May 24, 2016 – The University of Indonesia was host to the Idea Generation component of Youth Spark Indonesia supported by Microsoft. Some 500 students and 79 teachers were assisted by 16 volunteers as they worked together in small groups to develop creative technology based ideas in competition with each other. These ideas will be submitted to Prestasi Junior and Microsoft for review with the best of these proceeding to a further round of review and selection. The objective of this series of innovative educational activities is to encourage both young people and their teachers involvement in IT based learning. By doing so we are both readying high school graduates for success in the world of work with specific focus on STEM careers and also providing sustainability by ensuring teachers become more confident in the use of IT based education within the classroom.

The event, a huge success, was attended by Mrs Kadarwati Mardiutama representing the Technical Service Unit of the Data and Information Systems Center Jakarta Provincial Education Authority and Mrs Aisyah Representing the Education Department of the city of South Jakarta, Mr Siddharta Moersjid and Mr Pribadi Setiyanto representing the Prestasi Junior Indonesia Board and Ms Esther Sianipar representing Microsoft. The students enthusiastically applied themselves to the task in hand and the large venue was abuzz with energy throughout the morning. Thanks to the volunteers from University of Indonesia and other education institutions for supporting the vocational high school students in this Idea Generation event.