The series of earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 5.5 that have occurred in several regions of Indonesia in recent years has made us all aware of the importance of increasing our preparedness capabilities for potential earthquake disasters.
In order to address the delay in the public’s awareness of earthquakes, an instrumentation tool is needed that can detect earthquakes in real time. The tool must be able to notify residents of an earthquake in less than 5 seconds.
However, such devices are not yet available on the market. Even if they were available, they would be relatively expensive because they are imported from overseas. Another issue is the relatively high operational and maintenance costs of these devices, which could potentially burden the budget.
In fact, the urgent need to increase community preparedness for the presence of earthquakes is a reliable and effective tool. reliable but can be reached by the community and local government at the sub-district or even village level.
To overcome this problem, Geophysics Expert of FMIPA UI, Dr. Eng. Supriyanto, M.Sc. together with a team consisting of 2 lecturers namely Maryadi, M.Eng., and Sukarno, M.Sc., and 3 students of the geoscience study program consisting of M Badrul Munir Habibulloh, Luthfi Yufajjiru, Saskia Nursarifa had the idea of creating a startup named Geosinyal. Geosinyal, operates in the field of technology, specifically earthquake early detection technology.
The technology is called EWAS (Earthquake Warning Alert System), an innovation conceived by Dr. Eng. Supriyanto, M. Sc. EWAS was first created by Supriyanto in 2018.
“This tool is specifically designed to replace the human five senses (to eliminate subjective factors) and is capable of detecting the presence of an earthquake,” said Suprianto at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, in Depok.
“His startup idea received support and recognition from the UI Directorate of Innovation and Business Incubator (DIIB) through the Technology-Based Startup Grant (UI INCUBATE“2019. The grant output targets are divided into two, namely program targets and publication targets. The program targets include (1) the establishment of a legal business entity, (2) 10% turnover growth (3) the organizational structure of the business entity. Meanwhile, the publication target is to register/transfer EWAS Intellectual Property Rights (Patents & Copyrights) in the name of the University of Indonesia as inventor.
“This way, requests for EWAS equipment from third parties can be processed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations,” Supriyanto added.
Ewas has been successfully installed in earthquake-affected areas, namely in Sembalun Bumbung Village, Sembalun District, East Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara and in Muara – Binuangeun Village, Wanasalam District, Lebak, Banten.
The benefits of the EWAS, which have been installed widely throughout the region, have been felt by local residents. In Lombok, in particular, Supriyanto cited residents’ reports that every time an earthquake occurs, the EWAS’s alarm can be heard throughout the village, alerting villagers to react quickly and evacuate their homes.
EWAS utilizes vibration sensors, sirine/alarm and radio wave communication modules to detect vibrations in a wide area, as is commonly used in communication devices. handy talkie.
The EWAS device is relatively easy to install, so people can easily install it themselves, with the provided installation instructions. The design costs are relatively low and affordable, so the price doesn’t exceed the cost of the device. handphone. EWAS only uses 5 watts of power when on standby and 20 watts when sounding.
