IPB University Students Design Applications with Mathematics for Natural Disaster Management

Indonesia's geographical location in the Pacific Ring of Fire lies in the cluster of fires and the confluence of three major active tectonic plates in the world. Namely Indo-Australia, Pacific and Eurasia. This position not only provides benefits to the fertility of Indonesia's territory, but also causes Indonesia to be potentially very often hit by natural disasters. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has noted that during 2018 there were 1,999 disasters in Indonesia.

Disasters have a great influence on people's welfare. This is what drives three IPB University students from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) namely Yudasril, Imas Saumi Amalia, and Indriani Juvita Khustantiliem to design the SMART-DRA application. This application is a smart solution for channeling aid and infrastructure reconstruction for a prosperous post-disaster society.

"The impact of this natural disaster is the destruction of infrastructure. Especially those providing public services such as hospitals, schools and community food and clothing providers. This problem will have a major influence on people's welfare. Our application seeks to offer solutions so that disaster management can be resolved quickly," said Indri.

The concept in this application uses an algorithm. This application is integrated with an algorithm which is arranged into two main concepts namely Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and Critical Path Method (CPM).

"The systematics of work is to collect the results of detection of the affected area, then the distance between regions is calculated using the help of Google maps. With the Kruskal Algorithm, we can find the closest path for volunteers to deliver aid to both rescue and logistical assistance. With the nearest route, the travel time will also be shorter so handling can be done quickly. According to the professor who is engaged in supply and chain management, natural disaster management must be done quickly and precisely because it involves human lives," said Imas.

As for CPM, the task is to help project workers make a schedule of activities in development projects so as to minimize the total project completion time. This is sought to support the existence of efficiency through precision calculation of work time and number of workers. CPM can also be a follow-up to MST when disasters cause damage to road infrastructure, so emergency lines are needed that connect every affected area.

"The SMART-DRA application has more advantages than google maps. Namely the existence of guarantee areas that can be addressed. On google maps, the area is limited to one path, while with the algorithm all paths can be covered," he added.

Through their work they won 1st Place and Favorite Champion in the XXIV National Mathematics Championship Scientific Writing Contest held by Bengkulu University, mid-November.

"We hope that there are those who want to realize this work and become a solution for BNPB. Through this application we also hope to increase the role of mathematicians in Indonesia and open the eyes of the public that in fact mathematics is a basic science that can solve various problems and enter various fields," he concluded. (NR)

Keywords: Algorithm, Application, Disaster, Achievement, IPB University Students