Padang, July 11, 2026 – The Smart Smong Team from Universitas Syiah Kuala (USK) has once again brought pride to the university by achieving outstanding results at GENESIS 5 (Gebyar Nasional Essay Siswa dan Mahasiswa), a national essay competition organized by PRISMA (Pusat Riset Siswa, Mahasiswa, dan Akademisi) and held at Universitas Andalas, Padang.
The team consisted of Khairun Nisa, a Chemistry student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA), who served as team leader; Hafizh Rafida Althaf, also from the Chemistry Study Program, FMIPA; and Jusri, from the Aquaculture Study Program, Faculty of Marine and Fisheries (FKP). The team was supervised by Muhammad Ridho Afifi, M.Si.
At the competition, the Smart Smong Team presented an essay entitled “Smart-Smong: Transforming Simeulue’s Local Wisdom into Sustainable Smart Cultural Tourism as a Strategy for Developing Globally Competitive Tourism Destinations.”
The innovative concept earned the team several prestigious awards, including Overall Champion, First Place, Gold Medal, Best Presentation, and Favorite Poster. These achievements recognized the strength of the team’s idea, the substance and quality of the essay, their presentation skills, and the creativity of their poster visualization.
Through the Smart Smong concept, the team proposed a smart cultural tourism model that combines the local wisdom of Simeulue, particularly the traditional knowledge of Smong, with digital technology. The concept is designed to promote cultural tourism that is not only attractive to visitors but also provides educational value and supports sustainable development.
The innovation integrates several technology-based features, including cultural QR Codes, interactive tourism maps powered by GPS and GIS, tsunami mitigation simulations, as well as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). These technologies are designed to provide visitors with a more interactive tourism experience while introducing them to Simeulue’s cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.
Beyond tourism innovation, Smart Smong carries a broader mission of preserving local wisdom while strengthening disaster mitigation literacy. The Smong tradition, which has been passed down through generations in Simeulue, is positioned as a cultural asset that can be developed as part of the region’s tourism identity while simultaneously serving as an educational medium for disaster preparedness.
The team’s success at GENESIS 5 demonstrates the ability of USK students to develop innovative ideas that connect science, technology, culture, tourism, and sustainability within a single concept. The achievement also highlights how local wisdom can be strengthened through creative approaches and modern technology to address future development challenges.
Through Smart Smong, the USK team hopes that the innovation can contribute to enhancing Simeulue’s tourism appeal, improving public and visitor awareness of disaster mitigation, and supporting the development of innovative, sustainable, and globally competitive cultural tourism destinations.
