From Editorial:
“The New Normal” Living during the pandemic
Following, the continued developments around COVID-19 outbreak, in March Universitas Diponegoro (Undip) has started to apply remote education and work from home for all of the elements until further communication. The education is switch into online mode through several application such as MS Teams, Kulon and others. The administration works are also conducted remotely. The new way of daily routine is out of our comfort zone, our “new normal”. There is no choice other than living coexist with the virus. But one fact that is true, this outbreak gives a lot of lesson to learn and introduced us the new way of living. Please stay safe and stay productive!
Editorial Team: Ambariyanto; Denny Nugroho S; Dessy Ariyanti; Diana Nur Afifah; Ahmad Ni’matullah Al-Baarri; Utami Setyowati. Office: Widya Puraya Universitas Diponegoro, Jl. Prof Soedarto SH Tembalang, Semarang, Indonesia 50275. Email: kankat@live.undip.ac.id
2020 Undip’s Academic Collaboration Program
Universitas Diponegoro (Undip) intends to expand the academic collaboration with international academics and practitioners. This program is set to improve the quality of education and learning process as well as providing an international perspective and different experience for the students. In addition this academic collaboration is aims to improve quality of publication and research network for researchers. The collaboration offered many activities such as visiting professors, visiting lecturers, joint supervision, thesis examiners, joint research, joint publications, and keynote speakers for international conferences. The collaboration form is in this link:
For more information please contact our office: kankat@live.undip.ac.id
FPP Undip Graduates Assistance to Maintain Food Supply during COVID-19
The Agricultural Youth Entrepreneurship Program (PWMP) initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture has succeeded in increasing the interest of the younger generation to started business in agriculture. This PWMP are supported by the collaboration with partner universities including the Faculty of Animal and Agricultural Sciences (FPP), Undip. So far 45 FPP Undip graduates have been involved in 15 agricultural business start-ups. Types of business fields include upstream to downstream such as beef cattle fattening, animal feed and organic fertilizer, goat and sheep fattening, ornamental plants, hydroponic vegetables, and fresh cow’s milk processing. The supervision was conducted by the lecturers as field supervisors for three years starting from the awareness, development, and independence phase. PWMP encourages graduates in accordance with the mission of FPP Undip to become an excellent faculty in the field of animal and agriculture sciences by transforming traditional cultivation system to modern agriculture with the development of information technology.
This PWMP program is also a tangible manifestation of the faculty’s support for increasing food production and provision in Indonesia, especially during the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. Agriculture is proven as one of the fields that survived during the Covid-19 outbreak. The demand for livestock and agricultural products is higher especially for households. This is a huge opportunity for the agriculture start-up business to expands. Inline with that the development of online marketing system can made differences to the income of the millennial farmers today. From the consumers point of view, online food product distribution reduces the psychological effect of panic buying due to the outbreak of Covid-19 as adequate food always visible and reachable.
Artificial Patch Reef (APR) for Coral Reef Restoration
Indonesia consist of vast coastal region which about 81,000 km shoreline and more than 17,000 small islands and has provided huge contribution to the Indonesia economic development. The region and its resources should be sustainably managed so it still available in the future to support the country’s economic development.
Indonesia is also one of the regions that contains the highest diversity of marine life in the world. Their ecosystems face significant threats including exploitation, overfishing, sedimentation, and climate change.
Dr. Munasik, a lecturer from the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Undip and researcher of coral reefs restoration said that the sedimentation from run off land or rivers are threatening the preservation of our coral reefs, and thus are characterized by a reduction in the area of coral reefs, failure of reproduction and settlement of coral larvae. Apart from that, the physical treats such as the activities of barges and massive tourism activities could leads to the damage of the coral reefs.
In order to save the marine ecosystems and rehabilitation of coral reefs, sequence approaches needs to be conducted: the first is to do mitigation of coral reefs, namely efforts to prevent the damage and degradation of coral reefs both non-structural (public awareness) and structurally and the second is the rehabilitation of coral reefs by applying artificial reefs.
He creates an Artificial Patch Reef (APR) for Coral Reef Restoration with various advantages including easy to install (modular and lightweight), cheap, consist of hard substrates that can support vegetative and generative coral development; suitable for murky and shallow waters; growing new habitats for sustainability. However, the restoration of coral reefs will not be achieved without synergy and awareness from the society “he said.
Nuclear Science and Technology as part of the new paradigm for a sustainable environment: Natural Science applications from the 20th to the 21st century
February 2020 before the spread of COVID-19 become massive, the Graduate School of Universitas Diponegoro, hosted a Studium Generale with the theme “Nuclear Science and Technology as Sustainable: Natural Science Applications From the 20th to the 21st Century”. The main speaker for this event was Professor Henk Heijnis a Geoscientist from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO). ANSTO is one of Australia’s largest public research organizations and is widely recognized as an international player in the field of nuclear science and technology
During the presentation, Prof Heijinis explained on how the Nuclear technique developed at ANSTO can be applied in many fields such as health, environment, and industrial research. For examples ANSTO has been contributed to develop nuclear medicines that can be used to diagnose cancer and treat many cancers. The other important field of Nuclear technique application is to be used in environmental sciences which is a relatively brand-new field of science as it started at 1960s. He added that until 1950s, most environmental and archaeological events were based on relative chronologies or historical sources. ANSTO Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Centre (ERMC) offers high resolution analysis of geological records. This data is very useful to support the climate modelling and prediction.
This studium generale is one of series visiting professor activities organized by team leads by Prof. Prof. Dr. Tri Retnaningsih Soeprobowati which aims to strengthen the quality and international competitiveness of the Graduate School, particularly, in the field of Environmental Science.
Webinar Food Security in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Celebrating their 8th anniversary in late of May 2020, Department of Agriculture of the Faculty of Animal and Agricultural Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro (FPP, Undip) held a webinar with theme “The Role of Plant Protection for Food Security in the Covid-19 Pandemic”. The keynote speakers namely Prof. Achmadi Priyatmojo (Professor of the Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University), Prof. Loekas Soesanto (Professor of the Faculty of Agriculture, Jenderal Soedirman University), and Dr. Masanto (Tanjung Priok BBKP Agricultural Quarantine Officer). The opening speech by the Head of Department of Agriculture, Dr. Didik Wisnu Widjajanto stated that this pandemic should become a momentum for the exponential growth of Indonesian agriculture by strengthening the synergy between academics, the government, research center, professional organizations, farmers and private sector to achieved the food security. Prof. Achmadi Priyatmojo discussed the importance of professional associations and the use of information technology in plant protection. While Prof. Loekas Soesanto questions the role of biological agents and plant pesticides in crop protection. Dr. Masanto talk about the role of agricultural quarantine in maintaining Indonesia’s food security. This webinar was conducted through Google Meeting and Live Youtube, attended by no less than 2,275 participants. The participants were mostly students, lecturers, researchers, extension workers, agricultural practitioners who came from various parts of Indonesia.
Collaboration activities between Boston University (BU), Tufts University (TU) and Universitas Diponegoro (Undip)
NSF IRES Track 1 U.S.- Indonesian Research Experience for Students on Sustainable Adaptation of Coastal Areas to Environmental Change Program is in its second year. The activities is performed in partnership between Boston University (BU), Tufts University (TU) and the Universitas Diponegoro (Undip), which represented by the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences. The activities funded by National Science Foundation USA involves 18 US students to gain international research experience in earth, life and data sciences as applied to the coastal region of Northern Central Java, Indonesia.
This program can strengthen the international collaboration and partnership between universities and improve the quality of education for students in both universities. In addition, in correlation with the Sustainable Development Goals, it contributes to the quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, climate action and integrated between life on land and life below water.
UNDIP NEWS, LIFE SCIENCE EDITION download