From AI-Based Marriage Counseling to Plastic Bricks, UMN MMT Students Sweep The Boards at The ASEAN Competition

Postgraduate students from the Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) Master of Technology Management (MMT) program swept the board at the international competition “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

TANGERANG – Graduate students from the Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) Master of Technology Management (Magister Managemen Teknologi/MMT) program have once again made a proud achievement on the international stage. Four teams of MMT UMN Batch 12 students each won awards, ranging from the Platinum Award (1st place), Silver Award (2nd place), to the Bronze Award (3rd place) at “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

This ASEAN-level competition was organized by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Puncak Alam, Malaysia, on Friday (07/11/2025). The competition encouraged participants to demonstrate creativity, problem-solving skills, and entrepreneurial spirit. The topics were diverse, ranging from science and technology to the social sciences and humanities, as well as business and management.

The success of the four MMT UMN student teams demonstrates the quality of technology-based, social, and sustainability-based innovation. This achievement also provides strong evidence that the academic environment at UMN supports project-based, collaborative, and innovation-oriented learning.

The Dean of the UMN Faculty of Business, Dr. Prio Utomo, S.T, MPC., emphasized that this achievement was inseparable from a mentoring process that focused on deepening ideas. He explained that the role of the mentor was not to direct students towards a specific solution, but to hone their ideas so that they did not stop at social campaigns alone.

Prio said that mentoring is carried out through the preparation of more specific problem statements, testing technical feasibility, assessing safety and quality, mapping partners and stakeholders, and preparing sustainability models so that innovations can have a long-term impact.

“The innovation comes from the students, but campus mentoring ensures that the idea is measurable, feasible, and relevant to the needs of the community,” said Prio, who also served as a mentor for one of the teams in this competition.

Platinum Award (1st Place): Bicaracinta.id

“Bicaracinta.id” won the Platinum Award at “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

The business idea behind “Bicaracinta.id” is a digital-based marriage counseling platform designed to help couples in Indonesia build healthy, stable relationships based on good communication.

The “Bicaracinta.id” team consists of UMN MMT students Bayu Adi Prasetiyo, Adienda Nur Amalina, Resi Muhammad Z P, and Donny Bagas Willyananta. They identified the rising divorce rate, low relationship literacy, and barriers to conventional counseling services as urgent issues that need to be addressed. The “Bicaracinta.id” platform provides professional counseling, specialized relationship-focused psychological assessments, interactive educational modules, and AI-based emotion tracking to address these issues.

“Currently, development has reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4, where the concept has been formed and tested on a limited basis in the form of models or simulations,” Head of the “Bicaracinta.id” team and MMT UMN student, Bayu Adi Prasetiyo, said.

This platform is expected to strengthen family welfare in Indonesia and help reduce conflict and divorce rates. Not only that, but the long-term goal is also to create a generation that is more emotionally intelligent and ready to build harmonious relationships.

“We want to change the mindset from ‘counseling for broken relationships’ to ‘counseling as a space for growth, reflection, and prevention,’” Bayu said.

Silver Award (2nd place): Rabata Ecobricks Solution

“Rabata Ecobricks Solution” won the Silver Award at “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

The “Rabata Ecobricks Solution” business idea features an innovation that aims to solve two major problems in Indonesia: waste management and construction efficiency. This innovation stems from the awareness that plastic now has a major negative impact on terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

The Rabata team—consisting of UMN MMT students Steffano, Dyota A. Yusuf, Simon Nicholov Sumantri, and Nurcholis Fachri—believes that stopping the use of plastic is not a sustainable long-term solution. According to them, what is more critical is recycling plastic into materials that have new value and benefits.

“Our idea is to manage waste to produce plastic bricks in a hexagonal structure that can make brick production more efficient. This reduces the cost of plastic brick production by up to 12%,” Steffano, leader of the “Rabata Ecobricks Solution” team, explained.

Through Rabata, they hope to increase the value of plastic waste, making it a valuable raw material. This hope also includes the active participation of entrepreneurs in waste management, as well as government support in the use of plastic bricks for flats and public buildings as a cost-saving measure in construction.

“So far, we have connections with several plastic factories and recycling industries to be used for testing. However, we do not yet have sufficient resources to fund this project. Meanwhile, we have created a 3D model of the bricks that can be 3D printed for prototyping. We hope to continue this project in the future, and we would even be happy if someone else took over this project for us to reduce plastic waste,” Steffano said.

Silver Award (2nd place): SantApp

The “SantApp” business idea won the Silver Award at “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

“SantApp: AI-Powered Indonesian Food Recognition for Personalized Nutrition and Health Management” is a freemium application powered by AI that analyzes food and provides instant nutritional information. The main idea is to simplify the food-tracking process without requiring complex manual input. Users simply scan their food, and the system will recognize the dish type, estimate the portion, and calculate the macronutrients (calories, sugar, carbohydrates, and fat).

The team behind SantApp consists of Elisabeth Noveni Da Silva, Fallin Tika, Muhammad Haidar Rais, and Yuliana Hema. The team chose to focus on Indonesian food because most nutrition apps on the market are still based on foreign food datasets, which are less accurate. Indonesia is also facing health issues such as obesity, diabetes, stunting, and diet-related diseases. SantApp is expected to be a more appropriate, precise, and easy-to-use solution.

“‘SantApp’ is also here to synergize with the current government program called ‘Makan Bergizi Gratis’ (MBG), which hopes that the community can directly track the nutritional content of MBG,” Muhammad Haidar Rais, leader of the “SantApp” team, said.

Bronze Award (3rd place): Hush Pet Suites

The “Hush Pet Suites” business idea won the Bronze Award at “The 4th International Business and Management Virtual Innovation & Invention of Ideas Competition (VIIIC) 2025”.

The business idea “Hush Pet Suites: A Strategic Partnership Model for Pet Hotels as an Innovative Solution to the Occupancy Crisis and Pet Humanization Trend” offers an integrated premium pet hospitality solution that combines physical facilities for pets with the convenience of digital technology. “Hush Pet Suites” not only provides boarding services but also embodies the concept of a “Hotel & Lifestyle Hub” for pets.

The Pet Humanization trend serves as the foundation for the project proposed by UMN MMT students Steven, Ayu Marisa, and Nur Irfan Pangestu. This idea stems from the personal experience of one of the team members who lost their pet after leaving it at a conventional boarding facility. This experience led to the idea of creating a safe, transparent, and comfortable boarding facility for pets that are treated like family members.

The team explained that their education in the UMN MMT Program played an important role in formulating this project. Various lessons played an essential role in management, including business feasibility analysis and capital structure, alongside an emphasis on digital innovation.

“From a technological perspective, UMN emphasizes the importance of digital transformation. Therefore, we are not only constructing physical buildings, but also investing in ‘Digitalization of Reservation & Customer Management Systems’. We understand that technology is not merely a supporting factor, but rather a key driver of competitive advantage (Strategic Information Systems),” Steven, Chair of the “Hush Pet Suites” team, said.

By Melinda Chang | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan , di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara.