Geological Engineering Department of UGM in collaboration with Faculty of Geo-Resources and Materials Engineering, RWTH Aachen, Germany, established a modern geology laboratory named as Laboratorium Get-In CICERO. The lab worth IDR13 billion was installed on Monday (9/4) by representatives from both universities.
“Currently, the laboratory is established for research in 4 clusters, namely environment and water, sustainable geo-resources, geohazards and coastal risk, and energy and raw material efficiency,” said Dean of Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering RWTH, Prof. Axel Preusse.
The name of Get-In CICERO stands for German Indonesian Geo-Campus in Indonesia for Competence in Education and Research for Organizations, which is a joint research campus at UGM. It started with signing of the agreement between the two parties, done on 14 November 2017 that would last for five years. Funding is from Germany Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
Preusse described that previously Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering had made collaborations with university partners and governments. After visits to Asia, he said UGM was assessed as one that was important to develop research with in geology studies in the country.
He hoped with the Get-In CICERO lab, UGM and RWTH would continue to make collaborations and develop research that is beneficial to both parties.
“We saw UGM as an ideal partner to develop research that can help build Indonesia. I hope there would be much progress to achieve in the near future that can benefit both Indonesia and Germany,” said Preusse.
Dean of UGM Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Nizam, said the lab inauguration was a stepping stone for the mutual collaborations. One important point of Get-In CICERO joint research campus at UGM is the provision of laboratory that is equipped with tools and instruments that adopt reliable technology as well as portable devices for research and observation on the field.
“We can resolve many problems together. I hope Get-In CICERO can be the research centre that can give solutions to society,” said Nizam.
The lab is equipped with X-Ray Spectrometer to analyse elements from Sodium to Uranium, Inductar to analyse carbon, sulphur, and polarised microscope to analyse petrography study, geothermal and mineralogy, and 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanner for geohazard research. There is also Soli TOC to analyse organic and non-norganic carbon in the samples, which is the first to be used in Asia. In total, there are 9 lab instruments having been transported from Germany to the Get-In CICERO lab.
Other events in the collaborations include international workshop and summer school for German students to study together with their counterparts from UGM at GetIn-CICERO Campus, and also lab based research as well as collaborations between researchers and students, practitioners, and policy makers.