FMIPA UII  – The top 10 teams out of 75, consisting of 220 high school students (SMA/SMK/MA) from across Indonesia, competed in the final round of the “Lens of The Science 2023” Product Creation Competition, organized by the D3 Chemical Analysis Program on Saturday, 3 Jumadil Akhir / 16 December 2023, at the Auditorium of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA), Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII).

Lens of the Science is a national-level video-based product creation competition for high school students aimed at enhancing students’ competitiveness in showcasing their creativity and innovation through a product presented in video format. The resulting products are expected to contribute positively to society.

The competition, which opened registration in October 2023, initially attracted hundreds of applicants. Participants were selected based on predefined criteria outlined in the competition announcement, which included seven sub-themes: eco-friendly products, new and renewable energy, advanced technology, health and well-being, education and learning, social innovation products, as well as culture and heritage. These ideas were delivered through short videos, leading to the selection of 75 teams from across Indonesia.

From these 75 teams, 10 finalists were chosen based on public voting through likes and comments on the videos uploaded via the Lens of the Science social media platform. These finalists then presented their work either offline at FMIPA or online from their respective schools.

“This product creation competition, using a video-based concept, is highly relevant to today’s era, where young people are fond of creating short content videos. We provided a platform in the form of a creative product competition, which helps foster a love for science among the younger generation—something that has been waning recently as youth become more interested in IT. Given the strong enthusiasm from participants, FMIPA plans to hold this competition again in future years,” said Prof. Riyanto, Ph.D., Dean of FMIPA UII, in an interview with UII News during the event’s grand finale.

Based on the jury’s assessment, the winner of this year’s Product Creation Competition was Team SAMARA from SMK-SMAK Bogor with their innovation DM Segera (Sensitive and Fast MSG Detector). Second place went to Team NASR from SMAN 2 Kudus with their centrifugal chili cutter tool. Third place was awarded to Team RADIOACTIVE from SMAN 1 Tasikmalaya with their creation Smart Drowsiness Alert System to Enhance Driving Safety. Team ORGEN KEREN from MAN 1 Medan received the Favorite Team Award, and Team DREAM TEAM from MAN 1 Jepara was awarded Best Presentation.

At the end of the event, winners in all categories received cash prizes sponsored by the D3 Chemical Analysis Program and FMIPA UII. Additionally, all registration fees collected from the competition were donated to charity and officially handed over by the Dean of FMIPA to the UII Lazis (Islamic charitable foundation) representative present at the event.