Jakarta, 12 December 2023. Coinciding with a decade of the student character development program, XL Axiata Future Leaders (XLFL) 2023 held another National Conference 2023. A total of 190 awardee students who have completed the 10th batch of the XLFL program for two years graduated in Jakarta on Sunday (10/12). In its one-decade journey, the program has also produced around 75 social innovation projects initiated by the awardees based on social problems from time to time.
The 10th batch of graduates came from various campuses located in six provinces, such as Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Brawijaya University (UB), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and so on. Just like in previous years, XL Axiata also mentored and even facilitated training on the utilization of Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the awardees, which began in 2019. This project also served as a requirement for their graduation from the XL Axiata Future Leaders program.
This graduation procession was carried out directly by the Chief Corporate Affairs of XL Axiata, Marwan O. Baasir. Also present were XL Axiata's Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Feby Sallyanto; XL Axiata's Group Head of Corporate Communication, Reza Mirza; and Founder and Chairman, Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), Dr. Dino Patti Djalal.
In a series of National Conference 2023 events held at XL Axiata Tower on Friday-Sunday, December 8–10, 2023, the awardees of the 10th batch also displayed and presented digital solutions based on a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), prepared as use cases in the upcoming 5G era. This project was also part of the awardees' graduation requirements.
President Director & CEO of XL Axiata, Dian Siswarini, said, "I am proud of XLFL's achievement of teaching 1,500 students, the future leaders of Indonesia, with a total of more than 174,000 applicants in 10 years. The XLFL program, which began in 2012, has ended this year. However, XL Axiata's commitment to supporting education will continue. Furthermore, XL Axiata will focus more on the women's empowerment program, Sisternet."
Furthermore, the task of creating AI and IoT-based projects was given to XLFL awardees as a response to the massive advancement of technology. XL Axiata hoped that this program could shape the awardee's ability to systematize problem-solving that humans generally have into a model to be implemented by computers that apply data-based decision-making without human intervention, Dian further explained.
XLFL Students Created Digital Solutions
In the series of 10 years of XL Future Leaders' presence in Indonesia, there were a total of 16 IoT-based projects developed by the 10th batch of awardees, serving as their graduation requirements. There was Hydrophonix, which raised technology to monitor temperature conditions, PH levels, and sunlight, equipped with automation of nutrition. Then there was the X-Maggot, which could help black soldier fly farmers to control maggot conditions. Not to forget, there was also Temptrax, a solution to the temperature of commodities delivered using cold chain supply.
The works were ideas produced and developed by XLFL awardees based on market research they conducted over several months. During the project development process, each group received assistance from XL Axiata's IoT Lab, XCamp, through the AI Maker Development Program. The assistance provided included an introduction to IoT and AI, business model development, and product prototype development.
Those projects were focused on addressing digitalization needs in six sectors, i.e. agriculture, smart cities, manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, utilities and energy, and health. The lack of digitalization penetration in these sectors led to more opportunities for automation product creation to facilitate work processes and presented great business potential. In addition, the six sectors also showed great opportunities and high absorption capabilities to adapt to AI and IoT technologies.
Judges would select the five best projects from five categories, namely Most Profitable, Most Innovation Collaboration, Most Outstanding, Most Nice Try, and Most Fast Track. In addition, all IoT student-made products were assessed based on their level of innovation and profitability. The winners with the best innovations received prizes in the form of funds.
In addition, XL Axiata also opened opportunities for the five best projects to become XL Axiata's business partners in developing IoT products to meet market needs. Then, as a form of sustainability, it did not rule out the possibility for XL Axiata to continue the development of these various ideas through XCamp to be able to meet market needs from various business sectors that would be monetized by XL Axiata's Business Solutions team.
This year, the XLFL program entered a decade, which also marked ten years of XL Axiata working on developing the characteristics of selected students. A total of 1,500 people received this scholarship program. They came from 92 campuses spread across various provinces in Indonesia. Armed with soft skills from XLFL, the alumni are now taking part in various fields, both in state and government institutions, the private sector, NGOs, and as entrepreneurs who open job opportunities.