On Monday (14/3) the Research Forum of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia (FTUI) again held a Sharing Session with the theme “Young Scientist”. This event presented two speakers who were two young FTUI lecturers who had just joined, namely Sheila Tobing, ST, M.Eng., Ph.D., from the Energy System Engineering Study Program and Retno Wahyu Nurhayati, STP, M.Eng., Ph. .D.Eng from Chemical Engineering Study Program.
Sheila Tobing, S.T., M.Eng., Ph.D. delivered material entitled “Bio-Inspired Flight”. In his presentation, he explained that Bioinspired Flight is simply learning from nature and trying to apply what is learned in the form of flying vehicles, such as airplanes and drones.
The flying animals that will be studied are bumblebees and hoverflies. What is learned from these two flying animals is used for the application of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) or drones. The most popular type of drone is the flapping wing. This is because the flapping wing type is light and can fly still in one position, and is able to land and take off vertically.
“The flapping wing type is inspired by an insect wing system that moves downstroke and upstroke. To make it easier to apply, this insect wing system has been simplified into up and down wings, wings that move based on angles, and a combination of the two,” said Sheila Tobing.
Many things that affect the flexibility of flapping wings cause each insect to have different information and cannot be generalized. These variations are both a challenge and an opportunity for researchers. The availability of hundreds of millions of insect species creates the opportunity to discover new information about each type of insect. One of them is bumblebee.
“Bumblebees have interesting properties in the concept of drones. These insects have large bodies with small wings. Aerodynamically, bumblebees should not be able to fly. The thing that causes bumblebees to still be able to fly even with small wings is because this insect has a high wing loading. This concept, if applied to drones, will allow drones to fly even with small wings and large loads,” said Sheila Tobing.
Moving on to the next material, Retno Wahyu Nurhayati, S.T.P., M.Eng., Ph.D.Eng explained the material on Microencapsulation of Human Stem Cells: An Approach to Regenerate Tissue. Stem cell or stem cell is a term for cells that do not yet have a special function, so they can change, adapt, and reproduce depending on the location of the cell. Stem cells are often used as transplant materials in medical medicine.
One of the materials used to make tissue engineering is stem cells. These cells are most commonly found in the bone marrow. In the bone marrow there are haematopoietic stem cells which are usually used for the treatment of leukemia patients. “In the case of leukemia, Haematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) transplantation is divided into two ways, autologous and allogeneic. Autologous is performed for patients whose HSC is still good but must undergo a process such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy where HSC is sensitive to this process. HSC is taken from the patient then stored for safekeeping. After the treatment process takes place, then the HSC is returned and can return to function normally. Meanwhile, for patients who do not have normal HSC, will receive HSC from a donor or can be called allogeneic. These donors can come from adults or from the bone marrow of the umbilical cord,” said Retno.
Encapsulation or the process of coating solid, liquid, or gas-sensitive materials on HSCs is carried out so that when transplanted HSCs can be protected from immune cell rejection but still provide permeability so that nutrients and oxygen can enter and leave so that cells can survive. Another function of this encapsulation is as a delivery system. When transplanting tissue or cells, the implanted cells will receive stress due to the transfer from a conducive environment to a new environment. So this encapsulation is used so that the transferred tissue or cell can survive and regenerate.
Met on a separate occasion, the Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU expressed his pride for the new generation of FTUI lecturers. “Regeneration of education staff or lecturers is one of the main concerns of FTUI. FTUI’s young lecturers bring fresh air and new knowledge to the direction of education and research at FTUI. Hopefully in the future these brilliant young lecturers will help develop FTUI into a superior and impactful faculty in Indonesia.”
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia