HUMAS USU - Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) won 3rd place equivalent to Bronze in the poster category from the Student Creativity Program (program Kreativitas Mahasiswa - PKM) Exact Research (RE) team, then two favorite winners from the presentation category each by the PKM-K (Entrepreneurship) team, and PKM-KI (Innovative Creations) at the 35th National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS) event held at Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). The competition was held from November 30, 2022 to December 3, 2022.

PIMNAS is an annual event in the form of a national summit activity to express students' creativity and scientific reasoning. PIMNAS is attended by students or a group of students who have been selected through a series of selections. At the 35th PIMNAS, USU had delegation of 8 teams consisting of PKM 8 fields, including Exact Research, Entrepreneurship, Community Service, Social Humanities, Creative Work, Application of Science and Technology, Innovative Creations, and Video Construction Ideas.

The Chairperson of USU PKM Center Ir. Erni Misran ST., MT., Ph.D said that the achievements of USU PKM team had gone through a long process. USU students competed with 7000 proposals throughout Indonesia. USU itself is in cluster 2 in the PKM ranking thus only limited to sending 250 proposals. USU PKM team itself has started since last March after the PKM Center had been officially launched by USU Rector Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos., M.Si on (02/02/2022).

"So we are competing with 7000 proposals throughout Indonesia. There are 30 proposals consisting of 8 schemes from 250. Then the students work according to the proposal scheme in 3-4 months," Erni explained when interviewed at the PKM Center on (07/12/2022)

Based on the information from Erni Misran ST, MT, Ph.D, the team of USU who successfully passed the PIMNAS event was quarantined and provided with guidance, PKP (PKM Progress Assessment) simulation, and journal reviews.

To anticipate the PIMNAS event in the following years, the Head of PKM Center admitted that he wanted to launch a better program, one of which was to prepare students in terms of materials.

Dinda Andaru Wirsa, a Dentistry student batch 2018 who triumphed with her team, “Nano Hydroxyapatite”, won 3rd place, equivalent to bronze in the poster category of the Exact Research field. Dinda and her team produced an innovation to strengthen tooth-filling materials. Meanwhile, the team led by Disty Ratna Marisya, a 2019 Mathematics undergraduate student, won the category favourite in the presentation category of the Innovative Work field, creating an innovation in the form of orthotic fish feeding technology called "SMARTPOND". Muhammad Faldhy Maliki, a 2019 Biology undergraduate student from the field of Entrepreneurship with his team, made a product called "THOFUKE", which is milk produced from tofu pulp.

With several achievements made at the 35th PIMNAS, Dinda hopes that for the upcoming PIMNAS, USU can win more titles and send more teams.

“Hopefully, in the future USU can win more titles, not to lose compared to other universities," said Dinda.

They also invited USU students to participate in PIMNAS. In line with this, Disty said many things were a shame to miss if you did not participate in PIMNAS. According to him, participating in this event, besides being able to write scientific papers, also helps him hone soft skills such as time management, controlling emotions, teamwork, and others.

"Here we learned time management, learned to control emotions, learned about team working, yes, to be working together with the team, then we are also really supported in terms of expenses, also in terms of assistance, we just need to be determined to become young innovators who are recognized by the nation," said Disty.

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Irsan Mulyadi - Humas