SEMARANG – The Diponegoro University (UNDIP) Vocational School Team succeeded in creating a sea water distillation tool with corn cobs. The team, which is named Dipo Adinata, from Vocational School Study Program Associate of Applied Civil Infrastructure Engineering and Architectural Design, won 1st place at the National Level in Ecovillage Design Competition 2020 organized by IPB University.
In this competition, the Jury even gave great appreciation and determined it to be the best work of Ecovillage Design 2020. The Head of Vocational School Study Program of Civil Infrastructure Engineering and Architectural Design UNDIP, Asri Nurdiana, S.T., M.T., admitted that she was grateful for this achievement.
She stated that the university always encourages the enthusiasm of vocational students to take part in competitions both at national and international levels, to increase their creativity and innovation. This is a form of development pattern in vocational education programs.
“Alhamdulillah, from our participation, some of them received awards. Recently we won first place in the Ecovillage Design Competition 2020,” said Asri Nurdiana, recently.
According to Asri, the Dipo Adinata Team consisted of Rizky Amelia Saptri Lay (D3 Civil Engineering 2018), Rifqy Anggoro Senoputro (D3 Civil Engineering 2018), and Tiara Retno Dewanti (D4 Civil Engineering and Architecture UNDIP 2019). “They won first place in a design competition held by IPB on August 25th 2020,” she stated.
Dipo Adinata Team’s idea is entitled “Desagel: Distillation of Sea Water Using Corn Cobs Waste as Hydrogel with a Fast, Economical, and Environmentally Friendly Process”. Apart from being literature based, this idea is also tested with real conditions so that it has relevance. This research is supervised by Riza Susanti, S.T., M.T.
The Ecovillage Design which is a national competition as a part of series of ICEF 2020 held by IPB University, held with the theme “Cheap Technology for Providing Clean Water to Coastal Communities”. The Ecovillage concept requires clean water supply technology that is cheap, but meets other aspects such as ecological, social, cultural, and economic aspects.
As an illustration, Desagel Technology is a distillation concept designed in the form of a pyramid, where there is a solar panel on the right and left to distribute solar energy which is then accommodated in the battery. There are several tools used, from electric stoves, lamps, fans, and others.
As for the steps, the electric stove serves as a heater; lamps, fans, and hydrogels made from corn cobs waste are used to accelerate evaporation. With this technology, it is easy for coastal communities to fulfill the needs of clean water.
