Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) students won the first place award in the recently concluded 2018 UNESCO-UNITWIN ICT & Leadership Advanced Workshop and International Competition.
It was held in South Korea last 10 to 15 December 2018.
According to a recent report, 39 students coming from different universities such as UGM, Life University, Royal University of Phnom Penh, National University of Laos, and Souphanouvong University participated in the event.
The competition was organised by South Korea’s Sookmyung Women’s University and Asia Pacific Women’s Information Network Centre (APWINC) UNESCO-UNITWIN program, in cooperation with the University’s Centre for Women’s Studies.
In addition, the event was funded by South Korea’s Ministry of Education.
The team won because they have developed a prototype of the innovative technology called HER, which was installed with an Arduino kit.
Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. User can tell the board what to do by sending a set of microcontroller on the board.
HER is a helper bracelet intended for the female migrant workers. It was designed to assist migrant workers in the domestic sector, who are vulnerable to abuse and harassment.
The prototype was developed because of the rampant fatalities and injustices inflicted upon Indonesian migrant workers abroad.
Hopefully, the idea and design could be developed further in order to improve women empowerment in developing countries.
Moreover, this can inspire countries to be in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 5 , which is Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goal 8, which is Decent Work and Economic Growth.
Aside from the competition, the participants received training from experts in the fields of ICT and leadership.
Furthermore, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Amazon office in South Korea, learn more about Korean culture, participate in making traditional bracelets, and enjoy a musical show.
The participants were asked to share their ideas on women empowerment through the use of ICT in different aspects such as government, school, family, individual, and community levels.
Meanwhile, as many as 80 UGM students have been selected to participate in capacity training for women on ICT and leadership.
The event is being held at the University, from 7 to 11 January 2019, almost a month after the event in South Korea.
According to a recent report, the training aims to increase the knowledge, interest and capacity of the students on the said topics.
The participants are divided into small groups and are given training on Arduino and Cloud Computing.
At the end of the training, each team is required to present their ideas on the topics discussed.
The best team will earn an opportunity to take part in the training in South Korea, which will last for one week at the end of this year.