The Head of the Information Systems Department at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) Kediri, Erika Devi Udayanti, is committed to transforming the young generation to be creative, innovative, and resourceful. This enthusiastic commitment motivates her to set for her career as a college instructor.

Erika stated that she did not jump into her career as a lecturer straight away. Her first job was as an employee at a banking company in Semarang.

“Previously, I didn’t consider working in the educational sector as an option upon graduating from college. Only a year after working at the banking company, I came back to Udinus to continue my postgraduate studies and become a college instructor,” she uttered.

Erika’s first experience as a lecturer started back in 2012. At that time, she was assigned to teach in the Informatics Department at Udinus. This is because her postgraduate studies are concerned with computer science.

“However, I was more skilled in the information systems and decided to dedicate my life and produce works to this field of study only,” explained the woman born in 1987.

During her time working as a college instructor, she was also once trusted to be the student coordinator of the Computer Science Faculty until 2020. She upheld this trust well and successfully led her students to achieve international accomplishments.

“I was also trusted to be a reviewer for the Student Creativity Program (PKM), which was held by the Directorate of Education and Student Affairs (Belmawa Ristekdikti). Additionally, I also bore the role as an instructor for the Indonesian Student Entrepreneurial program (PWMI),” she uttered.

“As my time as a student coordinator met its end, I was assigned to the department unit to manage the Data Analysis Research Fields. By 2021, I joined the Quality Control Taskforce (GKM) of the Postgraduate Program. Following that, I was given the responsibility to be the Head of the Information Systems Department at Udinus Kediri in September of 2022,” she continued.

Erika’s Feats as a Head Department

Erika has made various attempts to improve the quality of the Information Systems Department at Udinus Kediri to accomplish Excellent accreditation. Since 2022, the Information Systems Department has participated in various competitions represented by both students and the department itself.

“Recently, we accomplished numerous feats. During the P2MW program, there are four teams consisting of students who passed a funding selection with a total fund of Rp. 60 million. Not only that, we were also chosen to participate in the Practitioner Teaching Program for two years in a row. It was a program initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology,” she explained.

Furthermore, the Information Systems Department at Udinus Kediri was also given funds Rp. 100 million to host a collaboration class through this Practitioner Teaching Program. The collaboration class was hosted by twelve industrial practitioners from various companies.

On the same occasion, Erika also explained various Independent Campus Programs (MBKM) participated by students of the Information Systems. Those programs include the Independent Student Exchange Program (PMM), the Certified Internship and Independent Study Program, the Campus Teaching Program, and the Student Organization Capacity Coaching Program (PKKO). Moreover, she is also committed to tying collaborations with various parties to improve the productivity of the academic sector, research, and community services.

In addition, Erika has also conducted numerous research, including ‘The Development of The eTubero As An Attempt To Diagnose The Medicine-Resistant Tuberculosis,’ ‘The COVID-19 Monitoring System To Predict the Public Reaction Utilizing Sentiment Analysis On Twitter,’ and ‘The Deep Learning Approach On the Thermography-based COVID-19 Monitoring System.’

“One of the most phenomenal start-ups that I’m proud of is ‘Culture Academy.’ It was developed by Hendriansyah, an Information System student. As for the accomplishment achieved by students at Udinus Kediri, there is also a start-up, ‘Kazeem,’ focusing on helping boarding schools to be more technologically aware by utilizing a business based on Software as a Service (Saas),” she stated proudly.

According to her, becoming a college lecturer opened an opportunity for Erika to interact with individuals of different backgrounds. Thus, Erika and her fellow instructors can learn from each other in teaching students within a dynamic academic community.