UNS — Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta student obtained another achievement in Mechanical Education Festival (MEF) National Essay Competition held by Engineering Education Program (PTM) UNS. UNS Team comes from Biology Education Program which consists of Feni Andriani and Alysa Nur Chasanah Alam Majid, won the first position in this competition.
The Team named Gurirang submitted a study on Optimizing the Utilization of Porang Rhizome (Amorphophallus Muelleri) as Refined Sugar as an Alternative to Reduce Sugar Import and Achieving the Independence in Indonesian Sugar Production. This study discussed the efforts in utilizing porang rhizome to meet the demand for refined sugar. This study focused on the utilization of porang as the raw material of refined sugar.
The competition started with the essay selection to choose the best 10 which come from various universities in Indonesia, such as UGM, Unair, UB, IPB, Unnes, Unhas, UNDIKSHA and Politeknik Perkapalan Surabaya (Surabaya Marine Engineering Polytechnic). Finalists were asked to create a video to present their ideas in 10 minutes. They presented their idea for 5 minutes and then have a question and answer session with the jury. The duration for provided for each team was 10 minutes and the presentation was conducted through Zoom Meeting on Sunday (18/10/2020).
After going through all stages of the competition, Gurirang Team lead with a score difference of 158.6 from all other finalists which brought them to be the first winner in the competition. With this victory, Feni and Alysa won cash reward and e-certificate. Feni stated that she was happy to be able to win this competition. “Happy, we did not expect to win because of the difficulties we experienced during the preparation made us less confident,” Feni stated, Tuesday (3/11/2020). She added that the video took short time to prepare because her team has a hectic course schedule. They also have limited equipment to prepare their video presentation. In the future, Feni and Alysa hope that this competition can increase interpersonal competitiveness, spark creativity and arouse enthusiasm in scientific matters. Humas UNS
Reporter: Zalfaa Azalia Pursita
Editor: Dwi Hastuti
