Adapted from the Site ITB

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – Ricky Gunawan became one of the graduates who received cum laude in the Third Graduation of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) Academic Year 2017/2018 at Sasana Budaya Ganesha (Sabuga) Bandung, Saturday (07/21/2018) . The 2014 ITB Chemical Engineering student successfully graduated with a GPA of 3.96.

Rigun, as Ricky Gunawan said, said, during his studies at ITB, almost all the subjects he studied received an A grade. Only three courses were outside of A. Nevertheless, Rigun claimed to be very satisfied with the results he had achieved for four study year at ITB.

Prila who was born in Jakarta, August 4, 1996 was an alumni of Sunter IPEKA High School. Rigun took the topic of research on catalysts as Final Projects (TA). Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Ir. Subagjo, Rigun and his research colleague, Abdullah, who is also a student of Chemical Engineering class of 2014, successfully developed Zeolite catalysts to produce gasoline from palm oil.

Initially, Rigun was confused to determine the research topic that would be used as a final assignment. However, after discussing with the research colleagues, they agreed to choose the topic of catalyst that was done at the Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratory (TRK), one of the favorite labs at Chemical Engineering ITB.

“Finally we chose about the catalyst because indeed in Indonesia alone almost all chemical industries still import catalysts. In addition, seeing the fact that Indonesia is one of the largest palm oil producing countries in the world, exporting it with relatively low selling prices, and importing fuel at a fairly expensive price, we were finally interested in developing a catalyst that could turn palm oil into fuel. That way, we can suppress gasoline imports and provide added value to products from palm oil, “Rigun explained.

In addition to succeeding in getting an almost perfect GPA, Rigun also won several competitions, one of which was the winner of the 1st Case Study at National Chemical Engineering Symposium (NACES) 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. NACES is one of the most prestigious competitions in the world of Chemical Engineering. He also won the title of ITB Chemical Engineering Achievement Student in 2016.

At present, Rigun managed to become one of the three selected ITB Chemical Engineering students who received STEM scholarships and will continue their Masters studies at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea. Besides focusing on the academic world, Rigun is also active in organizing. He is the Head of the Academic Division at the Chemical Engineering Student Association (Himatek) ITB.

Rigun said that studying at ITB is not easy, there are many joys and sorrows that must be faced, also challenges. But all that he could go through well. “I like to study at ITB because my classmates are good, the lecturers are competent, the environment is beautiful, and the knowledge that I get is very beneficial. But, there is also grief, we must be prepared for mental testing, especially chemical engineering with a very heavy academic burden, TA 3 times, there is a compres test, 2 labs, and so on, “Rigun said.

Rigun also explained that he was interested in chemical engineering since he was in high school. He really likes to read and learn things related to large-scale, economical, and applicable processes and production so that according to him Chemical Engineering is the right department. He hopes that someday he can have a catalyst industry that is able to meet the needs of catalysts in Indonesia.

Reporter: Jonatan Kevin Daniel