Bantul – Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta (UMY) became the only Private University (Perguruan Tinggi Swasta/PTS) that entered the top10 of PIMNAS (Pekan Ilmiah Mahasiswa Nasional), which was held in Universitas Diponegoro (Undip) Semarang. This event was held from 25 to 29 August 2014. On the pinnacle night of closing day and the winner announcement last night, on Thursday (8/28), UMY succeeded in snatching Rank 6 after UGM, ITS Surabaya, Unibraw Malang, IPB and Unair. UMY also succeeded on defeating Universitas Negeri Malang, Undip, Politeknik Negeri Perkapalan Surabaya, and UNY.
Dr. Rizal Yaya, one of the supervisors of Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa Team on the division of Community Service (Pengabdian Masyarakat/PKM-M) “Difabel House” stated that UMY succeeded on ranking six on the 27th PIMNAS due to award winning acquired by his students. UMY was recorded as the winner of two gold medals and one bronze medal. “These two gold medals we acquired from two assessment category, for poster and presentation for PKM-M. While the bronze medal was from poster category for PKM Karsa Cipta (PKM-KC),” he said.
Rizal also stated that the two gold medals were acquired by one team, which was PKM-M Team for “Difabel House.” While the bronze medal was won by PKM-KC Team for “Stetoskop Wireless.” “There were 20 classes in PIMNAS. Every class contains of 20 teams of PKM, and each class was presented by two gold medals, two silver medals, and two bronze medals for the best PKM team for poster and presentation category. Well, the PKM-M “Difabel House” won gold for both presentation and poster. So this one team acquired two gold medals and it seems that the team becomes the only one that got two gold medals in that class,” he said.
On the other hand, Weni Septi Susanti as the team leader of PKM-M “Difabel House” explained that “Difabel House” was a community service done for the disable children (Indonesian, difabel). The community service was done through art training, which is painting and calligraphy. “There were 25 children who participated in the training, and from 25 participants they were categorized on classes, based on the talent they possessed. For painting, there were deaf and mute children, while the calligraphy was for deaf and blind children,” she explained.
Weni also explained that the participants were from Sekolah Luar Biasa (SLB/school for the disable children) in Yogyakarta they selected. The selection was also done to know their talent. Furthermore, Weni said that the training they did attracted so many participants. “They were very happy for this training. They also hoped that the training won’t just stop, because in the training conducted from March to July, the participants were able to produce some paintings in paper, helmet, canvas, and anthologies of short stories and poems. Their masterpieces were put in exhibitions on 12-13 July 2014 in Tamansiswa,” said the students of Faculty of Economy of UMY.
On the other hand, Weni expressed her happiness and amazement that their hard work and the effort of her PKM team could score two gold medals. She was proud that she was able to bring the good name of UMY that they were able to become the only private university in the Top10 of the 27th PIMNAS. “We hope that this won’t be the end, but the start of our achievement. We hope that next year UMY would be the winner, and be in the Top3,” she added.
The follow-up of the training, Weni and her team (Egi Pranajaya, Ida Solekah, Reni Apriani, and Sabila Yusrina) would continue their training and facilitate the participants by opening Online Shop and Diffable Corner. “We are planning of making Diffable Corner in Taman Pintar. This is done so that the disables will have special corner to keep on their good work and we have sent proposal to Taman Pintar. Furthermore, we also open online shop to sell the “Diffable House” participants’ works,” she concluded. (humas umy) (dzar)