The Role of Higher Education in Advancing National Aerospace Technology Innovation – As an archipelagic country whose various regions are separated by many seas, Indonesia has a great opportunity to optimize the potential of the aviation industry because of the many needs for high air mobility.

The Role of Higher Education in Advancing National Aerospace Technology Innovation

However, the position of the aviation industry as one of the means of transportation that costs a lot, of course, also raises challenges in the development of the aviation industry in Indonesia.

Via the 10th Dialogue Series at the Archipelago Dialogue Forum (FDN), Prof. Dr. Ir. Tatacipta Dirgantara, M.T., explained the various roles of universities, especially FTMD ITB in supporting the national aerospace technology and creative discovery ecosystem. This webinar will be held on Tuesday (6/9/2022).

Prof. Tatacipta started his presentation of the material by explaining about the various trends that are happening in the aerospace industry today. “Two main popularity that is being created and starting to be applied to the aerospace industry today are decarbonization and digitization,” explained the Professor at KK Light Structures, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (FTMD) ITB.

According to him, decarbonization affects various aspects of the aircraft. Starting from the use of composite materials for aircraft design, increasing engine efficiency, to the use of fuels that come from renewable sources such as biofuels and electricity.

While digitization plays a role in the formation of various external components on aircraft such as additive manufacturing and 3D printing for various interior and exterior

components of the aircraft. “Various technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, maintenance robotics, blockchain, and augmented reality have also begun to be widely applied to various aircraft in the world. “One of the concrete examples is the Computerized Twin Technology technology from Siemens which can make a digital duplicate of an aircraft to simplify the predictive maintenance process,” explained Prof. Tatacipta.

Of course, the various technological advances that have been made in the global aerospace industry have made the aerospace industry in Indonesia deserve a lot of study, research, to use and make various creative technological inventions for the progress and development of the national aerospace industry. Therefore, universities have various crucial roles to advance the development of the national aerospace industry.

“The core of the various crucial roles of higher education institutions for the advancement of the national aerospace industry are education, research and product development

which includes the integration of research and development, design, modeling, reverse engineering, prototypes and testing,” concluded Prof. Tatacipta. In particular, the role of academics and universities in the national aerospace industry will also be related to the role of the industry for commercialization and the government for discipline.

One of the roles of FTMD ITB in realizing the role of universities and academics in the development of the national aerospace industry is the creation of the ITB Aerospace Research Hub. The ITB Aerospace Research Hub is here because Indonesia really needs the latest lab facilities, the triple helix ecosystem, and the establishment of office links with industry.