UBSI Students' Smart Trash Can Wins Gold at National Innovation Week

A team of students from Universitas Bina Sarana Informatika (UBSI) has clinched a gold medal at the 2026 National Innovation Week in Jakarta. Their winning innovation, SIPILAH, is a smart trash can powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), designed to tackle the persistent issue of low waste-sorting awareness at the household level.

The competition, themed "Accelerating Collaborative Innovation for Global Transformation and Competitiveness," was organized by LPPM Universitas Mercu Buana. SIPILAH impressed the jury with its automatic waste sorting capabilities demonstrated live at the exhibition. The system utilizes an offline ESP32-CAM camera with Edge-AI to identify waste types, organic, recyclable inorganic, or residual, and directs them to the correct compartments. It also features an ultrasonic sensor to monitor trash capacity in real-time, transmitting data to an IoT dashboard.

Developed through a collaboration across multiple study programs, the project was led by Gildas Hamilu Shihhah from Electrical Engineering, alongside Nahwa Basyarewan (Electrical Engineering), Adiweno Rashad Sahita (Informatics), and Lina Fuji Lestari (Informatics). Rian Septian Anwar, M.Kom., Head of UBSI's Electrical Engineering study program, supervised the development.

Gildas expressed pride in the achievement, highlighting the valuable learning experience gained from working together to solve real-world problems. "This process taught us to cooperate in solving real problems, from training the AI model to assembling the device. Hopefully, SIPILAH can truly be utilized by the community to manage waste better," Gildas stated. Rian Septian Anwar praised the students' hard work, emphasizing that cross-disciplinary collaboration was key to the innovation's success. "This gold medal achievement is proof that cross-program collaboration can produce impactful innovations. SIPILAH is not only technologically superior but also addresses the environmental problems faced by the community," he said. The team plans further development for potential commercialization.