Category: Awards

On July 3, 2025, SOI Asia Director Professor Keiko Okawa received the Ganesa Wirya Jasa Adiutama Award from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia. This prestigious award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of science and technology at both national and international levels in connection with ITB.

Professor Okawa’s relationship with ITB began nearly three decades ago, in 1996, through initiatives such as the WIDE Project, AI3, and the early days of SOI Asia. At the time, regional efforts led by Jun Murai and Suguru Yamaguchi sought to connect universities across Asia to the Internet—a bold vision that has since grown into a broad, resilient network of people and institutions committed to inclusive digital development.

Keiko-sensei—as she is fondly called by many—has worked closely with generations of ITB alumni throughout her time at Keio University, both at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) and the Graduate School of Media Design (KMD). These collaborations have helped deepen the ties between the two institutions and shaped many of the educational and research initiatives under SOI Asia.

This award is not just for me, but for all who have walked this path together.

As we look ahead to 2026, which will mark 30 years since the beginning of this collaborative journey, this award is both a recognition of past achievements and a reminder of the continued importance of cross-border cooperation in education, research, and digital empowerment.

On behalf of the SOI Asia community, we also extend our congratulations to ITB on its 105th anniversary. We are grateful to all those who have contributed to this shared journey—and we look forward to what lies ahead.

Check the official online article from ITB (in Bahasa Indonesia): https://itb.ac.id/berita/itb-anugerahkan-34-penghargaan-untuk-insan-dan-lembaga-berkontribusi-pada-sidang-terbuka-105-tahun-ptti/62621

As the world grows more interconnected, the opportunities for learning mobility—educational experiences that allow learners to study across different geographical, cultural, or conceptual boundaries—have significantly expanded. However, these opportunities often come with the challenge of learning fragmentation and lack of coherence in educational trajectories. Looking at those issues, SOI Asia has been working on a new scheme of micro-credentials to validate online learning within the community named Inxignia.

Rika Ikeda, the first author of an academic paper about Inxignia, delivered a presentation at the 16th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU), held on May 2-4 in Angers, France. The work “A Community-Based Support Scheme to Promote Learning Mobility: Practices in Higher Education in Southeast Asia and Japan” was awarded the Best Position Paper of the conference.

Designed to enhance learning mobility within SOI Asia, this platform aims to create a cohesive learning journey for students participating in various short-term and online educational programs such as APIE and EBA. It integrates learning experiences from different contexts into a coherent, continuous pathway, focusing on building a sense of community among learners.

SOI Asia was also represented by another work about the EBA (Evidence-Based Approach) program, which was selected for poster presentation and publication in the proceedings. Leandro Navarro Hundzinski and Fathima Assilmia conduct research on the use of 360º video in fieldwork activities to collect data and back up claims with evidence. Inxignia and EBA are activities under SOI Asia, supported by the APNIC Foundation.

The award-winning position paper about Inxignia is available at https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2024/126796/126796.pdf.

On September 21st, during the AI³ and SOI Joint meeting, Achmad Basuki (Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia), known as Abazh, was awarded the Dr. Suguru Yamaguchi Memorial Award for his extensive contribution to this community. Basuki is an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Brawijaya, where he currently serves as the Head of the Department of Informatics Engineering. He is also the secretary general of the Indonesia Research and Education Network (IDREN), where he has been actively coordinating the development of research and education institutions in Indonesia. 

In his acceptance speech, Abazh shared his memories of Yamaguchi and his strong spirit and motivation to contribute to the development of the Internet in the region. He also addressed the importance of this community to foster a new generation of Internet engineers to the future of the Internet.

Abazh has extensive experience operating and managing enterprise networks, such as campus networks and research and education networks, for over 15 years, especially during his 2006 – 2012 master’s and doctoral studies at Keio Shonan-Fujisawa Campus, Keio University. His research interests span Software Defined Networking, IoT in rural/challenged networks, Internet Architecture, and IP multicast.

Dr. Suguru Yamaguchi Memorial Award was created in 2017 to commend talented researchers, developers, and operators for the next generations of the AI³/SOI Asia Projects. He founded AI3 in 1996, enabling academic collaboration among research and education communities in 13 Asia-Pacific economies, resulting in a vast contribution to the development of the Internet in the region. He was also firmly committed to cybersecurity and a marathon lover. In April 2014, Yamaguchi was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) and passed away in 2016, leaving an immeasurable legacy for the next generation.