UNAIR NEWS- Winning a competition is not an easy thing to achieve. What about winning two competitions on the same day? This extraordinary achievement was achieved by three students of the Faculty of Dental Medicine (FKG) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) on Saturday, August 31, 2021.
In a team, the three students won First Place in Undergraduate E-Poster Presentation of the 6th Joint Scientific Meeting in Dentistry (JSMiD), and Third Place in Literature Review Competition of 2021 Scientific Dentistry Festival (COMPOSITE). They are Martining Shoffa Puspitaningrum, Yuniar Rizqianti, and Desintya Rahmadhani.
According to the FKG UNAIR website, Martining as the team representative revealed that they could not believe that the three of them could win two competitions. “It was not intended to be that way, the competitions we participated in had to be held on the same day. But like it or not, we have to get through it and prepare well,” said Martining, a Class of 2017 FKG UNAIR student.
They worked hard in preparing and faced several challenges for the competitions. One of them was when they are required to master two topics in one day. Luckily both competitions are held entirely online, so they do not have to spend energy to move locations.
“We try to divide the tasks and complement each other. Some are working on the PowerPoint, full paper, and poster. We also created a timeline and guide, which greatly facilitated our preparations,” explained Martining.
In the international E-Poster virtual conference held by FKG UNAIR with Universitas Hasanuddin, and Hiroshima University, they submitted a poster titled ‘Active Compound from Indonesia Mangrove Leaves’ (Aegiceras corniculatum) Extract Exploration for Herbal-Based Mouthwash Development’. The paper was about mangrove leaf extract used to treat Periodontitis (severe gum infection, ed).
Meanwhile, in the 2021 COMPOSITE literature review competition held by Universitas Islam Sultan Agung-Semarang, they explored the natural ingredients from Rosella Flowers to overcome oral manifestations in Covid-19 patients.
Both extraordinary works were presented under the guidance of a young FKG UNAIR lecturer, Dr. Alexander Patera Nugraha, drg., M. Imun. “We are very happy, thankful, and grateful for our mentor who has helped us a lot,” said Martining.
With the two achievements within 24 hours, the three felt grateful that their dreams and motivation to excel during the pandemics could be realized. They want to prove that the situation does not prevent them from continuing to excel.
“We hope there will be opportunities to participate in other competitions, especially if we can travel for it. It is quite refreshing in between our co-ass activities,” concluded Martining. (*)
Author: Intang Arifia
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh (AC/AP)
