Irsyad Fikriansyah, ITS Informatics Student Published in Two International Q1 Journals

Image: Irsyad Fikriansyah Ramadhan (right) with Prof. Tohari Ahmad at the Net-Centric Computing (NCC) Laboratory.

Surabaya, F-ELECTICS ITS – Another remarkable achievement has been made by Irsyad Fikriansyah Ramadhan, a student from the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Intelligent Informatics (F-ELECTICS), Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS). This 2021 student has successfully achieved academic excellence through the publication of two Q1 international journals, the results of his research under the guidance of Prof. Tohari Ahmad at the Net-Centric Computing (NCC) Laboratory.

Irsyad’s research journey began in his fifth semester, when he decided to join NCC after being invited by his friend. At that time, there were three main research topics in the lab: biometrics, data hiding, and botnet detection. “Initially, I chose the biometrics topic because it seemed cool and is often used in devices like smartphones,” Irsyad explained. However, his attempts to develop a new algorithm for fingerprint-based authentication systems did not yield results.

Image: Jean, a doctoral student from Rwanda (center) who assisted Irsyad in his research process.

The failure almost made him give up, but Irsyad chose to switch to the topic of data hiding in the following semester. Under the guidance of Prof. Tohari, Irsyad was assisted by Jean, a doctoral student from Rwanda who was also conducting research under the same guidance. Through this collaboration, he began to understand the concept of image steganography, which is the technique of hiding messages or data in digital media without being detected. This was the beginning of his success. His first paper was accepted at the International Conference on Informatics and Computational Sciences (ICICoS) 2024 and published in IEEE Xplore.

Entering his seventh semester, Irsyad decided to take an internship under the guidance of Prof. Tohari because he was late in registering for an industrial internship. This decision opened up new opportunities, namely his further research in the field of data hiding, which was accepted by the Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal (JESTECH) published by Elsevier, which is included in the Q1 Scopus category. He did not stop there; he also wrote a paper titled Software Impact (Elsevier, Q3), which was a development of his previous research at ICICoS.

In the eighth semester, Irsyad challenged himself again by taking on a new topic for his final project (TA), namely botnet detection, together with a PMDSU doctoral student named Aidiel. The research process resulted in a scientific paper that was later accepted by the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS), a reputable Q1 IEEE international journal. “Actually, the motivation was simple. I just wanted to have a paper that other people could read on an international journal website. It feels proud,” he said.

Although he now has two Q1 publications, Irsyad’s journey was not without obstacles. He admitted that he had experienced various challenges, ranging from difficulty finding new ideas, frequent failures in the algorithm implementation process, to writing papers in English, which requires a high level of accuracy. “Reading a lot of literature is tiring, but it is important to understand the novelty of our research. In addition, writing in academic language also requires practice,” he said.

From every failure and revision, Irsyad learned one important thing: consistency. For him, the key to successful publication is not just technical ability, but perseverance and precision in writing. “An interesting idea and neat writing are the keys. If our writing is not enjoyable to read, reviewers will also lose interest,” he explained. He added that collaboration with fellow students and advisors greatly helped the process of developing ideas and writing.

Image: Certificate received by Irsyad Fikriansyah Ramadhan as a presenter at the ICICoS 2024 international conference organized by Diponegoro University.

In the Information Security class taught by Prof. Tohari, he was asked to be a speaker in a sharing session entitled “Research and Challenges in Cyber Security”. On that occasion, Irsyad encouraged students to dare to try research in the field of cyber security.

“I just want to say, don’t be afraid to start. It’s better to be ordinary but consistent than to be a genius but only try once,” he said.

Irsyad expressed his hope to continue his studies at the master’s level in the future. He believes that the international publication experience he gained while at ITS will be an important asset in his future academic endeavors. “If I had given up back then, I might never have been able to stand here and meet these amazing people,” he concluded.

With his unwavering determination and high dedication to research, Irsyad’s story serves as a testament that the journey of research is not always smooth, but every challenge can be a stepping stone toward international achievements.