Public Relations USU - The Industrial Engineering Study Program of the Faculty of Engineering (FT) of Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) held the 15th Product Design Competition (PDC) 2025. The activity took place at the Digital Learning Center Building (DLCB) USU, on Wednesday (21/05/2025).

The annual event, now in its 15th year, has the theme “Sustainable Design, Pathway to Greener Economy.” It is a forum for students to develop innovative products that are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

USU Rector, Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos, M.Si., said this theme emphasizes the importance of innovation and downstreaming in economic development. He highlighted Indonesia's lagging position in this regard, so students need to start developing an innovative mindset in managing natural resources. Competition is considered a step toward building a culture of innovation among the younger generation for the nation's progress.

"There is a term forward-looking, namely countries with higher innovation and hirilization values. Indonesia at the ASEAN level is fourth from the bottom. If this kind of activity starts from students, to keep thinking about managing natural resources, our domestic products will be stronger. The substance of this product competition is that we train innovation to be important in our country," said Prof. Mury.

Furthermore, the Rector said that the university has the responsibility to disseminate student work from this competition to the community. He emphasized that the university will facilitate new ideas that arise, as long as the output is clear and can be accounted for.

"The university has the responsibility to be able to convey the results of student products from this competition to the public. The university facilitates, for example, if there is a new idea from this competition, we can facilitate it as long as the output can be accounted for," he added.

In line with that, the Dean of FT USU, Prof. Dr. Ir. Fahmi, S.T., M.Sc., IPM hopes that the products produced by the participants can make a real contribution in solving societal problems. He also encouraged collaboration across study programs and faculties which is considered important in the current industrial era.

"These products are expected to make a real contribution to solving societal problems. In the future, how will this competition involve other study programs in FT or other faculties? In this industrial era, collaboration is one of the keys," he said.

The 15th PDC 2025 activities include English Debate, a class-level product design competition attended by students of Batch 2023 of the FT USU Industrial Engineering Study Program, and the International Product Design Competition, which features participants from various universities. The awarding session will be held the following day on the agenda of the National Conference Industrial Engineering (NCIE).

Ikhsan Siregar, S.T., M.Eng, as the event coordinator, revealed that this competition started from project-based learning in the classroom to become an international event. This year, 10 international finalists and 40 products from three classes were displayed. He hopes that these products can be further refined.

"It's been 15 years since this event took place. Initially it started as a class until it finally became an international event like this. In addition to the 10 finalists of the international program, we have also carried out 40 products from 3 classes. We want the products to be improved by the faculty and the university," he said.

Committee Chairperson for this event, Dea Marcella explained that this competition was presented as a forum to encourage the creation of solutions that are not only innovative, but also environmentally friendly and sustainable. She hopes this annual event can continue and continue to develop for the better from year to year.

"We are encouraged to continue to be creative and develop innovative products. With that spirit, we present a competition that invites participants to create innovative solutions that are also environmentally friendly and sustainable. I hope it can continue and be upgraded even more," he said.