Telkom Godok University Alumni Forum In Collaboration With BNPB

Photo: Doc. Telkom University

JAKARTA - The Telkom University Alumni Forum (FAST) is currently working on collaboration with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) in the research sector related to disasters. Currently the two parties have held a meeting.

FAST President, Sri Safitri noted that in its capacity as a forum for alumni of Telkom University, FAST wants to contribute to the country in terms of disaster management through disaster research.

"FAST wants to bridge the campus (Telkom University) with BNPB for research opportunities in the field of disaster," Sri Safitri said in a written statement, quoted on Saturday 9 April.

Fitri hopes that there will be research collaboration in the field of disaster management between Telkom University and BNPB. This effort is because Telkom University has facilities and digital technology support that can be used to achieve this goal.

Similarly, Director of Research and Community Service at Telkom University, Angga Rusdinar, stated that his party had conducted a lot of research and innovation related to disaster management.

"Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) or robot-based room disinfectants, and these have been donated to athletes' homestays as well as to the government," said Angga.

Other research and innovations that have been carried out by Telkom University include making disaster detection and recovery systems, tsunami prediction and simulation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect sea level.

In response to this, the Head of BNPB, Lt. Gen. Suharyanto, welcomed the opportunities offered by FAST and Telkom University. According to him, disaster management in Indonesia is not only COVID-19, but also the one that grabs the world's attention the most, namely forest fires.

"Although we know that the number of cases of COVID-19 has decreased, there is still another potential disaster, namely forest fires," said Suharyanto.

Suharyanto felt the need to apply technology in order to optimize prevention and disaster management measures.

"Therefore, if we use technology to detect hotspots, I think we can take more effective and efficient preventive measures before these fires become big and burn the forest," he said.

Suharyanto also said that there are other potential disasters such as tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquakes. For the tsunami, his party also cooperates with the BMKG intensively. However, he felt the need to be able to detect volcanoes, as well as map the areas affected by the earthquake.

Suharyanto also hopes that the collaboration between Telkom University and BNPB which is facilitated by FAST can answer the problem of disaster data collection.