6th Series P2P VPL in Engineering Fields: Facilitating Inter-disciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond

Weekend holidays in Indonesia will not be a barrier to the running of Virtual Public Lectures (VPL) in Engineering Fields on Saturday, 31 October 2020. The sixth VPL meeting took place with the topic ‘Facilitating Inter-disciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond’ . The topic was presented by Rizal F. Hariadi, an Indonesian diaspora who works at Arizona State University, Arizona. At exactly 08.00 WIB, the VPL began. Rizal delivered topic on multidisciplinary research and education through a PowerPoint presentation. This material session was guided by Dr. Ir. Totok Mujiono, M.Kom.

Rizal started the material delivery session by providing an outline of topic, namely multi-disciplinary education and research as well as examples of multi-disciplinary topics and research related to frugal science and COVID. He gave several examples from the multi-disciplinary fields that exist at the university. For example, there is the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Rizal also explained related to multi-disciplinary education. In his presentation, he explained that a person can take a S1 in 1 area of ​​expertise, then take a Masters and a Doctorate in a multi-field of expertise.

In accordance with the outline of the topic, Rizal also provides many examples of multi-disciplinary research. He gave examples of research from the latest to the previous one. One example given by Rizal is Laufmaschine or it can be interpreted as ‘bicycle’ which was discovered by Karl Von Drais. Karl Von Drais himself worked as a forestry official; a field not closely related to his findings.

At 09.13 WIB, the material delivery session ended, followed by a question and answer session. There were a number of questions addressed to Rizal, both through the chat column to questions that were delivered directly. The questions raised relate to multi-disciplinary research ranging from the search for ideas to the evaluation process. Apart from research, there are also questions related to labs, especially the lab that is shaded by Rizal at Arizona State University. All the questions that were asked were answered by Rizal well.

For his participation as a presenter in the sixth VPL series, the P2P VPL in Engineering Fields committee gave an award certificate which was submitted virtually through a PowerPoint presentation. The delivery of the certificate was represented by Bilqis Oktaviani Putri as the MC. Rizal’s happy feelings were clearly reflected in his smile.

The group photo session that is always present at the end of the previous VPL-VPL event. Back again at the sixth VPL meeting. On cue from the MC, the participant who presented the video gave his best smile. It is unfortunate that not all participants were able to display the video due to situation and connection constraints. At that time, the VPL was closed by the MC by providing information about the dissemination competition which was held in conjunction with a series of P2P VPL events (for more information, can be accessed here).

If you haven’t had the opportunity to take part in the 6th VPL series, the recording of the event can be watched on the ITS Global Engagement YouTube channel and if you are interested in participating in the next VPL series, keep an eye on ITS Global Engagement social media.