MAKASSAR – Universitas Gadjah Mada successfully defended the title as overall champion of National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS) XXIV held in Makassar from 19 to 21 July 2011. This was announced by the Chairman of the Jury, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ronny R. Noor, M.Rur.Sc., in the closing ceremony at Baruga Andi Pangerang Petta Rani Building, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, on Thursday (21/7) evening.
In the 3 hour ceremony from 20.00 to 23.10 pm, the atmosphere was hot and tense. Every time the jury announced the winning team in each category, every contingent of college were yelling. It became more tensed as there is small difference in the number of gold medals gained by the winning universities. UGM and ITS chased each other. Finally, the chairman of the jury announced the university which became the national winner. "The jury declares that the overall champion is Universitas Gadjah Mada," Ronny said. The decision was instantly welcomed by 169 students and 70 supervising lecturers from UGM.
One of the supervisors, Ahmad Agus Setyawan, was satisfied and proud of the results being achieved by 39 teams from UGM. The preparation carried out thoroughly for several months has made them the PIMNAS winner. "We're certainly proud. The presence of the supervisors and mentors provides encouragement to students during the competition," he said.
Agus added that students are always monitored by their respective supervisors. "They are not left alone by themselves. Before the big day, we still assisted them up to the early hours ahead of the competition," he said.
Danis Sri Wijaya, the leader of student contingent also cannot cover up his excitement. "I am certainly delighted. I’m relieved and proud to have helped coordinate UGM students to be the winner," he said happily.
When monitoring the health of the students, Danis was overwhelmed. There were some UGM students getting sick. Three students suffered from diarrhea. However, all this hardship is returned by becoming the winner.
Director of Student Affairs, Drs. Haryanto, M.Sc., who was asked to accept the trophy of Adikarta Kertawidya as the overall champion that night seemed too emotional to express his feeling. He only commented briefly, "Fabulous!"
Committee Chairman of PIMNAS XXIV 2011, Nasaruddin Salam, admitted that he had long ago predicted UGM would become the overall champion again. "From the beginning, I’d predicted UGM would be the champion, moreover the most teams are from UGM. Here, their performance was very remarkable, they seemed to have prepared seriously and focused," he said.
The top ten winners of PIMNAS XXIV are UGM, ITS, State University of Semarang, IPB, Brawijaya University, Airlangga University, STIE Malangkucecwara, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, ITB, and Padjadjaran University.