Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana (UKDW)’ commitment for excellence was evident through its active participation in the annual ASEAN-CHINA Association for Private Higher Education Institution (ACAPHEI) forum held in Sanya, Hainan, China on December 5-6, 2023. This marked the third edition of the ACAPHEI forum, which had previously been conducted online twice. The theme of this offline event was ‘New Trends, New Partnership, New Pattern – Deeper Integration of Higher Education Community Leading to Synergic Innovation.’
Supported by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO RIHED), the forum was attended by officials from Hainan Province, the Mayor of Sanya and his team, the Director of SEAMEO RIHED, as well as rectors, vice rectors, deans, and representatives from the International Affairs Office of participating universities. Lecturers and students engaged in student mobility activities and joint research were also present.
During the forum, Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and Implementation Agreements (IA) were signed between ACAPHEI member universities. UKDW’s Faculty of Information Technology (FTI), which has been involved in online student exchanges, signed an IA with Guangzi University, China, and STI Myanmar. FTI UKDW also intends to collaborate on joint research with the Faculty of Science and Technology at Guangzi University.
FTI UKDW’s active involvement was highlighted by Restyandito, S.Kom., MSIS., Ph.D., the Dean of FTI, who served as one of the speakers for the Round Table Discussion. He emphasized the Independent Learning Campus (MBKM) policy, promoting autonomy, innovation, internationalization of HEIs, and industry cooperation.
Dr. phil. Lucia D. Krisnawati, a lecturer in the Informatics Departments at UKDW, presented a report on AI lectures as part of the AI subject consortium. She advocated for asynchronous online lectures due to differing semester schedules among collaborating universities, emphasizing the development of student independence in learning.
Lucia also discussed the use of Xin Wei as an online teaching platform, aiming to facilitate synchronous interactions between students and lecturers for an improved learning experience.
Two UKDW students majoring in Informatics, showcased their work at the forum. Kevin Christian Sepoetro demonstrated AI’s role in designing art and converting sentence context into visual or video art. Yeheskiel Yunus Tame, a taekwondo athlete, shared his plans to apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) to preserve the Toraja language digitally, his native tongue. [FTI.LDK/Eng.gloria_ed.drr]