UNIVERSITAS AIRLANGGA NEWS – Faculty of Fisheries and Marine (FPK), Universitas Airlangga sent its three best students to an international conference entitled The 11 th Conference of Indonesian Students Association in South Korea(CISAK) 2019. The three students are Shindy Novia A’yun, Nada Dzatalini and Muhammad Fauzan. Not only being a participant, all three also had the opportunity to become speakers, presenting their works.
Shindy Novia A’yun or Shindy won the award as the best presenter at food and agriculture cluster. She presented a paper entitled Extraction and Characterization of Astaxanthin Content from the Industrial Waste of Fresh and Boiled Shrimp Shells (Litopanaeus vannamei).
“The paper that I presented is the result of a mini research that I conducted during Field Work Practice (PKL) at Kasetsart University, Thailand,” said the chairman of student legislative body (BLM) FPK.
In the study, Shindy analyzed the astaxanthin content found in shrimp skin waste and how to use it. Astaxanthin itself is a very powerful antioxidant that can be used as a deterrent to free radicals. Astaxanthin can be processed into sunscreens, food supplements and so on.
“The results of the study showed that the antioxidant in shrimp skin is very high, especially in fresh shrimp skin,” Shindy explained.
There were three supervisors who helped Shindy in completing her research. They are Annur Ahadi Abdillah S.Pi., M.Si, Ir. Dr. Gunanti Mahasri., M.Si from FPK UNAIR and Dr. Wanwimol Klaypradit from Kasetsart University, Thailand.
Even so, Shindy’s struggle to be the best presenter at the international conference was not easy. As a Bidikmisi student, one of the problems she must overcome was related to funding. Shindy also had a cold before her presentation.
“Because of limited funding, when we arrived there (South Korea, ed) we got confused to find a place to live. Alhamdulillah, there was an FPK doctoral lecturer who happened to be in Busan, so we could stay with him for a few days, “Shindy said.
Getting an award as the best presenter was the most memorable thing for Shindy, especially when she had to compete with delegations from several other well-known universities in food and agriculture cluster in Indonesia such as University of Indonesia (UI) and Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB).