Mathematics Lecturer from ITS, Muhammad Luthfi Shahab SSi MSi (left), and his team recognized as the first place winner at the Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon Series in Abu Dhabi.

ITS Campus, ITS News — Not only proficient in teaching and conducting research, but one lecturer from the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has also succeeded in achieving international recognition. He is Muhammad Luthfi Shahab SSi MSi, a lecturer from the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Science and Data Analytics (FSAD) ITS, successfully secured the first position with his team at the Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon Series competition held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on March 7, 2024.

The Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon Series is an initiative by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates, in collaboration with Edge Learning and Innovation Factory and Lipton Teas and Infusions. This competition, participated in by several teams, required participants to create solutions to the real-world problems in the industry with the aim of optimizing production schedules.

Shahab and his five teammates from various universities in the United Arab Emirates strive to address the optimization challenge of the tea production schedules in herbal beverage industry. Initially, Shahab and the team analyzed the given problem and sought methods to solve it. “At the end, the rule-based method was chosen over the linear programming method,” he explained.

Muhammad Luthfi Shahab SSi MSi explains about the flowchart of the tea production scheduling algorithm.

Furthermore, Shahab revealed that this method was chosen because the data provided for the problem was quite extensive and had many constraints. Furthermore, each team had to schedule in detail the tea production process starting from the warehouse, raw material storage, to the product packaging stage.

The Mathematics lecturer graduated from ITS explained that the rule-based method works by setting conditions or rules for activities to proceed. Besides, this method can also determine the next activity once a task is completed. “By implementing this method, production scheduling can be simplified without disregarding existing constraints,” said Shahab, the leader of the team.

Certificate of appreciation for Muhammad Luthfi Shahab SSi MSi, ITS Mathematics lecturer, for his achievement in winning the Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon Series in Abu Dhabi

As a result, Shahab and his team successfully innovated an optimized rule-based model that could integrate all conditions according to the industry’s needs. In this three-day competition, the lecturer from Malang along with his team secured the first position and earned a prize of 25 thousand Dirhams, approximately equivalent to 105 million Indonesian Rupiah.

There are five other members besides Shahab in this team including Siti Maghfirotul Ulyah (PhD Mathematics, Khalifa University), Sebastian Cavada (MSc Computer Vision, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence), Sara Abdulbasit (BSc Networking Security, Ajman University), Mariam Alzaabi (MSc Computer Science, Khalifa University), and Segni Desalegn (BSc Computer Science, Khalifa University).

The lecturer who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. program at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, sees this achievement as an effort to gain experience and enhance his competence. For him, this recognition is a proof that mathematics is needed in all fields, including the industrial world. “In the future, I look forward that more achievements will be accomplished by ITS academicians, especially from the Mathematics Department,” he concluded optimistically. (ITS Public Relations)

Reporter: Mohammad Febryan Khamim