IoT, in a simple way, means the activity between humans and things, or things with things such as sensors, robots, platforms, and cloud, connected through standard communication protocol to receive or send information to enable certain work processes to be more efficient.

According to Prof. Suhono Harso Supangkat, a professor in Information Technology Research Group of School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of ITB, IoT has great potential in Indonesia. But it also comes along with the challenges, such as equity of infrastructure and geographical condition.

He explained, there are a number of components that have major effect to development of IoT. The first is human resources. This component includes human resources that support development of IoT, the effect of IoT to future employment, and cultural changes induced by IoT.

The second is technology. This component includes the connectivity of things such as sensors, cloud, platforms, robots, and other things, through certain protocol and algorithm. The third is governance. This component includes regulation, business model, and role development of each stakeholder in the development of IoT in Indonesia.

“Indonesia now conducts continuous development of IoT as one of the manifestations in Making Indonesia 4.0, in which with IoT everything is connected or related to each other,” said Prof. Suhono.

According to Prof. Suhono, the pace of development of IoT in Indonesia relies on the quality of human resources in an area. However, Indonesia has targeted IoT market potential in 2022 and 2025 up to trillion rupiahs. “IoT in Indonesia can be manifested in transportation, electric cars, health, and environment,” he said.

Major Role of IoT Lab of ITB

Institut Teknologi Bandung as the oldest engineering higher education in Indonesia have major role in the development of IoT. On February 2019, ITB officially opened Internet of Things (IoT) and Future Digital Economy Laboratory to respond to digital development. “The lab is established in order to push innovation and advancement in digital economy, especially in Industry 4.0,” said Taufiqurrahman Akmal, one of team members of IoT Lab of ITB

Akmal explained that the Lab aspires to be IoT market space, in which one of the activities is about research, giving workshop or training on IoT. In addition, it also aims to be the expert of IoT device standard in Indonesia. So that researches developed in the laboratory do not stop as mere researches but also implemented and used on a larger scale.

“Through this laboratory, we want the researches to be implemented and to give as much benefit as possible,” he said.

He is optimistic that the target is achievable because the government has allocated as many as 400,000 sensors installed in Indonesia, scattered over 440 cities. The installation, Akmal said, will be accomplished in 2022. “Talking about the potential of IoT in Indonesia, it will definitely be very massive,” he added.