Diponegoro University (Undip) students have made another proud achievement. One of them is Nazilatul Hidayah, a D4 student in Civil Infrastructure Engineering and Architecture Design who won third place in the Diploma category in the 2022 Outstanding Students Election (Pilmapres).
At the peak of the award ceremony which was held on Saturday (01/10) at the University of Indonesia, Nazilatul managed to come out as the third winner with a scientific research entitled “Utilization of Styrofoam Waste and Rice Husk Ash as Core Sandwich Panel Wall Prefabricated Building Simple Buildings for Empowering Community Management Waste in Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals”.
“For the Diploma, it’s more about innovative products and because my education background is civil engineering, I’m interested in making Sandwich Panels with the inside filling made from Styrofoam waste and rice husk ash. Later it can be used for simple building walls or Prefabricated Buildings.” he explained.
The student who is usually called Nazil, said that the Sandwich Panel she made was different from the existing Sandwich Panels. “For sandwich panels that have existed, the filling is made of full styrofoam but its strength is worse than sandwich panels which are filled with lightweight concrete, but the price is more affordable. And for sandwich panels which are filled with lightweight concrete, the strength is better but the price is more expensive. For sandwich panels, my innovative product is of better quality at a more affordable price.” said Nazil.
According to Nazil, styrofoam was used to reduce noise and keep the room temperature stable, while rice husk ash was chosen as a substitute for cement.
Nazil encountered various obstacles in making this innovative product, but that did not dampen Nazil’s enthusiasm. “The obstacles I face are when I conduct tests on the product. Starting from just an idea, we need to check the results of the product, for example how much its strength, how to test, and what the exact composition is. So it takes quite a long time to determine the right composition.” Nazil explained.
“When the composition is known, the process of making and testing this product takes approximately two weeks.” she continued.
In addition, Nazil is also actively involved in various research and social organizations. “I was active in the youth mosque, active in the Research Bureau of the Department of Civil Infrastructure Engineering, as well as actively participating in the Pelangi Ceria education community and the Lingkar Cendekia reasoning community.” said Nazil.
Furthermore, she invited other students to not be afraid and hesitant to start something. “Just believe if we dare to try we have a 50% chance of success and 50% of failure, but if we don’t dare start we will have a 100% chance of failure.” she concluded.
