After previously presenting a photocopy vending machine, UI students recently produced an innovative vending machine product that women really need. This brilliant idea that targets the needs of women came from a student of the Business Administration Study Program, Faculty of Administrative Sciences (FIA) UI, Aurelia Frederica. Together with four of her friends from various universities, they created a business idea in the form of a vending machine that sells various kinds of feminine hygiene products. These include various brands of sanitary napkins, stain remover markers, warm compresses/hot packs , and bundled packages containing soap, plastic and tissue.
“All women have forgotten to check their menstrual date, and they don’t prepare themselves with sanitary napkins. Our product is a one-stop solution for women who are struggling in emergency situations during menstruation. We see that there are many vending machines, but never one specifically for sanitary napkins. Therefore, we thought of making vending machines that are placed in women’s toilets in schools and universities to make it easier for women,” said Aurelia when met at the Wira-Cipta UI 2023 Demo Day event on Friday (1/12) at Ra Suites Simatupang, Jakarta.
Innovation from groups of young people is currently being paid attention to by the Indonesian government. Through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 2 Year 2022, the target is to create one million new entrepreneurs by 2024. Universitas Indonesia (UI) is one of 34 universities implementing the Independent Entrepreneurship (WMK) program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) which seeks to fully support the creation of student entrepreneurship in Indonesia. The WMK program at UI, entitled Wira-Cipta UI, is a place to showcase innovative business ideas that try to solve various social problems.
As a participant, Aurelia hopes that this vending machine business idea called “HER” can be made a reality. Next, she plans to carry out trials by placing the prototype on the FIA UI campus. Thanks to this creative business idea, Aurelia and her group won the best pitching award in the non-digital business idea category. This award was obtained after the “HER” group made a business pitch presentation in front of three judges consisting of start-up practitioners and angel investors from investment companies.
The Wira-Cipta UI 2023 Demo Day pitching session is the culmination of WMK UI activities which have been held since August 21st 2023. A total of 231 students from 45 universities in Indonesia, who are members of 46 teams, competed to be the best in presenting products or prototypes for the business. To find the group with the best pitch, the jury assessed several aspects, starting from the business model, revenue model, realistic implementation plan, analysis of problems and target markets, to the quality of teamwork.
Apart from “HER”, which won the best pitch in the non-digital business category, there was the business idea “Rapid” which won the title of best pitch in the digital category. “Rapid” is an instant registration platform. Just by scanning a QR code, someone can fill out a form without complicated bureaucracy. This innovation was created to solve the problem of collecting important documents such as diplomas and family cards which are often scattered even though they are really needed when you want to apply for work or enroll in college.
Evan Tjoa Putra (Joe), leader of the “Rapid” group who is a student at Tarumanagara University’s Law Study Program, revealed that this business idea emerged based on personal experience. He said, “When I wanted to register for college, I realized that the documents containing my data were always messy. I don’t even know where my high school diploma is. What if we could move everything in one place? With Rapid, we only need to scan the QR code, and the registration form will immediately be filled in with our personal data.”
Rapid is also trying to solve the problem of data leaks. This is because Rapid uses a decentralization concept, which means that Rapid does not store user data at all, but user data is only stored on each cellphone. This is possible with a secure blockchain technology that cannot be hacked. Apart from that, if an educational institution uses Rapid to issue diplomas, personal data cannot be falsified.
“This technology does not yet exist in Indonesia. We are proud to say we are the first, although this technology is already used in several countries. In our opinion, this is a very good opportunity for Indonesia to develop this new technology, in line with the government who is building the National Capital City (IKN) with a futuristic concept and wants everything to be digitalized,” said Joe. Full of optimism, Joe said Rapid would become a decacorn company one day. “We will become one of the largest companies in Southeast Asia,” he added.
At the Wira-Cipta UI 2023 Awarding Night Demo Day event, winners from other categories were also presented. The winner for Best Poster Design was Tim Kimboats; The Best Participant was Muh. Syamsul Umar Arif, Management Study Program student, Makassar State University; and the Best Field Assistant Lecturer was won by Friska Nurliana Sirait, Lecturer in the Visual Communication Design Study Program (DKV) at the Trisakti School of Multimedia.
Chief Executive of the WMK UI Program in 2023, Dr. Nurul Safitri, MA said, “Wira-Cipta UI is a good program that aims to grow entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. The experience learning method used allows students to be directly involved in the field of entrepreneurship. I see that the quality of the learning material is very in line with what students need to become entrepreneurs. The enthusiasm of the participants was also very good. I hope that more UI students will be interested in joining the UI Wira-Cipta program next year.”
