The birth of the Berkeley-Indonesian Visiting Scholar Program
Top row: GLOBE Director of International Partnerships Professor Matthew Sherburne, Chairman Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa of the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consul General Prasetyo Hadi of the Consulate of Indonesia, Dean Faculty Professor Heri Hermansyah of Engineering at the University of Indonesia
Bottom row: Rector Professor Ari Kuncoro of the University of Indonesia, and Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering
Starting on April 21, 2022 and lasting for two days, a delegation from the University of Indonesia, the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Consulate of Indonesia arrived on Berkeley campus for the start of a historical partnership. Representatives from UC Berkeley and Indonesia met for a series of presentations and tours before shaking hands on a new international exchange program. This project, the Berkeley-Indonesian Visiting Scholar Program, will send Indonesian scholars excelling in Biotechnology and Sustainable Energy to UC Berkeley for mentorship with faculty with common research interests. Through these scholars, we hope to foster an enriching relationship as we learn from each other.
To demonstrate the diversity and versatility of Berkeley research, faculty across four departments gave presentations on leading research. Professor Seung-Wuk Lee from Bioengineering, Professor Raluca O. Scarlat from Nuclear Engineering, Professor Steven Conolly who is joint faculty between Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Professor Tarek Zohdi and Reza Alam both from Mechanical Engineering. Professor Raluca Scarlat, who works mostly on energy systems and nuclear reactors, also gave the group a tour of her lab in Etcheverry Hall.
Faculty who presented at the event:
Professor Seung-Wuk Lee, who studies nanomaterials and nanotechnology in the Bioengineering department. He is also the associate director of Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems at Berkeley, and has won numerous awards including having his “Manufacturing Goes Viral” research chosen as part of President Obama’s National Science Foundation Report for the US Congress in 2014.
Assistant Professor Raluca O. Scarlat, from the Nuclear Engineering department, studies ethical engineering, safety analysis, licensing, and design of nuclear reactors. She has over 20 publications and teaches the “Ethics, Engineering, and Society” course at UC Berkeley.
Professor Steven Connolly is joint faculty between the Bioengineering and EECS departments, where he holds the Montford G. Cook Endowed Chair. He specializes in medical imaging and bio-sensing hardware, and has support from many organizations such as CIRM, NIH and UC Discovery, the Siebel Foundation and the Keck Foundation.
Professor Tarek I. Zohdi, from Mechanical Engineering, actively participates in both research and administrative affairs. His positions include but are not limited to the Academic Director of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology and the Associate Dean for Post Baccalaureate Programs. His research focuses on modeling, simulation and optimization of nonconvex multiscale-multiphysics problems for industrial applications.
Associate Professor Reza Alam, from Mechanical Engineering, works on fluid dynamics and ocean renewable energy systems. He has been the American Bureau of Shipping Endowed Chair in Ocean Engineering since 2017, and his work on ocean wave energy harvester has been featured in National Geographic. His lab, the Theoretical & Applied Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, hosts a 68m wave tank at Richmond Field Station.
Another group, composed solely of undergraduate students from the Berkeley Indonesian Student Association (BISA) gave presentations on topics such as COVID safety policy, sand rovers, economics, nanomedicine, and energy engineering.
From this exchange, we hope to share our research experience with Indonesia and enrich our campus culture with international diversity. GLOBE and all of UC Berkeley welcome the University of Indonesia as one of our new international partners, and hope to grow our connection with the vibrant country of Indonesia in the future.
