IO, Solo – Good news came from the Study Program of Building Engineering Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sebelas Maret University (UNS), Surakarta, Central Java. The team, consisting of Yuniar Amalia, Luluk Hanifah, and Nabila Khairuni won 2nd runner-up in the National Scientific Writing Competition (LKTIN), The 3rd Diploma Civil Scientific Competition, on 12 August. The competition was held online by the Vocational School, Civil Engineering Diploma Research Group, Diponegoro University (Undip), Semarang.
Yuniar came from a 2018 class, while Luluk Hanifah and Nabila Khairuni are 2017 class graduates. The three of them did not expect to win when they were interviewed by uns.ac.id, Sunday (8/23/2020). “We were not expecting to enter the final round; all of this cannot be separated from the guidance of seniors and supervisors. Moreover, it is our first time participating in a national competition. We are very grateful to have the experience of competing with students from other universities,” said Yuniar, the team leader.
The 5th-semester student said that his team brought up the idea of an Earthquake Power Plant (PLTGB). “Indonesia has the potential of turning earthquake vibrations into electricity, through PLTGB. One of the techniques that can be used for the process of converting earthquake vibration energy into electrical energy is with piezoelectric materials, which have the advantage of being stable in energy and do not require external power, so that their utilization will generate large profits,” he explained.
The principle of applying PLTGB will be carried out in two periods, namely, the period during an earthquake and the period outside the earthquake to store energy reserves. “The construction of PLTGB material is planted under the highway at 5 meters near a zebra crossing which will be built with bumps. During an earthquake, the material will work as in principle, but even in quiescent times earthquake period when a vehicle stops, it can exert mechanical stress on the piezoelectric which can generate electric current.”
The competition started online last October. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was later postponed to August 2020. Participants consisted of 28 teams from various universities in Indonesia; only five finalists were entitled to make a presentation of the work.
Yuniar hopes that this achievement can spur his team to be more active in honing soft and hard skills that can be useful in the future. “Currently we have entered the 4.0 industrial revolution, with a very tight level of competition, not only in entering higher education, but also in the world of work, business, and other aspects,” said Yuniar. (est)