Artificial Intelligence for Indonesia
Widodo Budiharto
The on Aug. 23 appointment of Widodo Budiharto, 40, as a professor of artificial intelligence at Jakarta’s Bina Nusantara University is a milestone: With the appointment, he became the youngest of the university’s 12 tenured professors.
Widodo’s achievement in obtaining the professorship, leap frogging directly from lecturer to professor, is also a rare feat in Indonesian academia.
Widodo, who studied artificial intelligence (AI), has already produced many academic works, such as a prototype AI robot, publications and research papers. He has written at least 36 books and dozens of papers, including those published by highly reputable journals. He also has nine AI intellectual property rights and has been a visiting professor overseas.
For his performance and dedication, the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry approved Widodo’s appointment as professor, even though he had to skip one level in professional academia, that of chief lecturer.
Widodo is known as a serious person who does not talk too much, but is innovative and happy to encourage fellow lecturers and students to produce more innovations based on AI – a computer system that can duplicate the human ability to think and to determine cause and effect. The word “artificial intelligence”, Widodo said, was coined in 1958.
Helping humans
His idealism as a lecturer and researcher urges him to continue to innovate, mainly in creating humanoid robots that can help improve public welfare. Every time he coaches students and teams in applying AI research in creating robots, Widodo prioritizes its benefits for human life.
Widodo’s research and team have produced several humanoid robot prototypes that can help in the education sector, such as learning to count, to sing and to tell stories. It is unique that the prototype robots speak fluent Indonesian.
Not only in education, but he also applies AI in finding solutions to help people with physical disabilities. One such work is an AI wheelchair. The wheelchair can be operated as the driver wishes by using brain signals. Such an invention will free disabled people of their dependence on others to push the wheelchair. There is also a robotic prosthetic arm that has a muscle sensor.
Widodo is also happy with the student research that has produced a Rapiro-type of robot. Theready-to-assemble model robot can be programmed to become fully automated, and can understand Indonesian words and sentences.
“For us humans, it is easy to understand a sentence, but not for a robot. By using natural language processing, robots can become‘smart’ and understand the meaning of our words,” Widodo said.
Living with robots, Widodo said, will be no stranger to daily life in the coming years, including in Indonesia. “The time is approaching soon. Indonesia has started being able to apply artificial intelligence,” he said.
In the future, Widodo said, artificial intelligence that can read human thoughts will be developed through programming and training to catch different signals from the human brain. Only by using our brains can we humans create motion, for example to move things around, switch lights on and off, and all other actions.
“Through focused research and clear direction, we can produce artificial intelligence products. This research is expected to be developed on an industrial scale,” Widodo said.
Raising awareness
Widodo said the public awareness needed to be raised on the robotic technology that will enter Indonesia, along with all its consequences. In Japan, for example, robots already serve customers at restaurants. The resulting impact is a cut in the number of human employees.
“We have to be ready for the future trend of technology. We will live alongside AI systems,” he said.
Widodo’s achievements in becoming a professor of artificial intelligence at a young age and fast-tracking the academic ladder is the result of his hard work and commitment. After he graduated from university, he worked as a trainer in the information technology sector. And then he became a lecturer. After earning a master’s degree in 2002, he taught at Binus University.
“Being a lecturer is my passion, because I can share knowledge,” Widodo said, adding that he inherited this from his father, who was a widya iswara, or a mentor-teacher.
Widodo said his father had always pushed him to be the best. Therefore, when he became a lecturer, he produced research papers and published in international journals. “Becoming the best in [academic] publications is not easy. But I am lucky to have the talent and love to write. When we get research funding, it is easier to get another,” he said.
In heading the School of Computer Science and Robotics and Intelligent Systems Research Laboratory at Binus University, Widodo aims to make an international name for the lab and for it to produce research that is useful for humans by 2025. In order to achieve this dream, the laboratory continues to organize training workshops.
“Looking at the future, all artificial intelligence and opportunities will produce innovation. All products will start to use artificial intelligence. We have to be able to develop innovations,” he said.
Widodo also continues to develop inter-departmental research to produce AI humanoid robots. He emphasized that the essential aim of research was not only to publish, but to create solutions for the people and the nation.
WIDODO BUDIHARTO
Date/place of birth: Tanjung Pinang, April 27, 1977
Children: 4
Education: Bachelor, Physics, University of Indonesia (2000); Master, Information Technology, STT Benarif, Jakarta (2003); Sandwich PhD, Robotics, Kumamoto University, Japan(2011); Doctoral, Electrical Engineering, ITS Surabaya (2012); Postdoctoral program, Robotics & Artificial Intelligence, University of Hosei, Japan (2016)
Profession: Professor of Artificial Intelligence, School of Computer Science, Binus University
Academic grants/fellowships: Erasmus Mundus scholarship, Lorraine University, France (2017); Visiting Scholar program, University of Hosei, Japan (2016); Erasmus Mundus scholarship, Bourgogne University, France (2008)
