Marchel Andrian Shevchenko's Public Claims vs. Public Records: What Is and Is Not Shown
The speaker at a Telkom-branded event on 8 November 2026 promotes research affiliation with MIT. I looked at what the public records show. This article lists what I found, what I did not find, and why neither is a verdict.
This article is a narrow record. It concerns one speaker's public self-description and the public database entry I captured. It is not a finding of fraud, and the evidence below does not prove one.
Scope and identity note
- Who: Marchel Andrian Shevchenko, listed on the event poster as "Founder of Data Sorcerers".
- Source of the claims: the speaker's own public LinkedIn and Instagram profiles. The event poster itself does not mention MIT or any degree.
- Source of the records: screenshots I took of public pages around 29 August 2026 and before. They are not forensically authenticated, and online profiles change.
- Context: I previously wrote a formal notice (somasi) to the speaker. A fuller assessment is in the AEGIS investigative report and credential assessment, and the event itself is described in what happened in the group.
What the speaker's profiles say
- LinkedIn education (item B-6): "Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Student, Computer Science, Sep 2024 – Present", listed alongside several other institutions.
- Instagram bio (item B-9): an account marked "Public figure" with 7,401 followers, whose bio reads "Building … Research Student @mit".
- LinkedIn "About" (item B-2): a claim of mentorship from MIT faculty, in the same text that says he is "currently finalizing his undergraduate studies in Informatics".
What the public database shows
The public higher-education database (PDDikti) entry I captured shows a Bachelor of Informatics student at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, entered 22 September 2020, with last status "Aktif 2025/2026 Ganjil" (active, odd semester 2025/2026).
A third-party video thumbnail I saw on 8 November shows a status of "Non-Aktif 2025/2026 Genap" (inactive, even semester 2025/2026). That is a secondary source, it differs from my own capture, and it may reflect a later date. I have not verified it.
Three things people mix up
- Being a student in the database is not a contradiction. The database says the speaker is an undergraduate. Many undergraduates also take part in research with outside labs. The listing alone does not disprove the LinkedIn entry.
- "Research Student" is not a defined credential. It does not say enrolled, degree-seeking, visiting, volunteer or collaborator. Whether it is accurate depends on what the relationship with the institution actually is.
- I found no proof, and that is not proof of absence. I have not found an enrolment record, supervisor, publication or output in the speaker's name at MIT. That is only what I found. MIT may hold records I cannot see. The only way to resolve this is a written answer from the institution or from the speaker's own documents.
What I do not know
- Whether the affiliation exists in some form I have not seen.
- The speaker's current database status.
- Whether Telkom AI Center of Excellence or AI Connect knew of the profile claims when it chose the speaker.
- Whether the company listed on the poster as a collaborator has any formal link to the organisers. I only know what the poster shows.
I also searched the national company registry by name for the speaker's company and saw "Pencarian Tidak Ditemukan" (not found). That search ran from a phone, hit a captcha error first, and searched by name only. It means nothing by itself. A formal request to the registry would settle it.
Why this matters to an event organiser
The poster, not the speaker's profile, carries the Telkom logos. A logo tells students that someone checked. If it cannot be shown that the check was made, the logo lends credit that nobody has earned yet. That is the reason I asked Telkom to verify from primary sources, and I set out the requests in what I asked Telkom to do.
A short checklist an organiser can run in an afternoon is in what a corporate logo owes participants.
Right of reply and correction policy
Marchel Andrian Shevchenko is invited to send a response, a correction or documents, for example a written confirmation of his affiliation from the institution concerned. A substantive response, or his documents, may be published alongside this article, subject to reasonable editing for privacy, safety and relevance. If reliable evidence shows that any factual statement here is wrong, I will correct it and note the change.
Published by Rahmat Wibowo, InfraLoka — infraloka.co.id
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