ESL 2021: “The Farther, the Smarter!”

ESL 2021: “The Farther, the Smarter!” The Engineering Service Learning (ESL) program with the tagline the farther, the smarter was first initiated by Pusan National University, South Korea in collaboration with various universities abroad and Indonesia, including Telkom University. Since the first implemented in 2012, ESL has continued to contribute to the community with various projects carried out by participants and mentors directly at the host university and the location/community projects target. However, after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, ESL 2020 and 2021 were held virtually for the sake of safety. Nevertheless, it does not dampen ESL’s hope to continue its mission of helping the community with their innovation projects.

The 10th anniversary of Engineering Service Learning (ESL) was celebrated together with the opening ceremony of ESL 2021 on July 7th, 2021 virtually. Several representatives of universities participating in ESL 2021 were present at the Opening Ceremony including:

1. Young Bong Seo, ESL Program Director, Pusan National University (PNU), South Korea
2. Dr. Adiwijaya, Rector of Telkom University, Indonesia
3. Ali ridho barakbah, Director of Surabaya State Electronics Polytechnic (PENS), Indonesia
4. Shofi’ul Amin, Assistant Director of Banyuwangi State Polytechnic (Poliwangi), Indonesia
5. Sanae El Hassani, representative from ENSAJ Morocco
6. Jae Weon Choi, Director of ABC (Alliance of BEE Centers) South Korea

ESL Remarks

All remarks from university representatives conveyed the same hopes that by joining ESL 2021 they hope to continue to collaborate and contribute to doing something new that is useful for the community, especially the local community. The ESL program is also expected to foster empathy among students to help the local community by developing their talents, passions and knowledge in creating innovative projects. As the tagline of ESL, the farther we go, the farther we collaborate, hopefully the smarter and more helpful to the community will be.

From the ESL video documentation, from 2012 to 2020, ESL participants had produced several projects that benefit the community. They went directly to the community and were given the responsibility to look for problems from the community, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector and must be able to offer solutions to these problems in the form of a ready-to-use product, a smarter product/service.

There are 71 participants from various universities (Telkom University, PNU, PENS, Poliwangi, Ensaj) who are grouped into 8 Creative Station teams and 5 SMILE Project teams at ESL 2021. They will collaborate in a group project for about 2 months from July to August 2021.  In the 1^st day, after the Opening Ceremony of the ESL 2021, all participants had a chance to have virtual cultural exchange. It was the 1^st project in the ESL 2021 where the participants were assigned to make a video about interesting places or cultures from each country.

Good luck, participants! Hope you are success in creating the project and can continue to contribute to the community. The farther, the smarter!(IO)***