Taking place at Aula Timur of ITB Ganesha Campus on Saturday (23/3/2019), BM Fair 3.0 invited inspiring speakers and experts such as Panji Pragiwaksono, Pidi Baiq, Kartini F. Astuti, and Salman Subakat who shared their insights on how to face challenges in millennials era.

Chair of BM Fair 3.0, M. Mahrus Ali said that the event aims to create confident, achieving, and leadership-capable Bidikmisi recipients. The event also saw display of achievements gained by Bidikmisi recipients in an exhibition of works.

He said that there are 2200 Bidikmisi recipients in ITB from 2015 to 2018. 25% of whom are graduated with cum laude and 50% of whom are active in community activities. He also asserted the aim of Forum Bidikmisi ITB—which has been established for 7 years—to be a place of information, works, mentorship, and self-development for Bidikmisi recipients.

Bidikmisi was established in 2010. ITB admits 500 Bidikmisi freshmen each year and the number will consistently grow in the future. According to Chair of Student Affairs of ITB, Dr. Eng. Sandro Mihradi, Bidikmisi recipients have some notable accomplishments. They graduated with an average GPA of 3.28 from ITB, 10%-15% spend their scholarship to support their family, 65% gain additional income by working as teaching assistant or tutoring after they graduated. “(After graduating) 68% are working, 10% continue their study, and the rest become entrepreneurs,” he explained.

Economic condition is no longer a reason for Indonesians to end their study. Vice Rector of Academic and Student Affairs of ITB, Prof. Ir. Bermawi Priyatna Iskandar, M.Sc., Ph.D., in his remark emphasized that the academic quality of Bidikmisi recipients and non-recipients are on level seen from their GPA during the past eight years.

Prof. Bermawi said that in order to respond to todays’ complex problems, students require skills such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. The critical thinking should offer ideas and solution besides finding the problem, while the creativity should grow to create inventions in order to push national economy.

Prof Bermawi took Singapore for an example. Despite its small region, Singapore have great human resources. “Since elementary school, they teach programming, artificial intelligence, and the benefits. (They are) Creative in creating inventions, and the inventions are channeled to startups,” said Prof. Bermawi. Hence, he hopes students can create startups—unicorns and even decacorns, research-based and opportunity-based.

In the talk show, Pandji Pragiwaksono addressed about his journey towards creative industry in millennias generation. According to this alumnus of Industrial Product Design Program, creative industry is a place where people are demanded to keep making works. The challenge faced by millennials are their hesitation in making invention from abundance of options. He said that, people who hesitate are actually people who think. “Just start. Don’t be afraid if the result is bad. All works should be considered cool. The key is our next work. Make it happen, make it better,” said Pandji, who is also a comedian.

In Bidikmisi Fair 3.0, one of the highlighted inventions by Bidikmisi recipients is Automaxil, an automatic exhaust gas filter for motor vehicles. It is to complement safety and health of mechanics working at repair shop. Automaxil was invented by three Bidikmisi recipients named Rio Dwi (Mechanical Engineering ’16), Kresna Rahayu (Microbiology ’16), and Wawan Adi (Informatics ’15). The invention won a category in Student Creativity Program and was fully funded by Kemenristekdikti. They found a solution for vehicle’s emission gas management that is unhealthy for the mechanics.

The event also saw the launching of an inspiring story book titled “Rangkaian Titik Kehidupan” which contains 30 stories of Bidikmisi recipients from various campus. There were also many more outstanding inventions by Bidikmisi recipients. This proves that students from various economic background can have same opportunity in making works in order to contribute to nation’s development and enhance Indonesia’s prosperity.

Reporter: Salsabila M Febriana (ITB Journalist Apprentice 2019)