MAKASSAR – Hasanuddin University held the Community Service Program (KKN) Expo for Wave 116. The event showcased a wide range of student products and innovations produced during their KKN in various regions. The expo took place at the JK Arenatorium Sports Hall at Unhas on Saturday, 19 September 2026.
A total of 5,062 students took part in KKN Wave 116. While living among communities, the students identified various problems and needs at their KKN locations, then designed solutions realized as products or innovations.
Unhas Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Muhammad Ruslin, said the KKN Expo is an opportunity to showcase students’ work and to encourage the products to be useful and to have greater economic value.
“Students go down into the community to find its problems and issues. Then they offer alternative solutions. Those solutions are about how to raise the value of the results of KKN activities,” said Prof. Ruslin.
From KKN Wave 116, there were 1,817 business- and industry-based outputs, 1,449 appropriate technology products, and 1,368 other innovation products. In addition, there were 428 arts and culture products created together with communities.
Prof. Ruslin further said these products will not end with the KKN itself. Unhas will encourage follow-up mentoring through collaboration with the innovation and business development unit.
The mentoring may include product development, the formation of spin-offs, and meeting legal requirements. Products considered to have potential will be guided toward obtaining trademarks, permits, and the necessary certifications, including approval from the Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) for relevant products.
The sustainability of KKN results is an important part of Unhas’s effort to strengthen the connection between students and real problems in society. Unhas hopes KKN will be not only a learning space for students but also a source of solutions that can continue to be developed after the program ends.
Head of the Unhas Subdirectorate of Community-Based Learning, Dr. Ir. Sulaeha Thamrin, said the products displayed at the KKN Wave 116 Expo are only part of the students’ total outputs. The number of products produced reached more than 2,000, but not all were brought to the expo venue.
“Not everything could be displayed. Some products were asked to stay at the KKN sites because they are very useful to the community,” Dr. Sulaeha explained.
According to Sulaeha, this shows that some KKN results are already being used directly by the community. For this reason, future KKN Expos will be directed not only as a showcase but also as a starting point for determining which products have development potential.
Sulaeha further said Unhas will prioritize certain products for business mentoring through collaboration with the innovation and business development unit. In this way, KKN outputs can be steered to grow into business activities that have an economic impact on communities.
In addition, Sulaeha also sees progress in innovation compared with previous KKN rounds. Advances in information and technology have enabled students to produce increasingly diverse and innovative products that meet community needs. (*/ams)
Editor: Ishaq Rahman
This article is an English translation of the original Indonesian report.