Depok, September 15th 2023. The Universitas Indonesia (UI) Student Team made brilliant achievements in the NUS Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) international competition at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. They won two prestigious awards in this competition, namely, the People’s Choice Award and the Long Term Sustainability Award .
The Long Term Sustainability Award was given based on the jury’s assessment which states that the innovation the team offered has sustainable potential and can provide long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the People’s Choice Award was obtained based on the amount of votes on the final day of the competition.
The UI team consisted of 7 students, with 4 students from Faculty of Medicine (FK), namely, Maritza Andreanne Rafa Ayusha; Bryanna Infinita Laviashna Saputro; Alvreyna Cherienda Laviashna Saputro; and Diski Saisa, 2 students from the Faculty of Computer Science (Fasilkom), namely, Mohammad Bramantyo Putra Kusuma and Qalbun Salim Buanaputra; as well as 1 student from the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Qoirunnisaa Mauliya Wardani.
Under the guidance of the Teaching Staff of the Department of Nutrition, FKUI, Dr. Lily Indriani Octovia, MT, M.Gizi, Sp.GK, UI team brought out innovative work in the form of an application called DiabEats. This application was designed to help type 2 diabetes mellitus patients manage their diet.
Bryanna Infinita Laviashna Saputro, one of the team members, said, “With the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) continuing to increase throughout the world, managing diet is the main key in treating this disease. Unfortunately, many patients still have difficulty managing their diet due to lack of knowledge and awareness,” said Bryanna.
DiabEats is here as a solution to overcome this problem. This application allows type 2 DM patients to determine the portions and types of nutrition they need in a specific and personalized manner. Another advantage is the food scanner feature which makes it easy for users to identify the nutritional composition of the food they consume.
NUS MGC is a medical innovation competition held annually by the National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine since 2016. This competition tests the abilities of students from various countries, to create innovations that are able to solve current health problems. NUS MGC was held in several rounds, starting from the written round to the final round, which required teams to present their innovative work directly in front of the judges through oral pitches and booth presentations.
“We are very happy because we have participated in making FKUI and UI proud on the international stage. There are so many new things we learned along our journey of putting together and designing DiabEats. Not only that, we also learn various soft skills such as leadership, team work, communication, time management. Apart from that, the main skill that we learned was public speaking skills when convincing the jury during the booth presentation and oral pitch sessions. We also have a valuable opportunity to build international networks with medical, engineering, and business students, where we can exchange ideas and views regarding health issues in Singapore and their solutions,” said Bryanna.
Dean of FKUI Prof. Dr. dr. Ari Fahrial Syam, Sp.PD-KGEH., MMB. appreciated the brilliant achievements of the UI Team in the competition which was held on 19th of August 2023. This achievement is the result of teamwork which reflects the dedication, hard work and high spirit of innovation of UI students. “To the supervisor, Dr. Lily Indriani Octovia, MT, M.Gizi, Sp.GK, I would like to thank you for your knowledge and guidance to the students. Hopefully, this achievement can inspire other students to continue trying to achieve success in various international competitions,” said Prof. Ari.
