Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) commits to be a leading university in development of science and technology based on Islamic values for benefits of people. To achieve the goal, UMY emboldens its lecturers and students to innovate to ease people’s lives. For instance, Office of Research, Publication, and Community Service (LP3M) of UMY conducted a seminar and exhibition of Innovation Products of Higher Education 2018 on Thursday (20/9) at Building of K.H. Ibrahim of UMY.

Rector of UMY Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiiyanto, M.P. declared, “The seminar and exhibition aims not only to exhibit our innovation but also to remind UMY members to always do something beneficial for community. Indeed, I would like to emphasize that innovation products are for not only natural science but also social science. We can learn from an experience of Merapi Eruption management 2010. A student of Faculty of Law of UMY recommended a cooking class as trauma healing. People of natural science might never think about the idea. Thus, collaboration among people from different areas of interest is essential to create innovation,” asserted Gunawan.

Meanwhile, at a seminar on ‘Downstream Research Findings and Development, a speaker from Office of Research and Community Service of Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (UNY) Ir. Hartaya, M.T. conveyed that an innovation should be valuable. “An invention can become an innovation if it has been commercialized economically and socially that can ease people’s lives such as industrial technology, alternative medicine, physical therapies, and literature,” he maintained.

Hartaya added that an innovation is a long process and takes a lot of time and money. “Not all innovations can be commercialized and become an innovation. Data revealed that one or two notion(s) can be marketed. Here, market is an essential aspect in an innovation since it can be an incubator and a medium between an inventor and users,” he stressed.

He also mentioned that government is a facilitator to provide aids for the invention. “An innovation found through community-based research can draw government’s attention since it immediately brings merits to community. Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education can give financial aids so that the invention can meet marketable qualifications,” he declared.