Head of Integrated Research and Testing Laboratory (LPPT) UGM, Tri Joko Raharjo, Ph.D., encouraged members of faculties and students to use sophisticated laboratory equipment owned by LPPT to support their research purposes. Because, currently the laboratory tools are more widely used by outsiders. "More than 50 percent of the services that we do is for external party," said Tri Joko Raharjo in a talk show entitled "Mengenal Lebih Dekat LPPT” (Getting to Know More about LPPT) as one of series of activities at the UGM Expo Grha Sabha Pramana, Wednesday (21/9).
According to Tri Joko, every year there are 300 researchers who regularly utilize LPPT UGM to support their research activities. According to the man, with the number of UGM students reaching tens of thousands, there should have been more than 1,000 researchers who use the service of LPPT. While annually research and testing services from outside of UGM reaches 1600, coming from government agencies and private agencies. "We want to reach 1,000 researchers from the UGM itself," he said.
To increase the number of researchers, said Tri Joko, LPPT is trying to socialize free service for undergraduate students for 6 months. While free service for master is for 1 year and for doctoral degree is for 2 years. "To be able to use the tool, students need to register through their UGM website account," he said.
Additionally, LPPT UGM cooperates with 14 laboratories at the faculty level to work together. This was done to complement the equipment needs at the faculty level laboratories. "We've been affiliated with 14 laboratories with the latest collaboration being the archeology lab," he said.
For lecturers and researchers, LPPT also facilitates the activity of research groups such as group research in halal food products, satellite technology, and volcanoes to increase the amount of research and publications of UGM. LPPT currently has hundreds of sophisticated laboratory tools for service activities of testing, calibration, research cooperation. In fact, LPPT is also equipped with basic equipment for research in molecular biology, such as PCR, RT-PCR and DNA sequencer as well as various equipment for separation and molecular characterization purposes. "There are some tools that can be used for DNA testing, forensic testing, and we are even developing a tool to test Zika virus," he said.
LPPT Secretary, Dr. Kuwat Triyana, M.Sc., said that the use of laboratory tools for students, faculty and the outside community remains charged due to maintenance purposes which is high cost.
Although equipped with sophisticated equipment, Kuwat admitted that to do sample test, it needs 1.5 hours. "Frequently, there are researchers who sent 30 samples at a time so that these can be done in a few days," he said.
Sample test was conducted by following a schedule of working hours at LPPT. According to the man, in the future LPPT could eventually serve up to 24 hours a day so that each researcher could use the tools. This would happen if the number of researches and researchers is increasing.