USU PR - A total of 3,126 students who are members of 735 teams from 108 universities throughout Indonesia are ready to compete in the 34th National Student Science Week (PIMNAS) Universitas Sumatra Utara (USU) which will be held in a hybrid manner, October 27-28, 2021.

Acting Head of the National Achievement Center, Asep Sukmayadi, SIP, M.Si., said the PIMNAS event was a competition event to find outstanding students with scientific innovations.

“This PIMNAS is one of the agendas of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology under an institution called the National Achievement Center (Puspresnas). This year, we have held 18 competitions ranging from elementary school to student levels, this PIMNAS is one of the largest," said Asep at the USU 34th PIMNAS press conference accompanied by USU Rector Dr. Muryanto Amin and Vice Rector I who is also the General Chair of PIMNAS USU Dr. Edy Ikhsan, MA, Tuesday (10/26/2021).

Asep explained that the competition program from elementary school to university level was a catalyst to maintain the enthusiasm of learning for Indonesian children. Therefore, even in the midst of a pandemic, this competition program is still run with a hybrid mechanism.

"We really appreciate the USU party who is the host by trying their best to carry out the PIMNAS event and hopefully this activity will run smoothly until the closing," he said.

The Acting Head of Puspresnas emphasized that his party has now designed a database and mapping scheme for the PIMNAS participants, so that those who succeed in becoming champions of their work will be curated and followed up for the downstream process.

"Puspresnas also continues to coordinate with the National Innovation Research Agency (BRIN) to support research and innovation from students and students who have won competitions from Puspresnas," he said.

In the mapping carried out, Asep explained, his party had divided the competition into four clusters. The first cluster is science and technology, the second cluster is arts and culture, the third cluster is vocational and management and the fourth cluster is sports.

“By mapping these clusters, we can see which of the 3,126 students who competed were strong, what their strengths were and what should be done to support their research results. This is what we are building and trying to do, so we continue to collaborate with universities, BRIN and schools," he said.

USU Rector Dr. Muryanto Amin explained that USU had made every effort to hold the 34th PIMNAS; starting from facilities, internet capabilities and capacity, electric power, promotions and accommodation.

The Rector hopes that all the facilities provided by USU will be able to support student competitions as well as possible and create the principle of sportsmanship. "The media crew is also given a special room to monitor the course of the competition and the judging process so that if there is a fraud, it can be directly recorded and processed," he said.

Mury hopes that the 34th PIMNAS event at USU will be able to produce outstanding young talents with works that are able to answer problems in the community. "Hopefully this PIMNAS event can contribute to building the nation and state," he said.

Chairman of USU's 34th PIMNAS, Dr. Edy Ikhsan, MA added, there are nine categories that will be competed in PIMNAS this year. "They are PKM-Constructive Futuristic Ideas, PKM-Written Ideas, PKM-Entrepreneurship, PKM-Karsa Cipta, PKM-Innovative Works, PKM-Iptek Application, PKM-Community Service, PKM-Science Research and PKM-Social Research," he said.

Edy said that the participants of the competition were present via a network (online) whose facilities were centralized in two places with 35 classes; 18 in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology Systems, while 17 classes are in the Faculty of Dentistry.

“There are 98 national judges who have been present outside the network and are already in Medan, while 9 others are present online. PIMNAS financing this year collaborates between USU and Puspresnas with a financing mechanism of 60-40 percent," he said.

Edy Ikhsan said that the PIMNAS series at USU will be held from October 25 to October 30, 2021. Beginning with a Friendly Gathering Night on October 25, 2021 at the Maimun Palace, followed by the Opening Ceremony on October 26, 2021, the competition process, judging and poster exhibition 27-24. October 28, 2021.

Then on October 29, 2021, a public lecture was held by one of the ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet and continued in the evening the closing ceremony. On October 30, 2021, the judges and delegates from the ministry returned to their respective homes.

The press conference, which was led by the Head of Public Relations, Protocol and Promotion, Amalia Meutia, the MPsi Psychologist, went warmly. USU's partner journalists were very enthusiastic about participating in the question and answer process and closed with a photo with the USU Leaders and the Acting Head of Puspresnas. (©ULC)

Author: Bambang Riyanto - PR

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Amri Simatupang - PR