Depok, June 24Th 2008 — Descendants of the same Malay race (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and the Philippines) were sitting together at a seminar held at the University of Indonesia, an international seminar SEBUMI held between 24th – 26th of June 2008. The seminar’s location was the FISIP UI. This activity was initiated by the University of Indonesia (UI) and the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The theme chosen was “Internationalization of the Same Malay race Descendants Heading toward a Mutual Bright Future”. This year’s seminar was the second time after 2005. The first one was held in Malaysia at the UKM. At first, the seminar’s aim was to tighten the bond between the descendants of the same Malay race, but during its development SEBUMI became an arena of multidiscipline science gathering. This fact was stated by Prof.Dr. I Ketut Surajaya, Chairman of the organizing committee.

The State Polytechnic Electronic Surabaya (Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya) with its robot ‘JUMP-BE’, won the Indonesian Robot Contest 2008 (KRI) and received the “SAMBHAWANA PRATIMACALA” trophy from the Minister of National Education (Mendiknas). The KRI 2008 winner will represent Indonesia in the ABU ROBOCON International Robot Contest which will be held in Pune, India on 30th August 2008.

The KRI and the Indonesian Smart Robot Contest (Kontes Robot Cerdas Indonesia, KRCI) was held at the Balairung Audience Hall University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java on 14th-15th June 2008. The 2008 KRI took on the theme of Pinang Tree Climber Robot (Robot Panjat Pinang) which was in line with the ‘Govinda’ theme of the ABU ROBOCON contest. Meanwhile the KRCI 2008 took on the theme of ‘Smart Fire Extinguisher Robot’ which matched the theme determined by the Trinity College’s ‘2008 Fire Fighting Robot Contest’.

The 2008 KRI was attended by 24 teams from 24 universities from all over Indonesia. Conversely the KRCI 2008 was attended by 37 teams from 20 different universities. The KRCI was divided into several divisions, they were; the Wheeled Senior Division, Legged Senior Division, Single Expert Division, Swarm Expert Division. There were 38 State and private universities and 1 company participating in the 2008 National KRI/KRCI Contest.

UI’s Rector, Prof. Dr. der Soz Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri on Saturday morning (24/05) at the Balairung Audience Hall Depok Campus, opened the 2008 Regional II Indonesian Robot Contest (KRI) and the Indonesian Smart Robot (KRCI) Contest. The contest ended Saturday night and was officially closed by the First Head of the Regional II Committee of KRI/KRCI, Prof.Dr.Ir.Johny Wahyuadi Soedarsono, DEA.