As part of the commitment to building a close partnership with major industry players, recently
Sampoerna University started a cooperation with Indonesian e-commerce unicorn startup Bukalapak in terms of Smart Retail Technology. At “BukaMeetup: Maker4Nation 2.0” event on Thursday (28/2/2019), Sampoerna University Rector Dr. Wahdi Yudhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bukalapak’s representative.
On the same occasion,
Dr. Farid Triawan (Head of Mechanical Engineering Study Program, Sampoerna University) also presented his ideas on Industry 4.0 in the Disruption Era. "How will the retail industry survive in the near future?" he posed the question to the audience consisting of mostly Sampoerna University students.
As
Internet of Things (IoT) starts to be adopted and developed in retail industry, humans also begin to learn the advantages and disadvantages of the new technology. Dr. Farid pointed out, “There’s always pros and cons when it comes to adoption of new technology, including IoT.”
In response to emerging technology, Indonesian IoT players are aware of the potential future challenges. As stated by Ir. Teguh Prasetya, Head of Indonesia IoT Association who also delivered a presentation on IoT for Retail (IoT4Retail) that to improve efficiency, Indonesia IoT Association will launch a benchmark app for all IoT devices in the retail industry in cooperation with Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and Ministry of Manpower.
An IoT engineer at Bukalapak, Mr. Pratama also shared some of his knowledge on the development of Internet of Things (IoT) with the audience. He specifically explained in length about Design Modeling Processes, which was based on one of his projects.
As the follow-up action of the MoU, students of Sampoerna University will have opportunities to work as interns at Bukalapak and work on their final projects with the assistance of Bukalapak, stated Dr. Farid. “In regards with Smart Retail Industry, engineers of Bukalapak and our professors will form a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to decide what research topics we will do together. Also, Bukalapak will donate 2 smart-retail machines to Sampoerna University for research and educational purposes,” he said.
Valued at more than US$1 billion, Bukalapak has become the fourth ‘unicorn’ startup in Indonesia. The company is known for its interest in research and development of the latest technology after setting up its own research and development center. All this makes Bukalapak an ideal partner to the university. (*/)
