's hard to got board and we failed several times, Firmansyah said. One week before attending to Japan, MIT were also busy to make paper, video, and searching for sponsor.

Their effort was paid successfully. They were not only runner up in IC contest, but also got "Best FPGA Awards" which is given by Tokyo Electron Device. At first, Zakiy didn't suppose he will succeed on this competition. "Getting a chance to go abroad, seeing Japan culture which are diligent and tough make me more motivated to realize my dream. I hope this can be spread to other students and our junior," Zakiy said.

Except that, with increment of Indonesian students achievement in that field, Reza also hoped facilities will be improve to support the development of that field. Moreover, industry on IC has developed well recently in this world, but not in Indonesia. And Zakiy also hoped education in Indonesia will be more attentively. "Last, Never stop dreaming to get what you want. At first, we were never suppose to succeed until this stage, but by our effort we can realize our dreams," Zakiy said.