Photo taken before Covid-19 pandemic (SBM ITB company visit images)

MRT Jakarta works together with researchers of SBM ITB conducted a research delivered in a two-hour webinar Center for Policy & Public Management, SBM ITB “Mitigating the Covid-19 Infection Risk at MRT Jakarta: A System Approach” on Wednesday (1/7/2020).

“A scientific method is needed to analyze the effectiveness of policies and actions implemented or will be implemented to mitigate the Covid-19 infection risk at MRT Jakarta,” said the President Director, William Sabandar.

Led by Dean Prof Utomo Sarjono Putro, the research team adopted the agent-based modeling and simulation as a social system approach to study the behavioral aspects of the stakeholders.

“In a system, there are autonomous and purposeful stakeholders in which they have different needs and power to act based on what their preferences,” said Prof Utomo. While studying the behavior of public transport users, Dr Yos Sunitiyoso highlighted the importance of understanding their behavior to support the decision-making process.

He underlined type of agents with heterogeneous behaviors as well as social learning process of individuals and inevitable interactions among them. “Public transport would not be source of infection if users orderly obey the health protocols issued by MRT in order to ensure their safe ride,” said the researcher.

Explaining about the agent-based simulation, Dr Manahan Siallagan as the lead modeler in the research team, completed the research with agent-based simulation to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 at MRT. According to him, scenarios have also been prepared for MRT to help them making a sound and informed decision.

Also joining the research team, there were Dr. Santi Novani who was also a moderator of the webinar, Khrisna Ariyanto, MT., M.Eng., Arfenia Nita, MMgt(Fin)., and Pratiwi Sukmawati B.Sc., from the Decision Making and Strategic Negotiation interest group of SBM ITB.

Attended by hundreds of online participants, the webinar ended with a closing remark from the decision-making guru, Prof Kuntoro Mangkusubroto. “A small working unit of MRT and SBM is needed to further develop the approach. And this idea is surely essential for other service providers in mitigating the risk of Covid-19 outbreak,” told the former Head of BRR Aceh-Nias.