UNDIP, Semarang (3/5) – The competition held on 10-11 April 2026 by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at the Institut Teknologi Bandung raised the theme “Building High-Value Health Systems: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence” and was attended by hundreds of participants from various backgrounds, ranging from college students to international academics.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration between students of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics (FSM) and the Faculty of Medicine (FK) of Universitas Diponegoro again made a brilliant achievement on the international stage. Five UNDIP students consisting of three undergraduate students of Informatics and two undergraduate students of Nursing Sciences at UNDIP won 1st place in the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL) Hackathon 2026-Bandung Hub.
In the FSM Inspires Episode 2 interview, three Informatics students who joined the collaboration, namely Haidar Ali Laudza (Project Leader & AI Engineer), Julius Tegar Aji Putra (AI Engineer), and Muhammad Fikri (Back-end Developer), shared the story behind the achievement.
Muhammad Fikri explained that this competition focuses on developing artificial intelligence-based solutions to answer global health problems. “This competition integrates AI into the health system, so it’s more about finding new ideas to solve existing health problems around the world,” he explained.
The success of winning 1st Place was an unexpected experience for them. Fikri revealed that this achievement was a proud and challenging moment. “This is quite a surprise for us, because for the first time we were able to qualify for an international competition. We also hope that in the future we can give even better at the global level,” he said.
Meanwhile, Haider Ali Laudza recounted their unusual journey. He mentioned that the registration process was carried out only about an hour before the deadline. From there, they brainstormed quickly until they found the ideas related to handling snake bites. The idea was then developed in more depth by involving experts in their fields.
“We tried to contact the relevant expert doctors and elaborate ideas with all the resources we had. From there we could qualify for the final, enter the Top 8, and finally win 1st place,” said Haidar.
The process is certainly inseparable from various challenges. Julius Tegar Aji Putra highlighted that the biggest challenge is to ensure that the ideas developed are truly relevant to the needs in the real world. To overcome it, they conducted direct validation with experts and built a structured work system in the group.
“With different backgrounds, we align their respective main focus so that they don’t run independently. That’s where collaboration becomes the main key,” explained Julius.
He also added that the support of academic environment at UNDIP also played a major role in this achievement. According to him, the supervisor and the facilities provided help in developing ideas up to the competition stage. “The environment in FSM UNDIP is very appreciative, lecturers also guide it optimally, even in terms of funding it is also very helpful,” he added.
In closing, Haidar shared a message for students who want to take part in a similar competition. He emphasized the importance of courage to start. “The most important thing is to register first. By taking the opportunity, we can strive for the best of what we have,” he said. He also reminded students not to hesitate to try and continue to struggle in achieving achievements.
For this achievement, they will continue their struggle as representatives of Indonesia at the global level, competing with participants from various countries. This achievement shows that cross-disciplinary collaboration between technology and health is able to produce innovations that have a wide impact at the international level. (Public Communication/ FSM/ Meilia ed. Nurul.)