Lost in Purwokerto

In April, 21 2012 I went to the city of Purwokerto in Middle Java, Indonesia. There was a national symposium in Mathematical Analysis. This symposium was hosted by Department of Mathematics, Universitas Jendral Soedirman, Purwokerto. This was the fifth symposium and this was my first time to be in the activity of Mathematical Analysis group in Indonesia.

The symposium was very nice. It was a one day meeting, consisting of three main talks and three parallel sessions. In each parallel session, there were 6 or 7 talks presented by participant who is interested in Mathematical Analysis. Most of the presenter were students who were eager to disseminate their works in front of Mathematical Analysis experts which I am not.  The symposium was rather small  compared to other conferences I had. This is probably because Mathematical Analysis is not a favorite topic for students. However, the conference ran well  and even though I did not present something but this symposium is a promising event at which I could present something someday.

The city of Purwokerto is quite a small city. I departed from Universitas Pelita Harapan at 10 am in the morning to Bandung. In Bandung (approximately 3 pm), I met my colleagues and departed to Purwokerto by car. We arrived at Purwokerto at 10 pm and it was not a journey that you enjoyed. However, the hotel we were staying was quite nice and I had a good rest. In the morning, from the hotel we departed to the university. Purwokerto is located near the base of Mount Slamet, the city is not that hot that you will experience in Jakarta but it is not as cold as you will find in Bandung. The city is a small city and is famous for the food namely Tempe Mendoan.

Finally, I would like to talk about the Mathematical Analysis group in Indonesia who initiated this kind of meeting in the first place. The mathematical analysis is one of the branches in mathematics. The other branches are applied math, combinatorics, algebra and statistics. Analysis group is probably the smallest among all, however, I find the this group is the most active one in Indonesia. We do not have many people as the other groups do but this group manages to be existed.