Jakarta, September 25th, 2020. University students participating in the XL Future Leaders (XLFL) program are currently completing dozens of Internet of Things (IoT) projects. There were 18 IoT projects, all of which have prototypes and are entering the field trial phase. In fact, most of them have already found potential users who will apply in the project to support the productivity of their business. Starting back in January 2020, it is hoped that all projects will be ready for implementation by November 2020. Now, the IoT project is one of the graduation requirements for XLFL students. Chief Enterprise & SME Officer of XL Axiata Feby Sallyanto said, "This IoT project is a mandatory task for the 7th generation of XLFL students and is a graduation requirement. By working on this IoT assignment, students also get real experiences that are very rare, which not every colleague can get this opportunity. The results so far have been great for those first working on IoT." Feby added to the statement that the students’ IoT projects are targeting five business fields, those of which are; smart building, smart city, agriculture, marine, transportation, and logistics. Currently, all projects have entered into prototype development and market validation. The student creators have gone through initial stages such as understanding the basic principles of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, IoT, and business development. They have also gone through the market survey stage and their project proposals have also passed to be made. Prototype development is the initial process in the implementation of IoT products, including; hardware design, applications, and integration with “flexiot”, XL Axiata's IoT platform. Market validation is a verification process carried out before and during the prototyping process which aims to ascertain whether the product features greatly resonate the problems faced by the market. Thus, the projects have completed about 60% of the entire phase before they are fully completed and ready to be implemented. Two more stages that have yet to be passed are the packaging of product samples and field trials. The packaging of product samples is in the form of PCB-assembly and product casing which pays more attention to the aspects of marketing, aesthetics, and uses. Field trials need to be carried out in order for the products to function well in the environmental conditions of potential users. “When they propose a project idea to be developed, they are obliged to observe the potential users of their idea. Thus, the project being developed really answers the need and leads to a commercial. Therefore, it is not surprising that currently almost all projects have potential users and some have even been involved in project development, "said Feby. In working on the IoT project, XLFL students receive guidance from X-Camp, the first IoT development laboratory in Southeast Asia certified by GSMA and owned by XL Axiata. The development of these XLFL student projects also involves the IMDP (IoT makers Development Program) team as a development team. The IMDP team itself consists of dozens of non-XLFL students from several campuses. They are participants in a special IoT development program. This leads XLFL students to carry out market research, surveys, obtain information on the needs of potential users, and unlock the potential for the commercialization stage. Then the IMDP team helped make prototypes, starting from hardware assembly, firmware programming, to applications in the field. All processes are under X-Camp's guidance.Requires more than technical expertise XLFL students feel that they have learned many lessons from creating IoT projects. The long duration of time to complete the project, up to almost a year, is also a challenge for them. In addition, building an IoT project does not only require expertise in digital technology but requires various non-technical competencies. For example team management, both in dividing tasks, building teamwork, and maintaining emotions. In addition, they must also be able to educate potential markets to negotiate. “At first I thought that IoT could only be made by those who have IT or computer science background and understand coding. However, after doing it, IoT actually requires not only technical skills but also analyzing problems through the eyes of people who face problems directly. To be able to analyze and draw conclusions, a person must accustom himself to positioning himself on the other side. Therefore, the main skill that must be accustomed to in this digital era is to empathize with a problem, so that we can help solve it appropriately through IoT,” said Doni Susanto, a Sriwijaya University student, participant of the XLFL program. XL Axiata sees IoT as one of the beacons of Industrial Revolution 4.0 which provides a new spectrum for XLFL students as future leaders. As a technology that is closely related to social life, IoT has an important role in future progress, in various sectors of business and public services. If they want to become capable leaders in the future, they must at least master digital technology, one of which is IoT. For that purpose, the XLFL program has started placing the IoT project as one of the mandatory tasks for students participating in the program that must be completed as a graduation requirement. The 18 projects currently being completed by students are the result of this compulsory assignment.