International Workshop of Extreme Climate

Since 2010, Mathematics @ UPH has a collaboration with one of research division of BMKG. For those who does not what BMKG is, it is a government institution which monitors Indonesia's climate activities, volcanoes, earthquake and things that are related to the earth's activity.

In 22-23 November 2011, our Math Department was invited to attend to an international workshop held by BMKG. The general title of this meeting is the World Delta Summit and one of the activity of this event which is one of our main concern is the Workshop of Extreme Climate, organised by one of division of BMKG.

Even though not all the staff of Mathematics UPH could attend to this workshop (only one though) but we hope   that by this meeting we can extend our collaboration furthermore and gain a new research that is useful for both parties. 

Renewing a passport

In February 2012, my passport will be expired. Actually I am planning to go for a holiday in the middle of January 2012. They said that I cannot go outside of Indonesia because of that. So, the solution is I need to renew my passport.

Last week I went to the Indonesian Immigration Office to renew it. There were some requirements that I need to bring and I have brought almost all documents that I have to bring, yes almost. The documents that we need to (perhaps we must) bring are the old passport (yes of course), the copy of my birth certificate, the copy of Indonesian citizenship, the copy of Family Card, and the recommendation letter from the company I am working. I did not bring the last document FYI. And note that although we submit the copies of all the documents, we need to bring the original ones during the interview.

In the total, we will have to come the office three times, first we come to submit all the documents (we dont need the original in this case), second, we come to pay, to take a photo and to be interviewed (please bring all your original documents and the cost of new passport is 255 thousand rupiah). And finally in the third coming, we come to get our new passport. 

Today, this is the day I am going to come to the Immigration Office, to get my new passport (yepiiii).
And it is another information from my experience, by default, the old passport will be kept by the immigration office. This is quite strange, why can't I keep my old passport. After asking this thing, I was able to get my old passport back by submitting another form. I just need to pay six thousand rupiah only for a stamp. 

Actually, today is my fourth time coming to the Immigration Office as I have a problem with my birth certificate. I hope this note can remind me in the following five years, I need to fix my birth certificate. 

Thesis for bachelor degree

Thanks to one of lecturers in this Math Dept, we have now a proper guide for our students who want to write thesis for his/her bachelor degree. This guide is well written and we hope this guide can help students as well as the thesis advisers. And on Monday, I shall have to distribute this guide to all the lecturers and socialize it. Perhaps I shall upload it and everyone especially my students can download it easily. Just wait, I am gonna do this on Monday.

Next week on Tuesday at 11am, if I am not wrong, we shall have one of our students having her thesis defense, and good luck for her. She will be the first to do this defense.

Again, I must remind myself for the near future (it would be good if I can do this next week) to write a report about the fact that we have improved this thesis guide.

Math Curriculum

Two or three weeks ago, our math department was audited. Three people came to see whether our department has met the standard that our university has approved. One of the things they ask was the curriculum run by our department. I gave the current curriculum ran by this department and I told them that this curriculum was revised a month ago. We agreed to drop some of the lectures and to add new lectures that we think are more useful for our students. And they ask whether we have a report of that action and we didn't.

Yep, at that time I learned that there has to be a report in every action in this department. Today we just made a new amendment in our Math curriculum and I hope that I do not forget to make a report of this action. I hope this note can serve as a reminder for me.

ICTP - Trieste

Finally I have a time to write about my last academic trip this year. I went to Italy, to be precise I went to ICTP in Trieste and I loveee it. It was so beautiful there. My trip happened to be around June-July and guess what, it was during summer. It wasn't freezing and it wasn't that hot either.

I was there for a Math summer school. The title of the school was Computational Methods in Dynamics. I learned a lot there. I met new friends from around the world and it was such an experience.

One thing I like about ICTP is that this institute is dedicated for people from third world countries. We are able to get support from the institute to come for a short visit for either a conference or a school or just an academic visit.

I really hope that I can come to ICTP in the near future.

Accreditation

I am now working at UPH, one of universities in Indonesia, and I happened to be working now in Math Dept. This is a new department as it started in 2005. At the moment we are preparing for 'the' Accreditation which is the act of getting recognition for an educational institutional that maintains suitable standards. The question is what standards are we using? The standard we are using is from The Ministry of Education run by Indonesian Government. Actually, I am wondering whether or not this accreditation needs to be done in other countries?

I am not the only one in this Department doing this accreditation. There is a team for it, and the main reason there is a team is the fact that there are lots and lots of work. I am part of the team and we have to make a book that explains that our Math Department really conducts its job according to 'the standard'. We started at August this year and until now (November 2011) it hasn't been finished, you can imagine!

One of the main points why we are working very slow is because we do not have a record of what we have done for the past 6 years. I joined this dept since 2010 so i have nothing to say, but I promise myself that I will always write a record (might be in this blog) about what this department has achieved and done in the future.

Menado - 29 June 2010 -- 03 July 2010

In March 2010, I screamed secretly as I was so excited I was going to Menado June this year. Actually, you should not call the city Menado as it should be called Manado. There was a mathematical conference there and this trip was going to be my first academic trip since I went back to Indonesia back from Melbourne.

The conference was from 30th of June until the 3rd of July, so we decided to buy a return ticket that was departed from Jakarta on the 29th and returned on the 4th of July.

Here was the picture taken when we were just arrived at Manado. The name of the airport in Manado is Sam Ratulangi Airport who was the first Governor in North Sulawesi. Sam Ratulangi is one of the national heroes that has a slogan "Si tou timou tumou tou" meaning that a human could be called a human if he is useful to others.

Thus, I found a few interesting things when I was there.

1. Cewek
In Indonesia, especially in Java, we usually called "Mbak" to a waitress. But in Manado, if you call a waitress "Mbak" she would not respond. You should call her "Cewek" and she would respond. This fact amazes me as in the city where I live, if you call a girl, a waitress "Cewek," this means you mock her.

2. Adipura
Manado is the cleanest city that I have ever been. Of course I must exclude cities that are outside Indonesia. It is very rare that there is a city in Indonesia that is as clean as Manado. And the government awarded an Adipura for the city of Manado.

3. Bunaken
If you go to Manado, it won't be incomplete if you don't go to Bunaken. Bunaken is an island that is one hour from Manado. It has a very beautiful marine park where we can do a scuba diving.
The water temperatures ranging between 27 to 29 °C. The park has a high diversity of corals, fish, echinoderms or sponges. Notably, 7 of the 8 species of giant clams that occur in the world, occur in Bunaken.

4. Angkot
Angkot is the most common public transportation in Indonesia. It is a van, usually, and it could contain 12/13 passengers. But the best thing about Manado, angkot (they called it Oto there) has only 7/8 passengers which makes we sit far more comfortable than angkot in Java.
5. Bukit Doa
Other than Bunaken, we could go to Bukit Doa. This is a small mountain and is a site of Catholic Pilgrimage. The hill is so beautiful and peaceful make you do not want to go home. On the top of the hill, they made a chapel. From there you can see a good view of Manado and places around.

Istana Plaza - Bandung 2009

One day in 2009, I remembered how and where we first met. It was in Department of Mathematics of Institute Technology Bandung. We were students of this university. Some of us enrolled in 1999 and some of us enrolled in 2000.

Four years had been passed and we took our steps separately. We were still contacting each other though, via the most useful communication at that time, email.

Let us skip the history and go back to the present time. In March 2009 we met again after so many years. It was unfortunate that there were other friends that were not there. However, that other friends were not satisfied to the fact that they could not meet and share each other's stories so we made a second get together in May.

Apparently, the third, is going to be tonight.
I ll see you there folks.

Melbourne City - 2008

Perhaps you do not believe it but it was really my bike. I still have the bike even though I do not have it right now as it is now in Melbourne while I am somewhere else.

The bike helps me to adjust my first few months in Melbourne. When I did not have my bike, I was always afraid if I missed my bus, as a consequence I'd have to walk to my house which is quite far. So, instead of planning to catch a bus to get home from work I choose to ride my own bike.

This photo was taken by Sonnya. She is quite good as she was able to take the above photo which became one of photos that I really like. After having some gathering with all of my mudikan friends, we went to city of Melbourne to have a coffee.

La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary

In the picture at the left, you are looking at the La Trobe wildlife sanctuary. I was in one of the natural places in La Trobe University, where I studied for my degree.

There are me, Lennaert, Dave, Ya Juan and Will. They are my collagues. There is also one more of my collagues, who was the one taking this photo. She is Priscilla.

La Trobe University is very nice. It is located quite far away from the city, therefore it still has natural attractions. The sanctuary has many animals that people not from Australia would like to see. There are kangaroos, kakatua birds, and many native Australian animals.

We were there to take Ya Juan that was about to leave the country. She has never seen Australian native animals so we took her to the sanctuary.

More pics please visit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanky/sets/