IO, Surabaya – Water pollution in Indonesia is becoming more alarming. Accumulating plastic waste has discouraged tourists from going to the beach. Garbage and heavy metals along coastal areas impair the quality of ocean water, which in the long run can reduce fishermen’s income.
To confront this problem, two students of Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences at Airlangga University (Unair), Yolandha Sepiani Nurhanifah and Reza Istiqomatul Hidayah, came up with an innovative idea: an Ocean Cleanliness Detection Tool, based on Internet of Things (IoT) and Automatic Alarm as Controller of Water Environmental Conservation, abbreviated as ATLANTIS. This innovative idea won first place in Product Innovation Category for 2020 National Student Innovation and Creativity Festival at Khairun Ternate University.
“As students of fisheries and marine sciences, we are irritated by the problem of water pollution, so we came up with the idea to create a technology that can detect ocean cleanliness, based on the Internet of Things, with the product name ATLANTIS,” said Reza as the team leader, as quote from Unair.ac.id, Monday (4/1/2021).
Reza explained that ATLANTIS depends on the internet, using a digital camera to visualize the state of the sea, then records and sends signals to a microcontroller in the form of an Arduino UNO connected to an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) computer display, to detect plastic and heavy metal waste contained in open water.
Simultaneously, when the LCD displays data on sea water conditions, there is an automatic alarm that will sound and light up, according to the level. “Green for normal, yellow for alert, and red for danger,” said the Aquaculture student from the class of 2017.
The green, yellow and red lights have tolerance limits or thresholds in the waters. So, an alarm will sound every 30 days in order to monitor the condition of sea waters.
She encouraged other students to start new projects and explore nature more. “Let’s be sensitive to the local environment. If not now, then when? If not us, then who?” she concluded. (*/est)