On Monday, July 22, 2024, the Head of the Industrial Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Yogyakarta State University (FT UNY), M Adam Jerusalem, S.T., S.H., M.T., Ph.D., and other Industrial Engineering lecturers attended the Higher Education Partnership Initiative (HEPI) and USAID workshops in collaboration with the Center for Engineering Education (CEE) of Sebelas Maret University (UNS). This activity was held at the 2nd Floor Architecture Studio Room, Sebelas Maret University (UNS) Surakarta.

The Higher Education Partnership Initiative (HEPI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are working with Arizona State University to strengthen partnerships between higher education institutions in Indonesia and the United States. HEPI focuses on supporting higher education institutions in Indonesia through consortia involving universities, government, and industry partners. The goal of this effort is to update curricula to be more relevant to industry needs, achieve international accreditation standards, and increase recognition of course credits between universities in the US and Indonesia.

The USAID HEPI Forum carried the theme “How to Conduct a Compliant Capstone Project Course” and was opened by Dr. techn. Sholihin As'ad, M.T., Dean of the Faculty of Engineering UNS and Chair of CEE. This program is expected to create a good academic culture for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) character study programs, so that all graduates are able to answer the needs of the industry in the future.

The resource person at this forum was Dr. Jack Rutherford, an ABET-HEPI consultant who has more than 20 years of experience teaching Capstone Project Courses. He explained and emphasized how to design a Capstone Project Course that meets the standards. This course itself will be taught in Semester 7 in the Industrial Engineering Study Program, FT UNY. The forum activity ended with a question and answer session with the audience and a group photo, marking the conclusion of this useful event.