Megawati Wijaya’s choice to study and work in industrial Korea is a calculated one. The former Tanoto Scholar has a strong aspiration to take the knowledge she gains in Korea back to Indonesia, and achieve her dream of developing a technology startup in her home country.

Megawati currently works as a software engineer at AKA Intelligence, an artificial intelligence and robotics developer based in Seoul, South Korea. Her main responsibility is to develop artificial intelligence software which will be applied in both daily and industrial activities.

Technology has always been a strong area of interest for the 28-year-old since her childhood days. It was the reason behind the choice to study Computer Science at the University of Indonesia, from which she graduated in 2012.

However, unsatisfied with an undergraduate degree, Megawati went on to take a Master’s at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

“I chose to study in Korea because of the rapid technological development in this country. I hope I can learn as much as I can from here and someday be able to apply my skills and knowledge in Indonesia,” she said.

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Megawati shared that there are a few advantages to studying in Korea over Indonesia.

“Students in Korea are encouraged to undertake research by acquiring government funding, whereas in Indonesia, students pretty much prepare to enter the workforce,” she explained.

“So as postgraduate students, we were required to enter labs here to work on research projects under the guidance of a professor. Plus, it was unique in that we were even paid for the research work,” Megawati added.

However, Megawati notes that the language barrier did pose a challenge during her studies.

“Korean is predominantly used in daily life and the office, so we were definitely required to learn the language,” she shared.

To improve her language skills, Megawati took up Korean language courses at Keimyung University.

Her diligent efforts have paid off as she now has a stable career in the Land of the Morning Calm.

However, Megawati intends to return to Indonesia as soon as she feels that her knowledge and skills are enough to establish a robotics-related startup there.

With it, she hopes to be able to contribute to her country in certain fields, including education by facilitating more effective foreign language learning for Indonesians.

Benny Wahyudianto, a Tanoto Scholar, is contributing to science by being part of a team in Japan which is conducting research about the synthesis of gold-based supramolecular compounds used within the chemical industry.

Led by the renowned Professor Takumi Konno of Osaka University, the team is researching the compounds which can be developed for several purposes, including as chemical sensors and hosts for catalyst compounds.

These compounds can be developed as several purposes, such as chemical sensor and host for catalyst compounds.

At the moment, the team is preparing a draft manuscript with the plan to submit it to international journals and disseminate the new findings to the wider scientific community.

In addition, the team is seeking patent rights in order to commercialise application of these compounds.

Benny is  currently undertaking a Master of Science at the Department of Chemistry Graduate School of Science at Osaka University, while conducting research at the university’s Konno Laboratory.

Prior to that, he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.

Benny received a Tanoto Foundation scholarship in 2013, which helped to support his undergraduate studies at UGM.

According to him, being part of the Tanoto Foundation family was an invaluable experience which helped to pave his motivational road to success.

“The best part of my time as a Tanoto Scholar was listening to a speech from Mr Sukanto Tanoto back then. He unknowingly became my direct motivator when he shared that he was able to build his business by learning from thousands of failures,” said Benny.

Benny was impressed with Mr Tanoto, who was successful in using that principle to develop the Royal Golden Eagle Group into a global company.

“He shared that he traveled around several parts of the world when he was younger to meet entrepreneurs and to hear about their past failures before running his own company.

“So the main takeaway was the importance of being able to get up after a failure and to learn from it afterwards,” Benny said.

With that, Benny began viewing overcoming obstacles as being common for everyone. He faced his own obstacle when he first arrived in Japan in 2017 for graduate school, losing 10kg of weight in just one week due to culture shock.

“Indonesia and Japan are quite different in culture. Easy examples are food portions and working hours. From what I know, typical food portions for Japanese people are half that of what Indonesians eat,” he said.

Benny was also forced to master at least 15 research instruments within a two-month deadline.

“As our lab skills are not on par to Japan’s, I found myself working more than 12 hours per day (sometimes up to 16 hours) to keep up. And this is even though I had more than four years of lab experience before coming to Japan,” Benny shared.

According to Benny, more than 300 experiments which he conducted have ended in failure.

But he persisted and finally succeeded in improving the characterization of gold-based metalloligand compounds and expanding its application during his research on coordination chemistry, supramolecular compounds and crystallography.

Benny said that he has received many lecturer or researcher job offers both within and outside Indonesia in the past year.

In terms of his recent scientific discovery, he shared that he has even been contacted by a businessman interested in using his his idea to build within the chemical industry in indonesia.

“I told him that we will able to cover or supply the ASEAN area within one to five years, if his company were to use my road map,” Benny said.

Benny said that he plans to return to Indonesia in three to four years’ time.

“I want to make Indonesian people understand that our nation’s potential is vast, both in terms of natural resources and human resources.

“I don’t really care for pessimists’ negativity – I think if we want to do something, we should just do it and do the best we can. Leave the outcome to God,” he said.

Life is full of opportunities and it is up to us to make use of them. One of the greatest opportunities I have ever encountered is my job now as a Well Site Manager at Chevron Pacific Indonesia.

I am happy because the job is one which I’ve really wanted since my university days. The job is a match with what I studied, which is Petroleum Engineering, at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

But, what I have achieved now would not have been possible without the insights and skills that I gained from my days as a Tanoto Scholar.

I studied at ITB from 2006 to 2010, and received the Tanoto Foundation scholarship in 2008.
In 2009, during my second last year of university, I took part in the International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) in Doha, Qatar.

I was the only student who represented Indonesia at this international event, and I was really nervous about having to present at the conference. Imagine my surprise when I achieved third place in the ‘Best Presentation’ category, which included participants from various countries!

Luckily, at that point, I had already received training in public speaking from Tanoto Foundation, as part of my scholarship.
Tanoto Foundation had previously held a training session for scholars at my university campus which aimed to strengthen our presentation skills. At the session, we learned that good presentations should have excellent material and be well-timed.

But these lessons did not only help when I presented at the IPTC in Qatar, as I took them with me even as I entered the working world.

The ability to communicate well is a very useful skill in the working world, especially when you work in a multinational company with colleagues from various countries.

When I first started my job, I did face problems communicating with my overseas colleagues – especially during phone calls or conference calls which are sometimes not as clear as face-to-face communication.

But I was able to overcome them eventually, thanks to the lessons I gained through attending Tanoto Foundation’s training, including how to convey ideas in a more direct way.

I feel glad that the hard and soft skills I’ve learned from being a Tanoto Scholar have led to opportunities for me to visit other countries during my professional life.

An especially memorable moment is when I was sent to Houston in the United States for training. It was there where I was given the chance to gain a better understanding of the petroleum industry.

My dream now is to improve my skills and knowledge even more, and eventually be able to call myself a well control expert.

Written by Eka Pardomuan
Former Tanoto Scholar and graduate of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)