After ITB students went to Singapore last September 2017, it was now time for students of Temasek Polytechnic to visit Bandung. So during their 2 weeks visit, the schedule was quite pack for almost every day. During their visit here, the school tried to introduced them to all sorts of local experience which includes famous tourism destinations, local cuisines, Indonesian startups and many more. The program started with a campus tour around ITB Ganesha, whereas students of TP were introduced to using angkot on their way to the campus.

This was a new experience for them, especially looking at how excited they were during the ride. During the campus tour, most students were very amaze with the building of ITB looking at how old most buildings were. After that, a welcoming lunch were held in Bancakan to introduced our local cuisine and practice in using our bare hand during eating. A class session was also conducted, starting from a cross-cultural workshop by Pak Andika to understand more about the difference between Indonesia and Singapore culture and how to overcome those issues. During this session, both students from TP and SBM ITB were actively discussing and participating in saying their thoughts and opinion. Besides that, during their 2 weeks visit, Kak Dina also delivered a lecture on introduction to business model canvas and also market fit. This topic is delivered as a post project from what the students has been doing in Singapore which was prototyping and idea generation. So after identifying a problem which occurs in the society and proposing the idea, it was now time to identify how the products design by students can fit the market in Bandung and how is the form of the business model canvas

Not only were there class sessions, but all students went to many famous tourism destination starting from Tangkuban Perahu which was very interesting for all of us. Especially since we used bus, an approximately 1 km of hiking is needed in order for us to reach the top from the bus parking lot. Students of Singapore also tried riding the horse at Tangkuban Perahu which they enjoyed a lot. The group also visited Lembang Floating Market where the students tried a variety of local cuisine. We also visited a modern hot spring water to relax ourselves after a tiring day. And to end the day, the group made a special visit to the Boscha Observatory. Unfortunately, due to the weather condition which was a little bit cloudy we were not able to see the stars.

In a different day the Singapore students were also brought to Bandung’s must visit place including Asia-Africa Conference Museum, Braga Street, Chinatown Bandung. And also we were fortunate to get the chance to see musical and cultural performance in Saung Angklung Udjo. It is very nice knowing that there are young generations that are aware in preserving Indonesia’s cultural heritage. Speaking of Indonesia’s cultural heritage, the group also had a privilege to experience the process of batik making in Batik Komar. Starting from the pattern drawing, coloring, waxing and drying.

During the program the students were also brought to art galleries in Bandung from Selasar Soenaryo to Nu Art. In Nu Art, a documentary video was presented showing what Nyoman Nu Arta as an artist contribute to Indonesia. We also saw the sculptures that Nyoman Nu Arta has made throughout his years and decades as an artist.

The two week programs ended with a final project presentation showing our identification on the market fit of each product and the business model of it, presented in from of several SBM ITB lecturers as well as visiting guest from Institut Francais Indonesia. And at the evening, we had a farewell dinner in Kapulaga, as well as presenting awards to students in 10 different categories that has been chosen by all the Temasek Polytechnic students as well as SBM ITB students too.

Author: Fabia Zahra Razula