Indonesian Students Win e-ICON World Contest with Hugrow App
Two Year 12 students from EcoSocioTech School (EST) TB Simatupang, Ravakatya Anadra (Andra) and Nicholas Emmanuel (Nicho), won first place in the 16th e-ICON World Contest with their app Hugrow. In the international competition, the pair collaborated with two South Korean students, Kim Siwoo and Kim Mirae.
Hugrow is an app designed to help families improve communication, build positive habits, and support mental health and healthier relationships. The idea was developed as a contribution to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Good Health and Well-Being.
“When designing a contribution for SDG number three, we chose to integrate existing factors into a single solution. We see the family as the essence of society and a key opportunity to address mental health and well-being issues,” said Andra on Wednesday (12/8/2026).
The e-ICON World Contest is a competition under South Korea’s Ministry of Education that brings together students from various countries to develop technology-based solutions to social problems. Participants are challenged not only to produce innovations but also to explain the relevance, implementation, and impact of the solutions they offer.
Hugrow was developed with a number of features, including Initial Assessment & SMART Goals to map family communication conditions and set improvement targets. The app is also equipped with Daily Check-In to monitor family members’ moods and provide relevant activity recommendations.
Other features include Habit Building & Voucher Shop, which provides daily challenges to encourage positive habits along with appreciation for user consistency. Hugrow also offers Regular Assessment & Global Ripple Map to measure family relationship development and map problem patterns anonymously.
In the competition, participants’ work was assessed by a panel comprising academics, technology industry figures, and South Korean educational institutions. Among the judges were Professor Soonsik Suh of Chuncheon National University of Education, Professor Inseong Jeon of Gwangju National University of Education, Kihyun Park of Tekville Education Co Ltd, and Youjin Hwang of Samsung Electronics.
Nicho said the journey to the final round was a challenging experience because the team had to defend their idea before experienced judges.
“Our feelings were mixed between happiness at reaching the grand final and nervousness when going on stage to deliver the final presentation that would determine the winners,” said Nicho.
According to him, the process also trained the team’s ability to present the app concept convincingly. “By doing so, we were able to communicate the app idea so that it was accepted by the judges who have long experience in this competition,” he said.