(18/2) Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Diponegoro, sent its academics to join the Sakura Science Program, a program hosted by the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Nihon University, Japan. In total 11 academics, consisting of 1 lecturer, 1 young researcher, 3 master’s students, and 6 bachelor’s students, attended the program that is being held from 13th to 18th February 2023 in Koriyama, Japan.
Sakura Science Program is a collaboration program between Nihon University and Universitas Diponegoro that aimed not only to foster a relationship forged by both institutions but also to introduce international exposure to the students involved. The program consists of several events, such as campus and lab visits, lectures attending, and visits to the local dam plantation. The students were able to explore and enhance their knowledge by visiting new places that were far away from their homeland.
The participants for this program were selected via open selection held by the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Diponegoro. The selected applicants who were eligible enough to join the program according to the team selection committee will join the contingent led by Dr.-Ing. Bobby Rio Indriyantho, ST, MT. Mr. Bobby is a lecturer from the Department of Civil Engineering who was appointed to be the assistant lecturer for this program. Besides him, there was 1 young researcher, named Lena Tri Lestari, ST, MT. She is the only researcher that earned this opportunity with the other 9 participants from the master’s and bachelor’s programs of the Department of Civil Engineering.
The program started when the contingent from the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Diponegoro, arrived in Koriyama. After they arrived, they were attending some lectures delivered by experts from Nihon University. The theme of the lectures varied, ranging from civil engineering to architectural engineering. In between those lectures, they also visited the Miharu Dam Management and Miharu Village in Miharu City to learn how the dam management worked. The team stayed for 5 days at Nihon University.
The team leader, Dr.-Ing. Bobby Rio Indriyantho, ST,MT, expressed his gratitude towards this program. He hopes that the students who get the chance to join this program able to gain experience in international exposure. He added that the new knowledge shared by the professors, and the Japanese cultures they experienced, could become unforgettable moments that they will never experience while in Indonesia. As a lecturer from Universitas Diponegoro, Mr. Bobby hopes that Universitas Diponegoro able to earn the same opportunity in the future.
