Students of the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Sumatera Utara (FT USU), from the Undergraduate Program in Civil Engineering, achieved a national-level accomplishment. Team Gasss won Honorable Mention I in the National Scientific Paper Competition of the Research and Development Competition (RnDC) 2026, held at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, on October 17, 2026.
This year's competition carried the theme “The Role of Student Intellectuals in Addressing Greenwashing and Its Effects on SDGs 2030: An Evidence-Based Perspective.” Through this theme, participants were encouraged to develop critical thinking and evidence-based solutions to greenwashing practices that could affect the achievement of sustainable development targets.
Team Gasss competed in the subtheme “Youth Literacy for Sustainable Development” with their paper entitled “GreenQuest: An Artificial Intelligence-Based Educational Application to Improve Sustainability Literacy and Prevent Greenwashing among Young People.” The idea utilizes advances in artificial intelligence technology as an educational tool to help young people understand sustainability information more critically.
The team consisted of Mayanti, Yosia Rafael Sitorus, and Rukman Ebenezer Tambunan, under the guidance of Ir. Gina Cynthia Raphita Hasibuan, S.T., M.Sc., Ph.D., as their academic supervisor. Collaboration between the students and their supervisor played an important role in developing the idea, preparing the scientific paper, and preparing for the competition stages.
Through GreenQuest, Team Gasss proposed an educational approach that combines sustainability literacy with the use of artificial intelligence. The idea aims to help young people examine environmental information and claims more carefully, enabling them to distinguish substantive sustainability practices from communications that may involve greenwashing.
Winning Honorable Mention I demonstrates the ability of FT USU students to develop ideas that are not only academically grounded but also relevant to contemporary challenges. The issue of greenwashing has become increasingly important as public attention to the environment, sustainability, and the responsibility of institutions and businesses in communicating environmental impacts continues to grow.
The Faculty of Engineering USU appreciates the achievement of Team Gasss and their academic supervisor. This accomplishment is expected to motivate other students to continue developing their creativity, research skills, and innovations, as well as actively participate in various scientific competitions at the national and international levels.
Through its students' achievement at the Research and Development Competition 2026, FT USU continues to encourage the development of an academic generation that is critical, adaptive, and capable of utilizing technological advances to produce solutions that benefit society and support sustainable development.
This achievement primarily supports SDG 4 – Quality Education through competition-based learning and the improvement of sustainability literacy. SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure is relevant through the proposed AI-based application, while SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production is reflected in efforts to educate young people to recognize and prevent greenwashing.