Dr Eng Yeyes Mulyadi ST MSc, the leader of Ocean FarmITS Team, explains Ocean FarmITS at its soft launcing in Malang.

ITS Campus, ITS News – Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) is increasingly establishing themselves as a leading maritime campus in Indonesia with a variety of innovative steps. This time, a team of lecturers from the Department of Ocean Engineering together with the Directorate of Research and Community Service (DRPM) ITS pioneered a new breakthrough in the maritime sector in the form of a aquaculture building with the first floating marine ecotourism in Indonesia called Ocean FarmITS.

Conceptualizing Ocean FarmITS, Nur Syahroni ST MT PhD, one of the lecturer teams explained that this innovative breakthrough departed from the problem of a decreasing catch of fishermen around the Sidoasri Bay, Malang. The location that will be placed in the floating net cage (KJA – Karamba Jaring Apung), according to him, has the potential for a large marine fish farming.

“Not just any aquaculture building in the middle of the sea, Ocean FarmITS is designed in such way that it can become a marine tourism, for example as a hotel in the top of the building,” explained the lecturer who is usually called Roni.

Aside from the aspect of tourism, continued Roni, Ocean FarmITS was also designed by considering environmental issues due to pollution of leftovers waste from fish cultivation. This projects who is also designed for the offshore, are able to mantain its stability in the relatively extreme conditions. “Plus, offshore buildings like this are the main subject learned in our department (ITS Ocean Engineering, red),” he said.

Nur Syahroni ST MT PhD explains the making location of Ocean FarmITS in Malang

The Structure Dynamics lecturer explained that this project was a continuation of the ITS Ocean Study Center project before. Roni, who at the time was leading the study center, started to initiate this project with his department colleagues in 2016 and successfully entered the design stage in 2017. “Because (Ocean FarmITS) this needs to contribute in the multidisciplinary scientific sciences, we also did a collaboration with several departments under the study center,” he said.

The collaboration between Ocean Engineering, Biology, Interior Design, Visual Communication Design (DKV), and Industrial Engineering is expected to be one of ITS’s flagship works. Until the soft launching of the building on February 23 in Malang, which was also supported by PT Pertamina, the project has already spent around Rp 1.3 billion.

Roni and the team believe that this project will have a positive impact not only on ITS, but also on the surrounding community. The highlighted concept of cultivation and tourism is targeted to involve people in the area around the coast (Sidoasri). Seeing the great potential of the location but still remote, Roni hopes that this project can be a tourist attraction. “So that the community’s economy can be better,” he hopefully added.

Soft launching of Ocean FarmITS with the team, PT Pertamina Persero, and UPT P2SKP Pondokdadap, Malang.

The process of registering Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) from the project itself has been carried out by Roni and the team. Not only that, they are also taking care of the registration of industrial design products and trademarks on behalf of Ocean FarmITS. “After this is finished, we will also register patents on several components in this floating building,” he explained.

At present, Ocean FarmITS is awaiting the completion of the component fabrication process. After that, the components will be assembled on the beach near the location and taken directly to the specified point. According to Roni, next April, KJA will be launched to the public. After being officially used, this structure is expected not only to be used by tourists and the surrounding community. “It can also be a field laboratory for students,” he said.

Ocean FarmITS team at the making location of the building.