Universitas Indonesia (UI) is increasingly strengthening its position as the best university in Indonesia by intensifying and strengthening international cooperation. During an intensive six-day trip (27/11-2/12), the UI group was led by Prof. Dr. Dedi Priadi, DEA, Vice Rector for Human Resources and Assets at UI. Not only for visiting the University of California Berkeley (UCB) and the University of California Davis (UCD), but also expanding the scope of research and educational collaboration with these two leading universities in the United States.
Prof. Dedi was accompanied by the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (FT) UI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU., and Dr. Munawar Khalil, Director of Research and Development at UI. “The collaboration program ‘Scholars Engagement Program for Natural Resources-Based Research and Innovation’ at FTUI, which is fully funded by the Deposit Insurance Corporation (DIC), has been running successfully for the past year with UCB. We plan to expand this cooperation in the future by expanding the scope of cooperation. Apart from that, UI and UC Davis are exploring the possibility of collaborating with a similar scheme,” said Prof. Dedi
One of the main agendas of the visit was benchmarking science techno park (STP) activities. In line with this, the UI delegation visited Berkeley SkyDeck, a technology accelerator and incubator institution at UCB, as well as SCET UCB, an academic center at UCB’s School of Engineering where engineers and scientists gather to innovate, produce and commercialize their technology products.
When visiting UCD on Thursday (30/11), the UI delegation was welcomed by Richard L. Corsi, Dean of the College of Engineering. Discussions took place warmly regarding exploring the possibility of establishing educational and research collaboration between UI and UCB in the future.
Prof. Heri said, “FTUI and UCD discussed the potential for collaborative double degree programs for undergraduate and master’s students, sending visiting professors from UCD to UI, as well as joint supervision for Doctoral program students. This initiative aims to improve the quality of FTUI’s international programs by involving leading university partners.”
Prof. Dedi also revealed an offer from UCD to send three of UI’s best researchers as research ambassadors to conduct joint research at UCD. This is in line with the spirit of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which funds this activity through the Promoting Research and Innovation through Modern and Efficient Science and Techno Park (PRIMESTEP) Project. The PRIMESTEP project is channeled through the Ministry of Education and Culture to establish Science Techno Parks at UI and 3 other large universities.
Apart from exploring the potential of the two top universities in the United States, the UI group also took the time to meet with the Indonesian Consulate General in San Francisco and meet face to face with four UI students who were taking part in the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) program at UCD.
The hope is that this visit would not only provide insight into best practices in the development of science and technology, but also build strong partnerships with UCB and UCD. It is hoped that this collaboration will produce joint research, knowledge exchange and innovation to support UI’s development as a research university and make a significant contribution to the progress of science and technology, both at regional and global levels.
