"UGM is always optimistic, especially for the Indonesian and Indonesian Intelligent Robot contest in Malang," said Director of Student Affairs of UGM, Drs. Haryanto, M.Si, giving a speech at the ceremony to release the team. The event took place in Grha Sabha Pramana on Thursday (06/10/2010).
Haryanto who is in charge of the team added that to win national championships, the important thing is their mental attittude. Previous experiences showed that mentality helped achieve success. "In the past championship, some students were stressed out and lose appetite. They should be mentally ready for this championship," he said expressing his hope.
UGM robot team has the burden in the upcoming event. Previously, Prof. Ir. Tri Suryo Hapsoro Utomo, Ph.D., Director of Research and Community Service of Higher Education Board, has asked them to win the contest and represent Indonesia in the ABU-ROBOCON 2010 event in Cairo, Egypt. "These are a hard thing to do, so we have to be serious and keep the spirit to win and become Indonesia's representative in the world robot contest in Cairo," Haryanto added.
Vice Rector of Alumni and Business Development, Prof. Ir. Atyanto Dharoko, M. Phil., Ph.D., at the ceremony said that UGM students continued to make achievements from year to year, both nationally and internationally. He expected the UGM team to unite and synergize the potentials because they come from several different faculties, such as the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. "Synergizing science and ability from different disciplines is a must to enable the robot to win," he said.
Separately, chairman of the team, also student of Mechanical Engineering class of 2008, Frandi Hutomo Ardhi, said that they were ready in terms of technical, mechanical, and electronic matters. "The team is ready and we are optimistic that we can represent Indonesia in the world robot contest as well as Intelligent robots on Robogames in San Francisco , U.S., in 2011," said Frandi.
For the contest in Malang, UGM will send the Garuda Robot (Indonesian robot), Iron Fire (wheeled robot), Grafika 02 (legged robot), Gerry (Battle robot), and Gadjah Made (artistic robot). The total number of students involved is 70, mainly from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
The Indonesian Robot Contest 2010 is divided into five regions located in Pangkal Pinang, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Malang and Manado. Each regional winner will compete at the national level from 19 to 20 June 2010 at Muhammadiyah University of Malang to select Indonesia's representatives for the ABU-ROBOCON 2010 in Cairo.