The three are second-year undergraduate students of Civil Engineering at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) under the guidance of Dr. Aine Kusumawati, S.T., M.T.

The competition is themed “Innovative Infrastructure Development to Build a Sustainable and Intelligent City”. This event is divided into three subthemes, which are the scope of water, transportation, and housing.

In this competition, participants were required to give an innovation in order to counter urban problems in Makassar City based on the given case study according to the chosen subtheme.

Through their high interest in transportation, the KUYA-KIN Team proposed an innovative solution entitled "Lane Optimization in Makassar City Arterial Road by Applying Transit-Oriented Street Concept". In the proposed innovation, the KUYA-KIN Team directed streets in Makassar City to be prioritized for public transportation and decreased the number of private vehicles.

This innovation aimed to change people’s mindsets about the use of private vehicles. Thus, they can shift their preference to public transportation.

The KUYA-KIN Team hopes this innovation can increase the people’s quality of life through street infrastructure modification in Makassar, especially Perintis Kemerdekaan Street, which is being used as the research object.

This competition was held from March until July 2023. The teams started by conducting brainstorming to determine the solution for the congestion problem in Makassar City, based on the given case study. All of the team then sent an innovation resume for the elimination round, followed by submitted full paper for the qualified teams.

After going through the assessment process, the KUYA-KIN Team managed to qualify as one of the top 7 finalists. The final round was held from Monday (10/7/2023) until Saturday (15/7/2023). In this round, participants were asked to present their innovations directly in front of the juries and make an illustration video containing an explanation of the innovation they made. After going through some stages, the KUYA-KIN Team was awarded as the first winner in that competition.

The victory achieved by the KUYA-KIN Team became a source of pride for them. Moreover, this is the first competition they entered in the scope of civil engineering.

“We didn’t expect this because this is our first competition in civil engineering. We finally know what civil engineering competition is like. Everything we learned from the class is very useful. This competition is also as a work-life sneak peek to overcome real life problems,” said one of the members, Nicholas.

In the middle of the process, they experienced various obstacles. According to Stefanus, the hectic academic duties at ITB is one of the obstacles they had faced.

Furthermore, Sahlan also stated the other obstacle is the team had to work separately for the final round, because they were already entering the semester break.

The team hopes in the future their work can be an inspiration. Even more, the juries in the competition appreciate it and hope the innovation can be developed further.

Nicholas also gave some tips for the other students who are currently in a process or will join a competition. “Don’t be afraid to try something new to achieve success, we must be courageous. Everything has its own risk. So, we may be afraid to make sacrifices when we join a competition. But believe it, hard work will pay off,” he concluded.

Reporter: Margareta Vidya Riswanti (Teknik Kimia, 2021)
Translator: Hanifa Juliana (Perencanaan Wilayah dan Kota, 2020)
Editor: Anggi Nurdiani (Manajemen, 2021)