Inspiring the World

The Maticgator (Automatic Turtle Egg Incubator) Team of Universitas Brawijaya (UB) successfully won the achievement in International Engineering Invention & Innovation Exhibition (i-Envex 2018) Universiti Malaysia Perlis on 11-15 April 2018. The team managed to bring home Double Gold Award and Special Award from Korea for its innovation in the field of Environmental Machines and Equipment.

Led by Firmansyah Putra Satria (Electrical Engineering 2015), Vani Dwi Febrian (Vocational 2016), Vita Lutfiah (Vocational 2016), and Vinna Agustina Winata (FIB 2016) all teams leave for Malaysia for presentation. Under the guidance of Ir. Sukandar MP IPM they compete with 300 research teams and innovators across the continent, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Uni Arab Emirates, Poland, Korea, Philippines, and Taiwan, Cambodia, United Kingdom, Vietnam, USA, Taiwan, Thailand, and Romania

The Maticgator team focuses on the preservation of endangered animals, the sea turtles. Sea Turtle is one of the species listed in International Union for the Conservation Nature (IUCN) as one of the endangered species and must be protected. The protection of turtles in Indonesia is regulated in Law No. 5/1990 on the Conservation of Biological Resources and Ecosystems.

In addition, turtles are protected by Government Regulation (PP) No. 7 of 1999 on Preservation of Plant and Animal Species. The opportunity for its utilization through captive breeding is also regulated in PP. 8 of 1999 on the Utilization of Wild Plants and Animals, (Ministry of Environment, 2016).

Embryonic growth is one of the factors of production that plays the most important role in supporting the success of the process of eggs hatching. During incubation it sex is influenced by the temperature of the sand. Male sex enhancement is necessary because due to global warming most eggs hatch females. In addition to the process of breeding itself required up to 6 males for 1 female.

“Turtles are endemic in Indonesia, six of the seven species of turtles are in Indonesia, with this tool we hope turtles can remain sustainable,” said Firman.

According to his research, most people still use the traditional way of hatching process. They still use plastic bags or styrofoam covered with sand to keep the temperature. Usually, they do not give a drain hole so that the waterlogged eggs will die because the air cannot be absorbed by the turtle eggs. In this process, even the fishermen only use feeling in the hatching process.

The temperature treatment in the hatching process will affect the hatchling sex. Faulty treatment of temperatures in the process can change the hatchlings sex. Therefore Maticgator works to optimize the hatching process of the eggs, especially in the process of regulating temperature and sand moisturizing.

In his study, it was concluded that in the range of (24-29)°C it will hatch a male and in the range (29-34)°C the eggs will hatch female. The success rate of this tool is almost hit 90%.

“Actually the principle of maticgator has been used before, but research will still be done and developed for a better and effective output. Later we will also utilize the solar cell as a source of electricity so it can be used efficiently on the beach that has less electricity supply,” he said.

Representing the team Firman also expressed his gratitude to Eka Maulana who has provided support and motivation to the Maticgator team to continue to grow. (mic)

Source: FT-UB