Irendra Radjawali
Of Drones and Indigenous People
Irendra Radjawali, 39, came to a coffee shop in Central Jakarta wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. "I'm not a suit-and-tie type of person," said Radja, as he is known by family and friends, apologizing for his informal clothing. He looked energetic despite having flown to Jakarta that morning from Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Radja explained that he had just spent four days in Kalimantan to operate drones used to assist in spatial mapping in the area.
The drones are all designed by Irendra, who currently works as a researcher at Bonn University in Germany. He consulted what he called the best university on earthYouTube videosto learn how to make his own drone three years ago. And this came about after his research work, collecting data from the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan.
