The Indonesian Minister for Research Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir was present at the recent inauguration of a technology facility at the Gadjah Mada University.
According to a recent report, the Honeywell UGM Connected Laboratory is a product of the collaboration between the University and Honeywell, a technology company.
The laboratory boasts of astute industrial automation system. It is also capable of being connected with the two other technology laboratories of the said company.
Prior to this lab, the company has already established laboratories with the Bandung Institute of Technology and the University of Indonesia.
The three laboratories can be connected with each other, made possible by the provided technology, thereby allowing the sharing of resources among them.
The inauguration event held at the University’s School of Engineering was immediately followed by a discussion on “Commitment and Collaboration to make Indonesia 4.0”.
The Minister shared that up until recently, the higher education sector has only been focusing on itself and has been refusing to collaborate.
The establishment of these laboratories may signal bright future filled will collaborations as well as the creation of new innovations.
He furthered that the presence of the Lab can boost the competitiveness of the nation, which depended on learning processes and innovation.
Being a winner does not only mean being abundant in natural resources nor having a large number of people. A country can be considered a winner for the huge number of innovations it can produce.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) era, the number of human resource available in the country can be a disadvantage if they are not properly managed.
The competitiveness of the current generation should be improved in order to compete at the global level. In order to achieve this, having a good learning process and innovation are key.
Fortunately, the Honeywell Lab is here to help the country in realising that.
Moreover, the University’s Deputy Rector shared that the cooperation between the two would lead to programs that are aimed at attracting students to come to the University and be able to create innovation.
This will channel their creativity, plus this will connect the University with the industry, the bureaucracy, and other communities.
Additionally, this cooperation may lead to the production of new software.
Hopefully, the hard work and investment from all the parties involve could benefit the future engineers from the University.
The facility is equipped with the Experion PKS Orion platform as well as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) tools.
The company has redefined industrial automation with its Experion PKS Orion, a Process Knowledge System.
It is an enterprise-wide distributed control system (DCS) designed to unify people with process, business requirements and asset management.
Meanwhile, the AR/VR technologies will help scientists learn about sophisticated industrial activities as these can be used for simulations.
Moreover, the technology used in the Lab is connected to the Internet, which would give both lecturers and students the opportunity to conduct simulations of various industrial processes.
