CommTECH 2021 Online – Spring & Summer Edition

The Global Engagement (GE) of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya has not stopped making breakthrough and innovative programs to improve ITS reputation in the international scale. This time, ITS Global Engagement held an annual short program namely the Community and Technological Camp or commonly abbreviated as CommTECH with ITS international partners in the form of an online program. This online innovation program was implemented considering the ongoing pandemic situation that makes face-to-face program unable to be carried out.

This event is held twice a year with the aim of introducing ITS as one of the best technological institute in Indonesia. Since 2012, this program has been carried out 16 times with increasing participants each year from all around the globe. The enthusiasm from the participants solidified CommTECH as one of the highly anticipated programs from ITS.

For the first quarter of the year, ITS GE launched the CommTECH Online 2021 – Spring Edition series, where there are 4 sub courses carried out. Sub-Course A: Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart City Application during pandemic and Sub-Course B: Sustainability Infrastructure in Developing Countries was held on 15-26 February 2021 and has successfully brought 17 participants from Malaysia, Japan, and the Philippines. The excitement continues in the courses right after. Sub-course C: Social Entrepreneurship in Action and Sub-Course D: User Design Experience for a Hybrid Learning was held on 1-12 March 2021. The number of participants for the courses was increased to 51 participants, coming from Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Turkey, Germany, Singapore, and the Philippines. 

The program was then continued with Summer Edition series which was held in the third quarter of the year where 4 sub-courses were also presented. Sub-Course E: User Experience Design for a Hybrid Learning and Sub-Course F: Risk Assessment in Laboratory and Industry was held on 26 July-6 August 2021 where there are 22 participants from Greece, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, and Thailand. Sub-Course G: Ring of Fire: Wonderful Indonesia and Sub-Course H: How to Build Autonomous Ships which was held at 23 August-3 September 2021 was the last 2 sub-courses that is being held in CommTECH Online 2021 where 28 participants from Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia and Philippines took part in the program.

In line with the theme of the program, Solving Local Problems with Global Knowledge, this event provides a forum for participants to discuss and solve local problems with their global perspective. Participants are encouraged to share their ideas and thoughts to solve not only local problems in Indonesia, but also in the context of the participants’ respective countries. Apart from academic activities related to the topic, the participants were also invited to take part in various non-academic activities such as Virtual 360 Campus Tour and City Tour. Indonesian traditional dances, martial arts, and cuisines where we collaborated with organizations around ITS and the city of Surabaya.

By having this program, we hope that we can uplift the internationalization spirit at ITS even in the midst of this pandemic. In addition, we also hope that this program can initiate, strengthen, and improve relations between ITS and participating universities around the world, leaving a positive impact on ITS, Surabaya and Indonesia.