Dr. Ing. Tresna Dermawan Kunaefi: Community Empowerment for Qualified Infrastructure Application

By Shabrina Salsabila

Editor Shabrina Salsabila

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - Dr. Ing. Tresna Dermawan Kunaefi, who was born in Cirebon, December 18, 1950 is one of the lecturers of Environmental Engineering ITB. The man who is familiarly called Iwan has been taught many courses related to infrastructure and empowerment in Environmental Engineering ITB for 30 years. For example, he teaches Sanitation Infrastructure and Safety at Work. In addition to being an expert in the field, Iwan was also interested in community development. According to him, infrastructure (science, ed.) is only a way to implement the infrastructure design in social life.

Iwan who earned Docteur Ingenier (Dr.-Ing) of Chime de la Pollution at Universite Paris VII, France in 1988 and a Certificate d'Etudes Superieur (CES) of Genie de l 'Environnement et Ecole Nationale des Eco development Travaux Public de l 'Etat, Lyon, France in 1983 revealed that in doing design, an engineer should be able to apply the Appropriate Environmental Technology which aims to design an infrastructure can be used all time and also can be used by the community. "For the upper classes, whatever sophisticated technology in the development of an infrastructure of course is not a problem. Others as the medium of society, technologically advanced infrastructure which can not necessarily be used properly," said Iwan, who now serves as the team Competency Based Curriculum in character education.

Iwan added that the sophistication of technology has not been able to successfully implement these technologies. Failure Waste Power Plant for dissemination to the public which was not running smoothly is one example of the failure of technology implementation. According to Iwan, when we study the environment, the thing to remember is it's not just the physical environment, but also included is a culture of people that must be understood by the engineer. Understanding of culture conditions these people are seldom taught in college.

Becoming a lecturer, Iwan undertaken the encouragement of his father, former Governor of West Java, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) H. Aang Kunaefi. Besides being active as a Lecturer in Environmental Engineering ITB, Iwan was also the Coordinator of Kopertis IV Region of West Java and Banten, and Academic Director of Directorate General of Higher Education. In 2009, Iwan was appointed as the Indonesian Ambassador for UNESCO-Paris. He successfully made ​​the angklung, batik, and Saman dance to be recognized in the world as a cultural heritage of Indonesia.

According to Iwan, for success in work, there are three things that must be applied, which are proud of the work that we owned, love the work, and to give the best. He advised the students to be active in campus activities, for example in the student union and extracurricular activities  because these activities will teach the students to socialize and learn to live in an environment of people who share common interests or profession. Therefore, the science we have should be used to serve the needs of the community. "Build a man that's my goal here to teach, not just educate the brain only, but formed a student who has good character," said Iwan ended the interview.

 

News Source: Enviro Magazine 13th Edition 2014