Month: April 2023

I was honoured to be asked to share my views on the application of artificial intelligence in education. It was Pak Tomas, the headmaster of SMP 10 Yogyakarta (junior high school), who came up with the idea. I was invited to share with teachers on the utilization of artificial intelligence in teaching.

It was an exciting yet challenging experience. First, teaching teachers was not easy. Second, it was not something falling within my expertise. It was not maritime boundaries, nor geospatial aspects of the law of the sea. I had to talk about something that I have been using but I am by no means an expert. It was fun though.

Apart from the fact how the teachers were excited when I shared with them the use of ChatGPT, for example, I discovered something even more important. Even though the school is located in Yogyakarta, the same city with UGM, the university where I am teaching, those teachers did not see themselves to have good access to researchers and professors at UGM.

My coming to the school was not only about sharing knowledge. It was about breaking the wall between the school and UGM. I understood better their view and situation. By interacting closely with the teachers, I managed to understand a number of issues regarding the root of problems I have been facing in dealing with my students. It is good to understand the education practice of schools where my university students come from.

I really hope more professors  in UGM and other universities spare their busy time to share with elementary and high school teachers. We need to narrow the gap between us.

After such a long wait, Indonesia finally managed to come up with a law on continental shelf.  The last law on continental shelf was in 1973 and fifty years later Indonesia finally has a new one. Congratulations!

Here is my view on the new law, published by KOMPAS.

I gave a lecture at the Center for International Law (CIL), National University of Singapore on 14 April 2023. It was a closed-door lecture for the topic was reasonable sensitive. I talked about maritime boundary delimitation in the South China Sea, especially regarding the one recently agreed upon by Indonesia and Vietnam.

Prof. Bob Beckman was there during the lecture attended by people from the Attorney General and the Marine and Port Authority. We had an intimate and engaging conversation about issues around the South China Sea. I also learned a lot from the interaction.

The first program I am running as the new head of the Master of Geomatic Engineering is GeoSharing. The program provides students to share their ideas and curiosity regarding geospatial issues, research and application. One student is asked to prepare a presentation and other would comment and ask questions. That way, a good discussion can take place. This is my way to help students enhance their scientific capacity.

On the first episode of GeoSharing, the presentation was made by Calvin Wijaya, a master student, who was in the preparation of his final thesis examination. Calvin presented at GeoSharing as a ‘rehearsal’ for his thesis defense examination.  In addition, we also learned how to present scientific contents in a friendly manner, in such a ways that the laymen would also understand. That is not easy but possible.

In his thesis, Calvin explores the application of machine learning for automatic object recognition in terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) application.  Geospatial professionals generally understand the application of TLS in capturing objects in 3D manner. TLS can capture objects in such a way that the objects are geometrically accurate. However, recognising the description and character of the objects is a different thing. The main question is how to implement machine learning to automatically recognise  objects(name, type) captured using TLS.  I can imagine that the research can be widely applicable in the future.

Most important thing is that students learned how to create friendly environment for research and scientific activities. See you in the next GeoSharing.