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It was not the first time but it surely was an exciting one. I was honored to be requested to speak at one of the 2023 pre departure preparation programs for LPDP scholars. It was in Jakarta and I had to travel from Jogja for it was an offline event.

Hundreds of LPDP scholarship recipients were enthusiastic to attend my session on “becoming a scholar”. I shared my views and experience during my journey finishing my master and PhD studies. I also gave them some advices on scientific writings.

overall it was an exciting experience and a rewarding one too. I was so glad to see how excited and they are about starting their study in reputable universities in Indonesia and overseas. I am positive that they are talented young people that Indonesia can count on.

I am sure, they are grateful for the support provided by the country by utilizing money collected from the Indonesian taxpayers. They will, eventually, contribute to the development of Indonesia in the best way they can. Good luck, people!

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.

I was invited by ReCAAP (Singapore) to give a lecture on “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in connection with piracy and sea robbery” on 27 Sep 2017 (Wednesday) afternoon in Singapore. This was the second time after my first one in Cambodia.

It was fun. Another great opportunity to network with important people in the field of maritime security in the region. I really hope that this can be a regular program where I can contribute my knowledge and also learn from different people.

I have known a lot of people. I have a number of friends in the government at the national level and even international. However, I had no friends in the Government of Tabanan, a regency where I was born. I thought there must be something wrong. I did not feel right when I realised that I have been invited by a lot of people to share my ideas and expertise but have not received  any request from the Government of Tabanan. I had been invisible to them this far.

Until one day. Through a friend and relative, I was connected with a member of Tabanan Parliament (House of Representative). A good conversation led to an invitation for me to deliver a speech in Tabanan. After a long wait, I finally am intellectually connected with my home town, Tabanan. On 29 June I gave a presentation to one of the most diverse audience I have ever addressed. Challenging but fun. It turned out that my presentation was well-received. I thanks everybody!

On 7 June 2017, I had a privilege to present ideas representing the UN-Nippon Alumni at the UN-Nippon Foundation Alumni High-Level Event held at the UN Building, New York. I participated in the UN-Nippon Foundation Fellowship program in 2007, a decade ago and I have been an alumnus for almost a decade now. It was a great honour to be selected as one of five out of 100 plus alumni. It is acceptable to be happy.

I presented a maritime boundary issue that Indonesia is now facing, something to do with the need to settle two kinds of maritime boundaries in one particular location. One boundary line is for the continental shelf (seabed) and the other one is EEZ (water column). I presented a famous situation between Indonesia and Australia where, due to different boundary lines, Animation was certainly something that I used to entertain around 90 people in the room.

I had an opportunity to present my ideas on oil concession and the definition of maritime claim at the London International Boundary Conference on 5 June 2017. It was my firs time participating in the conference and also my first time to visit London. It was very interesting.

I presented my idea on 5 June, together with speakers from China, the UK, United States and Luxembourg. All went well and I hope that the participants enjoyed my talk. I also managed to extend my network by making friends with a number of participants and also speakers.

Here is a picture of the event: Me in between delivering a presentation.

Download my abstract here

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has been conducting a summer program called DREaM since 2009 attracting young people from around the world to learn at UGM. This year, in 2016, the DREaM program is with a theme: managing the blue planet. In short, the program focuses on the issue related to ocean affairs and the law of the sea. The 2016 program attracts more than 4o students from a number of countries to come to Yogyakarta to learn and have fun at the same time.

I was asked by the organiser to deliver a lecture on geopolitics and maritime security. The lecture is on maritime boundary issues in ASEAN and beyond, including those in the South China Sea. It was interesting to observe how participants from China were interested in debate after the lecture. It shows how the topic attracts the participants, especially the Chinese, so much. The lecture was an interactive one where students did not only sit and listen but also actively asked questions and conveyed their opinion. I had fun.