Global Innovator Festa is an annual international competition organized by the government of South Korea through Daegu Digital Industry Promotion Agency (DIP) in Daegu, South Korea. There were three competitions held, namely idea-thon (presentation of idea from provided case), make-a-thon (designing a project that tackle communication problem in South Korea, especially for the company KT), and startup (creating something new beneficial for citizens of South Korea).

Lnpoint is supervised by Acep Purqon, Ph.D and consisted of members Al Solskjaer, Anisa Natalia, Safira Rahmadani, dan Dicky. They receive information regarding the competition from their lecturer. They did not waste the opportunity and decided to enter the competition.

“We immediately apply to Korea while carrying the project we are working on. By entering the competition, we aim to seek validation over our project. We often entered competition and go around Indonesia, and the experience help us to improve our work so that it will benefit many people,” said Al Solskjaer.

In make-a-thon sub-competition which raised the theme “Developing Innovative Device / Software”, Lnpoint develop a robot called Openspace.

“It is an app to build a community. People who use this app can share and meet for discussion. We design a software connected to hardware in many places such as cafes. Hence, when a group of people gather, they find it easy to reserve a place and ask about condition of the place,” Al Solskjaer added.

The team went through many stages before being crowned as the champion. It began with a worldwide selection in participating countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China, etc. Teams that passed will go to Daegu and receives training for three days. During the competition, participants had 24 hours to work on software and hardware in make-a-thon sub-competition. The team from ITB faced several challenges, including tools limitation and lack of rest due to working fully on the software and hardware within 24 hours. Subsequently, participants were asked to give presentation on the project they had made. The winner are based on the team that can provide low cost and scalable solution for KT.

“We found many obstacles during the competition such as tools limitation, non-functioning hardware, etc. It is also about how to adjust our project concept which was initially customer to customer into business to business,” Al Solskjaer said.

In upcoming weeks, their project will be launched and publicized for public. Hopefully, with this program people with similar interest and needs can conveniently meet and get facilitated. People can learn anything, anywhere, and with anyone easily. However, the project is currently in beta and will continue improvement.

“I hope this project can help many people, not only to ITB students but also to the public and bring wide impact. To my fellow students, do not be afraid to participate in any competition and don’t give up. We have participated in many competitions and failed as many. During the initial design of the project, many people do not believe it, but I keep going for it. What is important is the intention to learn anything. Do not give too many excuses and do not give up, because each of us can do it,” he added.

Reporter: Christopher Wijaya (Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology 2016)