Eight students were selected as scholarship recipients, they were four students from Master program: Ardhian Ekawijan, Dicky Arinal, Puspoko Poncho Ratno, and Rizky Ario Nugroho, and four doctoral students: Iqbal Rahmadian Pamungkas, Nurul Oktariani Pratiwi, Susetyo Bagas Bhaskoro, and Nur Iksan. "The recipients have demonstrated good performance and excellent personality, and impressive academic records. They are also highly motivated in the field of mobile software development and entrepreneurship," said Dr. IGB Baskara Nugraha, as quoted by detikINET.

The scholarship covers tuition fees and research incentive during their studies at ITB BlackBerry Innovation Center. In addition, postgraduate students were also given a laptop and a BlackBerry smartphone.

During their research at ITB BlackBerry Innovation Center, each scholarship recipient must undergo the curriculum established by ITB and BlackBerry development training to support their research projects. Research project will be focused to areas that provide great benefits to the society through mobile applications, such as mobile health care systems, smart transit / transportation, smart mobile learning, smart logistics, and other areas that are within the framework of smart city or smart society.

"As a corporation that is part of society, RIM has committed to invest back to the community in the form of long-term initiatives," said Hastings Singh, RIM's Managing Director South Asia during a press conference to ITGazine. "Our collaboration with ITB, which encourages Indonesia to become a leader in the mobile industry, served as good precedence," he further explained.

In addition to gaining knowledge in mobile computing, the students will also gain knowledge on entrepreneurship and creation of innovative business. Hastings believes that the 30 scholarship recipients will be able to build career or start their own business in mobile applications sector, after having been equipped with skills and knowledge from the scholarship.

Photo courtesy of Kompas.com