Today I visited Mr Arief Hamdani, Director of the Leadership Program at the BUMN School of Excellence, Danantara. As the Advisor and Chair of the IEEE Indonesia S&S SIGHT, we discussed the IEEE framework for cultivating strategic leadership founded on technological capability and the orchestration of humanit program.
Happy IEEE Day! Started as professional collaborations in 1884, the IEEE expands to research & dissemination, to strategic global plan and standardization, to cutting-edge technology design & deployment, to the engagement of industry, universities, schools, students, and startups, and to humanitarian technology activities. IEEE: advancing technology for humanity.
In April 1884, a group of pioneers, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George A. Hamilton, met in New York to form a professional body for the nascent field of electrical engineering, establishing the AIEE under Norvin Green. That same year, on 7–8 October, the AIEE held its first technical meeting at the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia, an event widely regarded as the birth of organised electrical engineering in America. Among its early contributors were Nikola Tesla, Elihu Thomson, Edwin Houston, and Edward Weston, whose collective work later shaped the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
A real enchantment to take part in the IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference 2025, Chiba University of Commerce, 28 September to 1 October, themed “Beyond SDGs, A New Humanitarian Era with Intelligent Partners.”
The day before the Conference, I reported the IEEE President-Elect Mary Ellen Randall and HTB President Grayson Randall about the IEEE humanitarian collaborative innovations in Indonesia, strengthening digital ecosystems and sustainable innovation.
During the Opening Ceremony, HTB President spoke about the unique role of engineers as architects of hope — those who bridge innovation with social responsibility. IEEE President-Elect Mary Ellen Randall followed the next day with a visionary keynote on IEEE’s global roadmap to elevate the engineering profession while enhancing the quality of human life.
I had the privilege of speaking in Special Program 15, “Synergy for Sustainable Impact,” sharing insights on how synergy, complexity, and ecosystem collaboration can drive sustainable transformation. Drawing from Indonesia’s national vision, I presented examples of the MSME digital ecosystem, where engineering, entrepreneurship, and social innovation intersect to empower local communities. I also highlighted initiatives under IEEE Indonesia SIGHT in Sociopreneurship and Sustainability, where student branches are developing real solutions — solar-powered water systems, IoT monitoring, and sociopreneurship incubation — now being implemented at Gadjah Mada University and Udayana University.
The IEEE R10 HTC 2025 was not just a conference of ideas, but a living demonstration of synergy — where intellect, empathy, and technology converge. It reaffirmed a truth I deeply value: engineering is not merely about machines or systems, but about humanity itself.
Panel session at the IEEE TEMSCON 2024, presenting Marc Schlichtner as speaker, Robert Bierwolf as moderator, and Alexander Brem, Anna Tyshetskaya, and yours truly as panelists. The topic was “accelerating innovation for sustainable future”. We discussed the role of digital transformations in business & societal innovations, both in so-called developed & developing nations, maximising strategic collaborations to overcome the uncertainties, share capabilities & risks, gain market development momenta, and create optimal values through emergence effects of ecosystems. Again, an honour for me to be placed among the giants in Technology & Engineering Management world.
The IEEE TEMSCON 2024 have a special day for Industry forum, with some speakers anchoring panel discussions. Yours truly was appointed as one of the keynote speakers, presenting Complexity Theory in the form of Complex Adaptive System to Ecosystem-based business strategy. Happily I got exciting praises & feedbacks from “the giants” (as is Newton’s “standing on the shoulders of the giants”). Will tell in detail in my other blog (https://kuncoro.com). You can also visit my web on Complexity at https://complexity.center.
I had also some exciting talk with two vice rectors of ITS, i.e. Prof Agus Hatta and Prof Imam Baihaqi. They invited to explore this matter in depth with ITS team sometimes in Surabaya. My pleasure, Profs.
IEEE Briefing was led by the IEEE President of 2024, Dr Tom Coughlin, while he paid a visit to Jakarta this week, accompanied by IEEE R10 Director Prof. Lance Fung, IEEE R10 Director-Elect Prof. Takako Hashimoto, IEEE R10 Women-in-Engineering Committee Chair Dr Agnes Irwanti, IEEE Malaysia Section Chair Dr Bernard Lim, and IEEE Indonesia Section Chair Prof. Gamantyo Hendrantoro. As part of the leadership activities, this IEEE briefing was held on the morning of May 14, followed by a talkshow broadcasted by TVRI.
Prof Ford Lumban Gaol was the Vice Chair when I serves as the Chairman of the IEEE Indonesia Section 2013-2015. He & I also co-lead the IEEE Tensymp 2016 in Bali. Then he experienced a lot as a visiting lecture in Russia and Japan. But today, we celebrate his inauguration as a Professor of Computer Science at the Binus University.
The inauguration was led by the Rector of Binus University, Dr. Nelly; and also attended by the Chair of the Senate Prof Harjanto Prabowo. Prof Harjanto mentioned that Prof Ford is the one who established Doctorate Program in Computer Science at Binus University.
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As usual, the IEEE gang, i.e. the members of the Advisory Board and Executive Committee plus some other IEEE volunteers attended this inauguration as a special participants. Attended today: Prof Endra, Prof Dadang, Dr Wahidin, Dr Agnes, Mr Satriyo, and surely yours truly.
Serendipitously, I also met Dr Indra Utoyo as one of the speech presented, representing a community in Big Data development.
Dr Indra presented the collaborative innovation in Big Data-focused digital development and its influence to the society.
The ceremony was carried out ½ day, and continued by informal meetings & photo sessions.
As a part of the IEEE President visit to Indonesia, the IEEE Indonesia Section co-organise with TVRI, an on-air discussion titled the IEEE ASEAN Roundtable on Climate Change.
As one of the speaker, I explored the opportunity of using currently available or currently developed technology to reduce and overcome the impact of the climate change. Climate change is always one of the motivations behind many collaborative innovations in the development of technology and technology-based business.
In more applicative approach in the industry, the paradigm of of ecosystem-based business growth has motivated enterprises to share capabilities, resources, opportunities, so they can reduce the cost and risk, while also reduce the cost for the environment by many sharing methods used in business ecosystems, facilitated by massive digitalisation that enables process and capabilities to be modularised, reused, integrated, improved, and orchestrated among collaborative or event competitive businesses.
More about this event: [URL]
TEMS — or the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society — is an IEEE society with a mission to advance, enhance, and improve essential management and leadership knowledge and skills of IEEE members.
The IEEE TEMS Regional Leaders Subcommittee carried out its 1st meeting this year today, with a new team. This meeting was led by Mohamed Aboud, the VP for Membership Development. The TEMS President, Ravikiran Annaswamy, addressed the meeting.
The meeting aims to leverage the program to leverage the TEMS activities in wider areas, and to improve collaborations among TEMS members in engineering management and leadership field. Our field of interest encompasses the management sciences and practices required for defining, implementing, and managing engineering and technology. Specific topics of interest include technology policy development, assessment, and transfer; research; product design and development; manufacturing operations; innovation and entrepreneurship; program and project management; strategy; education and training; organisational development and human behavior; transitioning to management; and the socioeconomic impact of engineering and technology management.
The IEEE Computer Society Indonesia Chapter has carried out a member gathering today. Apparently, during the COVID-19 crises, it is not very easy to organise such meeting, albeit an online one — so this gathering presented no less than six presenters; two of which are Prof Cecilia Meras, the Past President of the IEEE Computer Society, and yours truly.
My presentation was titled «Digital Platforms for Society Resilience in Time of Crises». We have understood that these crises have motivated businesses to plan, do, or speed up some kinds of digital transformation. But the transformation should not only stop at adapting the business to the new situations — whatever they are. Instead, it is actually a just-in-time context to design a strategic transformation by exploring the new opportunities and using potential collaborative innovations. In theory, we have all we need to start establishing it with synergistic efforts.
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