Another achievement has been attained by students of UGM. This time, the achievement is presented by Ahmad Rois Mansur, student of Faculty of Animal Science, Animal Science and Industry study program class of 2007. In early October, Rois and his team which consists of several students from foreign universities became the second winner in the second SATU Business Plan Competition. Rois is the only UGM student who took part in the championship. Several students from Indonesia from the UI, ITB, IPB, and Airlangga also participated in the competition.
The competition is organized by the university Presidents’ Forum, the forum of cooperation between major universities in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Taiwan. The event was held from September 27 to October 1, 2010 in National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan.
According to Rois, the competition was attended by 36 participants from seven countries or from major universities in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Taiwan. During the competition, participants were grouped into teams, each consisting of six people. "Each team works together within 2 days to create an innovative business plan with the theme “Building Towards a Sustainable Future," Rois said on Monday (1/11).
After creating a business plan, they presented it before the jury. Criteria covered, among others, innovation, timeliness, and clarity of presentation, feasibility, product’s quality, services or solutions, market potential, the attractiveness of the business, teamwork, and precision to answer the questions of the jury. "Each group was consisting of a mixture of fields and program levels," he explained.
Before presenting the business plan, each student expressed their ideas, including his writing on the use of egg shell for chicken mineral feed. The group by the name of Green Star raised the theme proposed by a student from the University of Malaya on software engineering, MyNet project. The concept discussed much about the use of software for social networks. With the software, the Internet network, for example, could be performed from the neighborhood to the state level.
To complement it, a CCTV was installed in the software. This way, parents can see if their son was already home from school or not. They can even remotely turn off the water tap automatically with this software. "So, it is useful and positive in terms of social and environmental aspects," said Rois.
Another team member of his group came from the University of Delhi, Mahidol University, National Taiwan University, University of Malaya, and the University of Airlangga.
This year competition is the second so it is called 2nd SATU Student Business Plan Competition 2010. The participants were students of the S-1 (Bachelor degree) to S-3 (Doctoral degree), with the aim of providing experience for all participating students through cooperation (team work) in the manufacture of innovative business plan.
Rois admited, 2nd SATU Student Business Plan Competition 2010 is useful to improve the capability and cooperation (team work) of participants, to increase knowledge about the creative, innovative, and environmentally friendly business, improve communication skills in English, and expand relations in the international sphere.
As second place winner in this competition, Rois and his group were entitled to trophies, medals, certificates, and some money prize.