Diponegoro University (Undip) begins a research collaboration with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) which is the best university in the world, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The United States. This research collaboration is part of MIT-Indonesia Research Alliance (MIRA) research collaboration program which began in mid-2019 supported by the Ministry of Research and Technology / National Agency for Research and Innovation (Kemenristek/BRIN), Department of Education and Culture (Depdikbud), and Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan) which aims to build the fundamentals of research ecosystem in state universities (Perguruan Tinggi Negeri) in Indonesia.
According to the person in charge (PIC) of MIRA Undip, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ambariyanto, M.Sc, who is also Undip Vice Rector for Research and Innovation, there are six main researchers and other research members from Undip who have the opportunity to participate in MIRA program with the theme of research: sustainable energy which is including advanced materials and transportation, environment including disaster monitoring and mitigation, and also food and health. As PIC of MIRA Undip, Prof. Ambariyanto had the opportunity to take part in Executive Leadership Training program at MIT in 2019 with the theme Creating High Velocity Organization.
There have been six Undip researchers, who have met professor partners at MIT in December 2019. In the next project, there will be several MIT professors visit Undip in 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, the current collaboration is carried out by Undip research team through regular meetings virtually every week with MIT research team.
Of the six researchers, two researchers have obtained research partners from MIT and have received a seed fund. In implementing this MIRA program, Undip has to collaborate with several other researchers from other legal entity state universities. For example, in the food and health sector, the research partners are Prof. Anthony J. Sinskey of Biology Department of MIT with Prof. Ir. Retno Murwani, M.Sc., M.App.Sc., Ph.D., from Faculty of Animal and Agriculture Sciences Undip, as research coordinator (lead researchers) and the research members are from University of Indonesia, IPB University, and Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, in the field of environmental monitoring and disaster mitigation, the research partners are Professor Danielle Wood, Director of Space Enabled Lab of MIT, Multi Media Lab with Joga Dharma Setiawan, Ph.D from Faculty of Engineering Undip. They have role as lead researchers with the team members from Bandung Institute of Technology, Padjadjaran University, and IPB University.
Furthermore, Prof. Ambariyanto said that by the end of 2020, Undip and MIT research team in the MIRA program is expected to submit research proposals to continue research collaborations carried out in 2021-2023.
