Each team from the five Legal Entity State Universities (PTN-BH) will participate in this interdisciplinary program. Each team will have five coordinators who will oversee the development of various aspects of the laptop system. The technical team that will be participating will be determined by the government's funding allotment.

Ir. Muhamad Abduh, MT., Ph.D, Vice Chancellor for Finance, Planning, and Development, stated this in Bandung on Thursday (29/7/2021). Ir. Adi Indrayanto, M.Sc. Ph.D., from STEI and Chair of the Center for Microelectronics, was the one who initiated the “Merah Putih” Laptop at ITB.

Each PTN-BH partnership member's activities are divided into five categories: hardware platforms, operating systems, application software, peripherals, and components. "Each category of this activity creates a sub-team with a coordinator of their respective specialist teams, which will include researchers and technicians," Muhamad Abduh explained.

“For the production side, the team will collaborate closely with industrial partners. The specialist team will concentrate on RDE (research, development, and engineering), while manufacturing will be handled by local and multinational industrial partners," he added.

Laptop Specifications

According to Adi Indrayanto, this laptop will be modified to the needs of the educational process at various levels of education in the future. Product specifications can vary depending on the needs of the customer and the innovations of each PTN-BH.

Because there are no electronic devices in the world whose components are all created by a single country, the product components continue to originate from elsewhere. The TKDN (domestic content level) will be implemented in stages based on the domestic industry's ability to generate RDE findings from the consortium team.

Product Distributions

Muhamad Abduh went on to say that the government's requirement for digital devices (laptops, tablets) for the digital learning process prompted the creation of this program. Not only to meet the need for distance learning (PJJ), which has been the only way to keep the education process going in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to fulfill the Ministry of Education and Culture's plan to implement digital transformation in the learning process in accordance with the President's directive. "As a result, the government is the largest user for digital learning demands in the educational process," he explained.

The goal of this program is to improve the domestic industry's ability to produce digital devices. The government, in particular, and society in general, will take advantage of rising TKDN, the growth of Indonesia's digital device sector ecosystem, and higher education innovations connected to digital learning.

"This activity is also projected to create jobs in the field of digital product engineering, and graduates from universities, polytechnics, and vocational schools in the field of electronics and computer technology will be absorbed," he stated.

In the future, it is anticipated that the domestic sector would be able to manufacture digital products for both the domestic and international markets. Indonesia has the potential to become the core of ASEAN digital products manufacturing.

Reporter: Adi Permana
Translator: Sekar Dianwidi Bisowarno (Bioengineering, 2019)