UBSI Students Create AquaWarn, IoT Technology for Flood Mitigation with the Potential to Boost the Smart City Industry

JAKARTA - Technology innovation based on the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to develop among universities and is considered potentially supporting digital transformation in the disaster mitigation sector.

A team of students from Bina Sarana Informatika University (UBSI) proved this through AquaWarn, a flood monitoring and early warning system that won the Silver Medal at the 2026 National Innovation Week.

The event, which was held by the Mercu Buana University Research and Community Service Institute (LPPM) on July 28-29, 2026, carried the theme of Accelerating Collaborative Innovation for Global Transformation and Competitiveness. The assessment was carried out by a jury panel from the Indonesian Invention and Innovation Promotion Association (INNOPA).

AquaWarn was developed as a solution to the high risk of flooding in Indonesia through an IoT-based monitoring system that is able to send information in real time to the public.

This device utilizes the ESP32-CH340 microcontroller, water level sensor, and rain sensor connected to the Firebase Realtime Database. The information is then displayed on a web-based dashboard and forwarded to a WhatsApp notification to residents through the WhatsApp Gateway service.

Head of the AquaWarn Team, Muhammad Affarel, said the award was an encouragement for the team to continue to improve innovations so that they can be widely implemented.

"This silver medal is proof that student innovation can be a real solution to community problems, especially in flood-prone areas," he said.

Before participating in the competition, AquaWarn had undergone testing on 64 scenarios and all functions were declared to run according to the design.

This system has also obtained copyright protection from the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI).

Rian Septian Anwar said the next step was to encourage the downstreaming of products through collaboration with local governments and communities so that the technology could be used more widely.

In the future, the team plans to add supporting sensors, solar panels as a backup resource, and artificial intelligence (AI) integration to improve flood prediction capabilities.

The development is considered to open up opportunities for the use of local technology in supporting the smart city ecosystem and the digitization of disaster mitigation.