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UGM Gadjah Mada

  • Gadjah Mada Chapter 4 : Bring Agrion into Reality..!

    After exploring the problem that we really concern, it’s time for us to make it real. Empowering by Microsoft Technology, we pick the most suitable feature that fit the most with the problem. It is very useless if we pick the most sophisticated technology but cannot solve the problem. It is useless to use many technology whereas the subject cannot or do not use it all. It such a waste. Our point here is pick the technology based on its portion and target market.

    Our main target market are farmer’s assistant, farmer, weather’s officer. Make sure all the actors are capable to use our solution. So, we make it as easy as possible. Derived from the problem and the actor, we conclude this high level solution architecture as you see below,

    high level

    This is solution that we believe could solve the world’s toughest problem about food insecurity and climate change issues. To make this concept into reality, we select some technologies that is suitable, as you see below

    arch syst

    Our main focus is in the web service. Agrion is powered by Agricultural Computation Services that could predict crop water need in case of challenging climate change issue. Our computation service is based on Agricultural science and research from the expert. The formula is also approved by FAO and many experts in Agricultural field. The formula itself had been explained in chapter 3.

    To know deeper about Agrion Features and more screenshot, please read the next chapter Smile

  • Imagine Cup 2011 Chapter 3: This is Called AGRION

    The Battle of Gadjah Mada Team: The Beginning

    Having the objectives to help the farmers in dealing with climate change, we began to search in what aspect that we could really do something to solve this problem. So here we go… let me introduce you our first project, AGRION.

    Problem Background

    The problems of food security around the world arise as the number of world population increases. The amount of the population is expected to be 200 billion people by 2045. Moreover, the people tend to fulfill their need in having a place to stay by building houses. This kind of action results in a negative impact on land reduction for farming. The data of 2010 show that there is a massive change of land farming use from 4.1 million hectares in 2007 to 3.5 hectares in 2010 in Indonesia only. This phenomenon leads to the issue of food insecurity in which not all people have the access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. On the other hand, there are 38% people around the world who work in agriculture field (National Geographic Magazine). Indonesia has been certified as one of G20 in which it has the big economic power with its huge Gross Domestic Product. The GDP is formed by several sector, one of them is agriculture taking the place of the third largest sector in GDP by 14.4%. It is the reason why Indonesia has been awarded as an agricultural country with the number of farmers in increases each year. It is proved by the data of farmers on February 2008 by 6.130.481 people to 6.346.122 people on February 2009 (http://www.bps.go.id/).

    However, the farmers tend to cultivate their farm using traditional way. In 2010, the crop failure hampered in rice and vegetable farming reached the high rate price because of the climate change. This issue tend to be the reason of undernourishment in Indonesia like what FAO shows in its data of 13% people undernourished. Thus, the need of rice intensification becomes more urgent to increase the crop in the limited use of land. One way to solve the problem is managing the water supply needed by the plants. Thus, Agrion trying to help the farmers, government, and farming assistant organization to be able to measure crop water needed by the plant.

    Solution

    AGRION is a system built to meet up the need of farmers in dealing the climate change in a smart way. Agrion comes as a solution to calculate water needs of each plant in every growth level. Using this system, farmers could measure how much water they should provide in accordance with rainfall and the type of land. This kind of calculation is stated as ETc calculation (Evapotranspiration crop) which formula is:

    This formula counts the water needed by the plants in considering many factors involved, such as humidity, sunshine, temperature, and windspeed. Those data could be extracted from BMKG (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika) which is updated daily. However, based on the research done by Notohadiprawiro and Asmara (1985) in ETc calculation in Tropical countries, the formula could be simplified into:

    The formula above measure the humidity, windspeed, and sunshine in an estimation of low, medium, and high. The most significant factor, temperature, is all what the calculation requires. Moreover, since the research has been done in Indonesia for quite a long time, the data has been acquired.

    The Factors of Evapotranspiration

    Using the optimization linkage between farmers assistant and government, the farmers could use the predicton data of water needed by the plants and combining it with another environmental data such as rainfall.

    The Interface of Agrion Website

    Agrion provides a computation service which could be accessed using website and SMS broadcast. Based on the water measurement needed in each area within a certain period of time, the farmer’s assistant and the local government could analyze what suitable plant to grow. Therefore, it could be pedicted that majority farming land in that area will be filled with the same plant. It makes the government and farmer’s assistant less effort in fulfill the needs of seeds for the same plants.

    This software does not only give the computation of water needed, but also the exact information about the location of the farming land along with the plants grown and the date of the harvest. Therefore, this data could be optimized by many external parties, such as consumers, to know in which area they could get the vegetables and others. Therefore, Agrion could give many benefits to many stakeholders involved in this system.

    Goals and Milestones

    Some goals of Agrion are:

    1. Helping the farmers to deal with the changing seasons in a smart way.
    2. Helping the farmers to sell their products easily in a good price.
    3. Helping the farmers to get the seeds in a good price to plant their farms.
    4. Helping the governemnt and farming assistant in scheduling the water irrigation.
    5. Helping the government, farmers, and farmer’s assistant to plant the suitable plant in certain season.

    Agrion is expected to achieve these milestones:

    1. Farmers could know how much water needed by each plant everyday by comparing ETc with rainfall data. Thus, they could make the irrigation schedule since the water supply is limited.
    2. Farmers could sell their products fast in good price.
    3. Farmers could get sufficient seeds in good price also.
    4. In one year using historical data of ETc and rainfall along with the knowledge of the type of land, the government and farmer’s assistant could decide what kind of plants more suitable to grow in the area in a certain time.

    TOWS Analysis


    Future Works

    This system could be developed to accomodate the neds of many people. Thus, this system could use IVR technology to support its function. In addition, to capture more people in rural areas with lmited advanced devices, this system could be broadcasted using radio waves.

    What Experts Say

    “Agriculture in developing countries must undergo a significant transformation in order to meet the related challenges of food security and climate change.” (The Hague Conference On Agriculture, Food Security And Climate Change)

    “Technologically, we should encounter the extreme changing weather. It must be supported by the farmers, the legislative/senate who is approving the budget for agricultural field, and the executive who technically support the actions.”

    (Sri Mulyaningsih, Senior Analyst FAO)

    “We encourage such system of calculating the real-time ETo. We are as researchers appreciate such help and effort in that field because it helps our farmers a lot.”

    (Anjal Anie Asmara, Agriculture Researcher of UGM)

     

     

    After working hard for several months, we finally come up with this. Yet, we know that this work is not finished. The work to contribute to the society is an endless work. Thus, we will keep the spirit of fighting to solve the problems in Indonesia, and in the world. Go, Agrion!!!

    [Dwi Andi]

    587 Views, 0 Comment(s), Published on: 04-28-2011 0:12 by ninan to UGM Gadjah Mada
  • The Battle of Gadjah Mada Chapter 2 : Choose The Project Fast, Dude!

    A Dream To Pursue

    The first difficult part of combining the partners –along with their own characteristics and abilities–had been passed through. Then another part was coming: Choosing the focus of the project. Well, this part is absolutely the most exhausting and tiring of all –except for all the developers who have the part of designing the software. This part is like an endless part because even after choosing it, we need to still revise, and revise, and revise. So, in a short order, these are what we were doing back then.

    1. Inernalize the topic of Imagine Cup

    Tsun Zhu ever said, “Know the ground, know the weather, and your victory will be complete”. It suggests any individual to analyze what is going around. Therefore, we tried to search many informations and problems appeared regarding the theme of Imagine Cup “Imagine A World Where Technology Helps Solve Toughest Problem” which is aligned with 8 poin of Millenium Development Goals:

    2. Put all of the ideas inside a box

    We did not put any limit towards any ideas come up. All ideas, whether it is feasible or does not seem possible, are collected. Yes, we did not put any wall to block the flow of our imaginations.

    3. Analyze the ideas to select the best

    All ideas collected might have the possibility to be implemented in such a short time or it needs a very long time to be implemented. Well, since it is my job to analyze whether the ideas are possible or not, I summarize the steps to do that:

    1. Make the description of the projects as clear as possible. I used the The McKinsey Framework which is divided into: Problem Definition (What kind of problems that this project addressed?), Context (What is it all about?), Decision Makers/Stakeholders (Who will get the benefits from it? Who should support this project?), and Keyforces Acting on Decision Makers, Criteria and Measure for Success.
    2. Measure Yourself. The last point of The McKinsey Framework is Boundaries and Limits (What resoures do we need? Could we get them in such period of time? Do we have the human resurces on the field? Do we have the time to finish the project in these several months?).
    3. Measure the Impact. I do not want to say that the projects we have been eliminated do not have any impact for society. No, it surely has an impact. However, we have to make the priority scale on all the projects. The urgency of the projects needed by the world along with the sigificancy of the system to help solving the problems are two key indicators. Additionally, I used the TOWS (Threat, Opportunity, Weakness, Strength) Analysis also to strengthen the points of whether this project should be implemented soon or not.

    It seems only a simple flow to do, doesn’t it? But we frantically gather around many times in the lovely Electronical Engineering campus or conference and roups just to make sure that all the projects have been analyzed well. For example, we could do point 1 and 3 together easily. But then, when I have to do the point 2, I have to make sure that my partners have the resources of doing it. Therefore I kept on going to burden my Project Manager with many silly questions of measuring our team’s resources (like time, networking, etc). But finally, I could finish creating the proposals and recommendations towards the projects analyzed. Lets take a glance of it.

    1st Project: Citizen Journalism Online Through Video

    This project require a certain website in which you could just upload the video of any news in encouraging the citizen journalism. The website will declare itself as the website which publish the news from everyone, not just reporter or journalists. Since I am basically a journalist, it seems a little bit difficult to think that to maintain its integrity of publishing the right information as news publication, the video shall need many assessments from the Editorial Board before it is certified as “having the news variables” such as informative, unique, etc. Another limits come from the culture of Indonesian people who tend to lack of news curiousity. To upload such a video in a big capacity is also a difficulty.

    Therefore, this project is ELIMINATED.

    2nd Project: Book Rental Online

    Helping the people in rural areas to get the books is the aim of this project. Since it might be very expensive to get the real books, so this project will give the rental e-book online to the students there. The amount of the books available is limited and it uses a kind of virtual money to rent (virtual money is gained when we suggest the link to other people). However, the projects lack of comparability analysis. To get the purpose of giving the current and new books to the rural students, the publishers might need only to give several printed books as its CSR. The offering as feedback towards the publishers itself is not clearly defined. It could be a mean of promotions for others to buy the books. Yet, if it is rural students that it is aimed for, still they could not afford to buy such expensive books.

    Therefore, this project is ELIMINATED.

    3rd Project: Dealing Cimate Change for Agricultural Field

    The danger of the climate change causes the unpredictable rainfall and changing seasons (length and time of the seasons). It is an obstacle for the agricultural field in developing world which still uses the traditional way. Therefore, ways to deal with this is required. One of them is calculating water needed by the plants using the calculation of ETc (evapotranspiration crop). This calculation could measure the water needed by plants in each of its growth level concerning many factors involved, such as humidity, sunshine, temperature, windspeed, etc. While this kind of project would address the issue of food insecurity in which it helps the agriculture in irrigation scheduling, the other stakeholders, like local government, might be able to set policies to help the farmers grow the right plant on a certain period of time.

    Therefore, this project is ACCEPTED.

    This process requires such a very long time of endless revisions and discussions. However, this process could create a systematic proposal as a guideline for us to develop the system. This is the small step we have done, and another step is waiting to be finished. Thus, Ganbatte-ne! Or my Project Manager likes to say, Hwaiting!

    [Dwi Andi]

    499 Views, 1 Comment(s), Published on: 04-27-2011 13:48 by ninan to UGM Gadjah Mada
  • The Battle of Gadjah Mada Chapter 1 : There is No Smooth Path, Darling

    Gadjah Mada Team from Universitas Gadjah Mada

    That is the truth. And many people recognize it. That is why I will use the word “Nggetih” more often in this blog to give you the clear picture on how we are trying to manage all of troubles hampered along the way. Well, “Nggetih” is Javanese. For you who cannot understand Javanese, I will translae it in two most common language: Indonesia and English. In Indonesian, it means “Berdarah-darah”. In English, it means “Bloody Hell Struggling”!!!

    We were chosen by fate –yes, because our project manager might not choose me, but my friend, as the business analyst back then- and we started to discuss many things about the projects. Eventhough we knew the exact time we had until the deadline of 1st round submission, we still kept on going searching the best fundamental analysis for our projects. What kind of projects we had thought of will be revealed on Chapter 2: Choose The Project Fast, Dude!

    So then, I quite believe that we have formed an amazing team according to their strength and capabilities. Let me introduce you to the partners of Gadjah Mada Team from Universitas Gadjah Mada!

    Our Lovely-Moody-Sweety Project Manager, Ninan KaraNinan Kara (Project Manager)

    A student of Electrical Engineering Information Technology Batch 2007. She is a very perfectionist woman –sometimes she scared me a lot with many high expectations!- who cares to each of her partners. She is like a “Doraemon” in this team since she can almost do anything from thinking the current issue, helping with video making, designing the software, acquiring the data, monitoring and evaluating our works. It is really scary when it comes to her evaluation because you could predict 100% that your work should be added with something else. However, she carries the most burden in our team since she is the one who becomes the representative of the team on networking with the committee and the mentor. Since many things should be done on time while her partners has their own activities, sometimes she has to put herself in a very stressful period to remind them to submit everything on time. One fact that not everyone knows: she has also a scary symptom of stomachache.

    Our "Begadang-ers" Developer, Riza OktavianRiza Oktavian (Solution Architect)

    A student of Computer Science Batch 2007. He is very smart –superb!– on designing the architecture and also coding. That he has a very good logic flow makes him get the fundamental work on designing the architecture. Therefore, he often sleep for 2-3 hours only to get the program finished. Since he has lots of works outside this software to do, he rarely meets me at the beginning. But all the tasks given to him will be finished in the end. The most remembered scene from him after long-time-no-see-period is his complain of the video because he did not appear there! Therefore he has the compliment of being a narcist programmer. And one more of being a programmer with a very big appetite! Another facts that not everyone knows: he likes Kamen Rider so much (the movie of grashopper heroes from Japan) that he must have a break time when he is coding just to watch a ten-minutes of the movie.

    The Calmest Partner in Team, Fahim JatmikoFahim Jatmiko (Developer)

    A student of Electronical Engineering Information Technology Batch 2007. He is very wonderful in doing the coding, just like Riza. He helps Ninan also with the software designing and many matters regarding it. He is very good in doing debug. As in business analysis, he is the one who keeps the skepticism questions arise: how the system would be feasible? How the stakeholders involved will get the benefit? How we could get the complete data? Is it realy a good solution? And many more questions about the analysis. However, he is awarded as the calmest partner in Gadjah Mada Team. He is as busy as Riza with a little spare time to accompany other members to get the data or to discuss with experts. The facts that everyone might have known: he speaks on the phone on the same tone as he speaks to his friends.

    Dwi Andi Rohmatika (Business Analyst)

    A student of Accounting Batch 2007. She prefer to declare herself as the public relations partner than a business analyst indeed. She deals with the feasibility analysis of the ideas conveyed by each of partners. She is in charge for several matters, such as gaining the information and the stance of the issues in the world nowadays, writing the articles and making the video for publication purpose, arranging the proposal, and networking with media and other stakeholders. She works her best when it comes to deadline. She is the one who will be always “roaming” when the others talk about the programming and coding using the technical language. The facts that everyone might know: she is a “chatterbox” and often comes out with many unbelievable actions to do.

    They are involving in an unfinished story of Indonesian Youth who would like to give a slight contribution to their country and to the world. They think as big as they can to solve the MDG’s problem, they start doing from the small things by joining the Imagine Cup 2011, and they are doing the best they can right now!

    [Dwi Andi]

    367 Views, 0 Comment(s), Published on: 04-27-2011 11:54 by ninan to UGM Gadjah Mada
  • Gadjah Mada Team Profile

    Gadjah Mada, the national hero of Indonesia, had a lot of contribution for their fellows and country. He has a big influence to others. Until now, his name always be remembered by all people in our country. Gadjah Mada, also the name of top university in Asia, a well known university that everybody want to attend. After that, born a team called Gadjah Mada in Imagine Cup 2011 competition, that is ready to create enormous history for Indonesia and then the world.

    Gadjah Mada Team is established in October 2011. Ninan Kara as the founder and also Project Manager for this team. She found many talented person and expert in their field. Fahim Jatmiko, the first member to join. He has already worked as partner with Ninan since Imagine Cup 2010. His capability is amazing, could expert many technologies in short time. Then Riza Oktavian joined us. with his sophisticated mind and skill, he also has a big contribution to our team. The Last but not least, Dwi Andi as our Business Analyst came from different field from us, she is from Economic and Business Faculty. Her experiences is wonderful, wide knowledge, and her speaking ability is unbeatable. With this strong formula in Gadjah Mada’s foundation, we are trying to create innovation that could help the world solving the toughest problem facing us today.

    Here is Gadjah Mada Team

     

    Ninan Kara – Project Manager

    Ninan was a finalist in Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 in Egypt. Currently work as MSP UGM. She is a hardworking and broad-minded student who makes a great manager.

    riza Riza Oktavian – Solution Architect

    Riza is MSP from UGM. His programming skill is very incredible. He is very smart and mentoring computer olympiad. He has won a lot of programming competition

    fahim crop Fahim Jatmiko – Developer

    Fahim has a great skill of coding. He is a quiet guy but when it comes to developing he is incredibly serious and his works are undoubtedly excellent

    da Dwi Andi R – Business Analyst

    Dwi Andi has been involved in international events, such as DREaM International Summer School as Program Assurance. Her analytical thinking help her in solving business cases

    527 Views, 0 Comment(s), Published on: 04-25-2011 15:31 by ninan to UGM Gadjah Mada