The Rector of Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Prof. Widodo, S.Si., M.Si., Ph.D.Med.Sc presented the vision and strategy for developing artificial intelligence (AI) talents in the elevAIte collaboration discussion event held by Microsoft Indonesia at the Indonesia Stock Exchange Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (12/02/2025). The elevAIte program aimed at expanding AI literacy to one million learners in Indonesia, with a primary focus on the education sector.
The discussion was attended by Microsoft Corp Executive Somanna Palacanda, along with leaders from several leading universities in Indonesia, including Gadjah Mada University, Telkom University, and Bina Nusantara University. The main agenda of this meeting includes the presentation of the vision and strategy for implementing the elevAIte program in each institution, including Universitas Brawijaya.
In his presentation, Prof. Widodo emphasized UB’s commitment of becoming a center of excellence for AI development in Indonesia. “Universitas Brawijaya has prepared sophisticated infrastructure and curriculum that supports the development of AI across disciplines. Collaboration with Microsoft will accelerate this transformation, strengthen research capacity, and produce AI talents who are ready to compete at the global level,” said Prof. Widodo.
Through this collaboration, UB will gain access to various Microsoft technologies such as Azure, GitHub Copilot, and Power Platform. This program also includes training and certification for students and lecturers, as well as the development of AI curriculum that is integrated with global standards.
“We hope that Microsoft can support the provision of high-performance computing infrastructure, access to the Azure Cloud, and training programs to improve the competence of our lecturers,” added Prof. Widodo.
UB Rector also highlighted the importance of implementing AI for social interests. UB is committed to developing AI projects for social good such as disaster prediction models, health diagnostics, and technology development for the agricultural sector.
“We want to ensure that the technological innovations we develop can have a positive impact not only in academics, but also on the wider community,” concluded Prof. Widodo.
In addition to discussing the program, today’s meeting also became the momentum for the signing of a certificate of cooperation between Microsoft Indonesia and UB. This collaboration includes providing access to Microsoft technology such as Azure, GitHub Copilot, and Power Platform, as well as the development of AI curriculum that is integrated with official certification from Microsoft.
With this strategic collaboration, UB is expected to become a center for AI innovation that will not only have an impact in Indonesia, but also in Southeast Asia, supporting a sustainable and inclusive AI ecosystem.
UB AI Center and Advanced Infrastructure
UB has established the UB AI Center in 2023 and inaugurated it in January 2025. This center functions as a center for AI research and innovation involving more than 4000 students from various faculties. UB’s AI Center is equipped with two NVIDIA DGX A100 supercomputers, each of which has 8 Tesla A100 GPUs and a computing capacity of 10 PetaFLOPs. In addition, UB is connected to the ARENA-PAC global network, enabling international research collaboration with connections of up to 100Gbps. [*/UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
