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| Hilbar Syahrul Gafur’s anti-harassment shoe, which earned him a gold medal at this year’s International Exhibition of Young Investors in Malaysia. (JG Photo) |
Bogor. With his final exam just weeks away, 14 year-old Hibar Syahrul Gafur said he is now busier than ever as he polishes the prototype of his creation, a pair of women’s shoes modified to ward off attackers.
This hard work has not gone unnoticed. It recently earned him the gold medal at the 2013 International Exhibition of Young Inventors in Malaysia held earlier this month.
Upon his return to Indonesia the 8th grader has been running off his feet. He increased his studies, taking on extra lessons in Indonesian, math, geography and physics at school, sometimes staying as late as 6 p.m. — not to mention meeting the endless wave of guests who were eager to meet the young inventor.
“My dream is to become a scientist someday,” Hibar told the Jakarta Globe during a lunch break at his school in Bogor, West Java.
Hibar said the idea for his creation came after he saw a news report that a girl his age had been subjected to a brutal gang-rape attack in India last July. “Women often become victims of sexual abuse because men consider them weak,” Hibar said.
Similar cases were making the news in Indonesia at the time, and the Bogor native feared for the safety of his 19-year-old sister, Ludhini Volva. So, when the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) held a competition for young inventors last August, Hibar saw an opportunity to design something that women could use to ward off attackers.
“At first I planned to make a bra that could give out an electric shock, but it was too complicated to work in practice, so I finally settled on a shoe,” he said.
Hibar then told his parents about the plan to enter the LIPI competition and his father Jamaluddin, a 46-year-old higher-rank enlisted soldier, introduced him to his friend Widodo, an electrician at his father’s military base. “I haven’t had classes on electrical engineering [at school] yet. So Widodo helped me out,” he said.
His shoe features a nine-volt battery packed into the sole along with circuitry to increase the voltage, all connected to two electrodes along the front of the shoe, which were cunningly disguised as decorative flourishes.
Kick someone with it, Hibar said, and the skin closes the circuit between the electrodes, delivering a jolt powerful enough to stun the attacker and give the woman sufficient time to make an escape. “It’s quite effective,” he said. “If you get stunned, it’ll leave you disoriented for maybe one or two minutes.”
At one end of the shoe, a tiny socket connects the battery to a power source for recharging. Fully charged, the battery could last up to three hours.
“You can turn the shoes on when the wearer feels threatened and switch them off when it’s safe,” he said.
A crude design by his own admission, it was still good enough to win fifth prize in LIPI’s National Young Inventors Awards. The accolade earned Hibar a berth on the Indonesian delegation to the IEYI competition, held this month in Kuala Lumpur.
To compete against other talented youngsters from across the world, Hibar had to modify the design from the unpolished prototype that first earned him the ticket to Malaysia.
“I came up with a whole new model for my shoe. Before, it wasn’t waterproof, so I made it waterproof,” he said. “I also increased the voltage of the electric shock, from 220 volts to 450 volts, and I optimized the design so that it could fit into a three-centimeter wedge heel from the five-centimeter one before.”
Hibar said that he was lucky that his parents were very supportive of his dream, with his father saving what he can from his Rp 3.5 million ($350) monthly salary as a corporal stationed at a local Army’s training facility.
For his project, Hibar said he needed Rp 1 million to buy 12 pairs of shoes for the prototype with another Rp 1 million going toward buying the power supply and attendant circuitry.
Jamaluddin said that when he found out his son will be competing at a prestigious event in Malaysia he had mixed feelings — proud that his son had accomplished great things at a young age and at the same time worried about how to provide him with the cash he needed to polish up his work, flight tickets, accommodation and pocket money.
But the love for his son pushed him to work harder, becoming a motorcycle taxi driver after he finished work to earn extra cash. Jamaluddin also had to borrow money from friends and relatives as well as drawing money in the bank, which he originally saved to send his two children to college.
“I’m so blessed to have children that I can be proud of. Hibar is achieving great things. My daughter goes to Bogor School of Chemistry, one of the most prestigious [in Bogor],” he said at his humble home in a densely populated area just north of Bogor.
Hibar said that he once thought of withdrawing from the competition, seeing the great lengths that his father had undertaken to finance his project.
“But my mother convinced me that it’s OK. I’m so lucky to have such supportive parents,” he said.
His teachers at State Junior High School (SMP) No. 1 in Bogor were also supportive of the project, but he said the school could not afford to pay for the shoes’ development.
That prompted Hibar to write a proposal to Diani Budiarto, the mayor of Bogor. To date the rookie inventor has not received any response.
Yusuar, LIPI’s head of science development, said he believed more was needed to be done to support innovation by the country’s youth. The private sector should become more involved in developing homegrown inventions for commercial release, he said.
“If we can, we’d like to help the inventors from the IEYI competition get patents for their designs, or have the private sector show some interest,” he said.
“That would be ideal, although I think it’s going to be a bit of a struggle.”
Nonetheless, he added, the students’ achievement in Kuala Lumpur is a source of pride for LIPI and showcases the high level of creativity exhibited by the country’s young people.
“LIPI believes that Indonesian youths have it in them to succeed,” he said.
Hibar said he has bigger plans for his invention and vowed not to stop developing and improving his shoes until he sees them available for the masses. He said that currently there are two companies that are interested in mass producing his creation.
But Hibar said that he still wants to patent his invention, make the batteries last longer and the circuitry more compact so that it would fit in thinner soles before accepting their offer.
“Hopefully the shoes will be available to the public so that harassment and violence against women will stop,” he said.
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