Six students of the Informatics Department of Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana (UKDW) Yogyakarta have completed Bangkit Program 2021 – a program conceived by the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia and some leading companies in Indonesia including Google, Gojek Tokopedia, and Traveloka. This program is one of the efforts to push higher education institutions in implementing the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) Program, where students can learn directly in a working environment, guided by mentors from various companies who are competent in their fields.
In this program, around 3000 selected students take part in an eighteen-week learning experience from February 2021 to June 2021. This year, Bangkit Program offered three tracks, which were Machine Learning, Android Development, and Cloud Computing. In addition to honing their soft skills, students who participated in this program also got the opportunity to take certification tests for the offered tracks: Tensorflow Developer Certificate, Associate Android Developer Certification, and Associate Cloud Engineer Certification.
The six UKDW students who joined the program were Jesslyn Septhia, Hezkiel Rivaldo Siregar, Ebentera Santosa, Desendo Imanuel, Nafarel Triyoga Maskuncoro, and Stevani Dwi Utomo. Bangkit Program allows students to earn 20 credits upon completing this program. Best participants will also get a chance to participate in University Innovation Program from Stanford University.
Jesslyn Septhia, one of the participants said that one of the benefits of joining Bangkit Program is the opportunity to work in a leading company in Indonesia. In this program, Jesslyn took the machine learning subject where she learned deeper on the use of Tensorflow and Python programming language.
“Of course there are challenges during this program, especially in time management, as we were required to complete the course in one month, which was usually done in one year. It surely needed greater responsibility, especially to complete the final project. Since our team members came from different regions and universities, we had to be able to manage time well to meet the assignment deadline. Moreover, as the team leader, I needed to create a conducive atmosphere so all members could mingle and not feeling awkward,” she explained.
In their final project, Jesslyn and her team agreed to develop an application about mental health, focusing on the handling of Post Traumatic Stressed Disorder (PTSD). “We conducted a survey and found out that many people still find it hard to be open about their personal problem because they are afraid to be scorned or being gossiped. We believe that trauma, if not treated well will result in a more serious problem. In the process of developing this application, we work together with three experienced psychologists. This application is expected to help students and people in Indonesia in dealing with trauma as well as mental health,” she concluded.