Tag: Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Bio Communication in Educational Technology Practices are works written by Prof. Dr. Deni Darmawan, M.Si., MCE in the inauguration of a professor at the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. He was appointed as a professor at the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in the field of education and communication science.

Nowadays, the demand for communication science is growing rapidly, especially in the field of educational and learning technology. During its development, the science of communication has produced a number of practical collaborative approaches, including the biocommunication approach.

Biocommunication is a new approach in the field of communication that can be adopted in educational and learning technology practices, especially digital learning. The object of this approach is speed of information processing, with the work area covering specific parts of the brain such as the prefrontal lobe, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and central lobe, both in the left and right hemispheres.

As an illustration, in all the specific parts of the brain when processing a particular message, activity occurs in the form of intrapersonal communication behavior. Furthermore, when individuals are able to produce information quickly, they will use it in interpersonal communication practices. Both intra and interpersonal, both will be experienced and carried out in the education and learning process.

During its development, the existence of a biocommunication approach in educational technology praxis can be illustrated from two perspectives. The first perspective is on the learning information processing process that occurs in educational technology products. For example, when learning messages are programmed and entered into a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) model database. When students use the CAI model, they will call data and information from the learning content database quickly through a number of menus provided, then that’s when the biocommunication approach will work.

The second perspective, the location, and role of biocommunication are in the work system of specific parts of the left brain and right brain (prefrontal, frontal, temporal, parietal, parasagittal, and central), when receiving, processing, storing, and recalling learning information experienced by individual learners.

To date, the biocommunication approach has been used in artificial intelligence (AI) work systems. Basically, AI is a combination of brain work and technology systems designed by humans. The power of biocommunication has also become the foundation for a number of educational and learning technology products, such as; (1) computer based learning; (2) machine learning; (3) mobile learning; (4) augmented learning; (5) virtual reality learning, dan (6) blended learning bahkan virtual hologram learning.

“Biocommunication” in the era of “digital learning”

When teaching, it is often not easy for us to understand what students feel and think. This phenomenon can be analyzed through the biocommunication approach as I have examined the velocity analysis of specific parts of the brain starting from the prefrontal, frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, and central lobe, both located in the left hemisphere and the right brain. All these specific parts of the brain will work quickly if the stimulus received by the students’ senses is produced through learning technology practices.

As an illustration of how this information processing occurs in students, this is the following flow, starting from the learner receiving a number of learning messages received by the visual and audio senses, then processed by a specific part of the brain starting from the prefrontal sent to the frontal lobe, then sent to the temporal lobe to match what is heard, then sent to the parietal lobe to be defined and sent to the occipital lobe to understand its definition. The results of the process in the central lobe that bring the right and left hemispheres together are combined after the final product is sent and stored in short-term memory (STM). In order for that learning is not to be forgotten, the information that has been understood will be stored in long-term memory (LTM). In order to become knowledge, retrieval is carried out so that it can be used to analyze other phenomena. This learning pace is what is needed in the practice of educational technology, especially in the development of digital learning systems.

Finally, at the practical level, the biocommunication approach is expected to be able to provide a reference for educators in designing, implementing, assessing, and developing educational technology products based on digital learning in a more humane way. In the future, all educational technology engineering products will be manifested in the form of hypertutorial through biocommunication within the framework of building a digital learning community as proclaimed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Molecular Systematic Biology and DNA Barcode Development are works written by Prof. Topik Hidayat, M.Sc., Ph.D in the inauguration of a professor at the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. He was appointed as a professor at the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in the field of Biosystematics.

Indonesia is one of 17 countries with the nickname “Megabiodiversity”, 2 of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots, one of the 18 World Wildlife Fund “Global 200” ecoregions, and one of the world’s 24 endemic bird areas. For plant diversity, Conservation International (2018) reports that Indonesia has 10% of the world’s flowering plant species (approximately 35,000 plant species) and ranks as one of the world’s centers of agro-biodiversity in the form of plant cultivars.

Apart from this high level of plant species richness, another important value of Indonesia’s biodiversity is that many species that existc in Indonesia are endemic. Endemic species are those that are found only in that particular region and nowhere else in the world.

One of the issues related to the status or position of Indonesia’s great biodiversity is the loss of species diversity. Researchers has estimate that in average of about 100,000 species have extinct each year, even within the next two and a half centuries as much as 25% of life will be lost from the earth. The main factor causing this is the large scale exploitation carried out out by humans which causes habitat destruction and changes in land function. This issue has shocked biological scientists and wanted to fix it immediately to save diversity on earth. One of the most basic ways is to study Systematic Biology (Biosystematics).

By conducting biosystematics studies we will understand how to recognize, classify and understand the genetic relationship of a species. With biosystematics we will understand about biodiversity, especially in terms of identifying and monitoring the remaining biodiversity on this earth. The success of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity cannot be separated from the role of biosystematics..

As molecular biology has progressed rapidly, DNA data has now been used in many biosystematics studies to produce more accurate information. One of the applications of this molecular biosystematics study includes the development of techniques that quickly identify plant groups using DNA barcodes.

Furthermore, this rapid identification is needed to give names in order to inventory our plant species richness data. Like a cashier in a store who identifies the price of an item by holding a barcode that is attached to a scanner, and in a flash the price appears. In addition, this DNA barcode can be used to maintain the existence of native plant species on Indonesian soil.

Morphological characters have long been used in many studies of plant biosystematics. With the rapid development of techniques in molecular biology, such as PCR (“Polymerase Chain Reaction”) and DNA sequencing, the use of DNA sequences in biosystematics research has increased rapidly and has been carried out at all taxonomic levels, for example family, genus, and species. This study will combine molecular biology techniques with statistics to reconstruct phylogenetic or genetic relationships.

Several reasons why DNA sequencing is used explain below : (1) DNA is the basic unit of information encoding organisms; (2) it is relatively easy to extract and combine information about the evolutionary process of a group of organisms, so that it is easy to analyze; (3) evolutionary events are comparatively easy to model; and (4) produce many and varied information, so there will be a lot of evidence about the truth of a phylogenetic relationship.

A DNA barcode is a short DNA (approx. 500 bp) sequence that is unique for the rapid identification of an organism’s species name. Unlike animals, DNA barcodes for plants are still being searched. Plants have three genomes in their cells, namely the nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplasts. An area in the core genome known as the “Internal Transcribed Spacer” (ITS) is a good candidate for DNA barcode for plants, such as orchids. In addition, the maturase-K gene (in chloroplast DNA) is another candidate for DNA barcode in plants, for example in the mango plant.

This DNA barcode analysis technique involves a stage where we must determine the exact location of the DNA consensus sequence to become a DNA barcode, through a search for a specific motif. After the location or motive is known, the next step is to design the primer using a computer program and many primary candidates will be generated. All primary candidates were tested for their ability through in silico PCR using a computer program as well.

Due to the role of these DNA barcodes in preserving the existence of native plant species, in the same way a pair of “diagnostic” primers can be designed to distinguish the geographic origin of a plant. For example, mango specimens originating from Thailand, which separate from Indonesian mango specimens, as a result of biosystematics studies. A pair of primers can be synthesized for both countries. The result is by using this primer pair each country can protect its own mangoes.

In closing, Indonesia is a country that is rich in flora and fauna diversity, but lacks human resources to carry out an inventory and documentation of this wealth that we have. Indonesian biosystematics and taxonomists can still be counted on the fingers, not comparable to the existing wealth. Therefore, the DNA barcode research project in the future will continue to be focused on the development of a PCR-based DNA Tools Kit.

Cool Roofs Indonesia is a research project developed by Dr. Beta Paramita, a lecturer of Architecture at the Faculty of Technology and Vocational Education (FPTK) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.

Graduated from a Doctoral Program at the University of Kitakyushu Japan, Dr. Beta Paramita is an active researcher in various professional organizations such as RDI (Research Resilience Initiative) which focuses on community, change, environment, and sustainable development as well as the Association of Indonesian Building Performance Simulation.

Cool Roofs Indonesia was supported by the Clean Cooling Collaborative (formerly Kigali Efficiency Program (K-CEP)). Basically, this project is the production of coating which can be used on the roof as well as on the wall to reflect the heat of the sun so that the surface of the roof and the area underneath the coating remain cold. This research project was developed to spread the cold roof to reduce the phenomenon of Urban Heat Island in cities with high daily temperatures in Indonesia.

As a project manager, Dr. Beta Paramita developed her project within the Faculty of Technology and Vocational Education (FPTK) of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in collaboration with Dr. Ravi Shankar Srinivasan from the University of Florida and Jaime Cruz from Millennium Solution, United States of America (USA).

Currently, the Cool Roofs Indonesia project serves the sale of paint products with a painted area range of more than 1000m2, roof coating consultation for a large scale of more than 1,000m2, building performance measurements including thermal performance, sick building syndrome, and optimization of energy use for industries, offices, and communities.

Cool Roofs Indonesia Wins a Two-Million-Dollar Worth International Competition in 2022
On March 1, 2022, Dr. Beta Paramita and her team, who developed and manufactured the MS-Thermashield type paint under the project named Cool Roofs Indonesia, won the Million Cool Roofs Challenge competition. The two-million USD worth international competition was organized by the Clean Cooling Collaborative and participated by countries from all over the world. As the winner, Dr. Beta will receive a prize of 750,000 USD or more than 10 billion rupiah.

As a pilot project, Cool Roofs Indonesia has covered 70,800m2 of roofs in fifteen cities spread across eight provinces in the country. “These cool roofs have spread from Aceh, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bangka Belitung, and NTT,” Dr. Beta said. The cities are Langsa, Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung, Sukabumi, Garut, Subang, Tasikmalaya, Jepara, Pontianak, Kupang, and Manado. The type of buildings covered includes industrial buildings (factories), residential (MBR houses), mosques, elementary schools, and government offices.

Prior to the challenge, cool roofs were not part of Indonesian building practices or norms. If products were available, they were not developed locally (they were imported), making this product very expensive. Therefore, Dr. Beta developed this paint to create affordable cool roofs in Indonesia. In plain sight, Cool Roofs paint does not seem to be any different from other paints on the market; besides, this paint is currently only available in white. In the future, they are going to develop another color to meet user needs. “Because this paint is still being developed on a laboratory scale and not on a large scale yet, it still uses basic color. So, it’s a bit difficult to tell it apart from regular paint with the naked eye, “Dr. Eng Beta explained.

Cool Roofs paint produced by the Lab of Science, Technology, and Building Material, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia has been tested and certified by CRRC (Cool Roof Rating Council) with Initial Solar Reflectivity of 0.84 and Thermal Emittance of 0.90. It means this paint is able to reflect 84% of solar radiation and left the heat transfer under the roof at 16%. “It was the CRRC which approved that our production has met their requirements,” she added.

This is proven by the effect of the paint on the roofs of houses in various cities in Indonesia. “One example of the temperature difference that we get is in Tangerang, which was originally 40°C. After painting the roof with Cool Roofs paint, the temperature drops to 29°C in broad daylight,” she stated.

The Urban Heat Island phenomenon has caused the temperature in Indonesia’s urban areas to rise. “The temperature should have dropped by the time the sun goes down. But, because the sunlight is not reflected correctly during the day, it settles on the house materials. This is why Urban Heat Island appears in cities of Indonesia,” said the Cool Roofs Indonesia Project Manager.

Dr. Beta recommends using this paint on the roofs of Indonesian houses because, considering Indonesia is a tropical country, Cool Roofs paint is designed to reduce the indoor temperature. “In cities where it was tested, the indoor temperature was shown to decrease significantly,” she concluded.