Student and working life in Italy

More than a year since this blog was abandoned. Feel pretty bad right now 😀 Anyway I have been moved to Italy for this past 1 year to continue my 2nd year EMSE study in Freie Universitat Bozen. Italy was great and beautifuuuuull. Especially where I live now, South Tyrol. This area is simply amazing. Located between Italy and Austria, in the center of Alps, surrounded by mountains. Local people speaks 2 languages, Italian and German, so living here is pretty unique experience. But now I will not write about how good is life in Bolzano, instead I will write about unique Italian working culture.

Val di Vunes, Bolzano, South Tyrol.

Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee in German)

For past couple months I have been working as an intern in one of software company in South Tyrol, Wuerth Phoenix Srl. As an intern I experienced full working activity, and now I can tell you that I liked it so much. As workers we have coffee break at 10am, and then another break for lunch and playing table football. Pretty convenience 😀 For lunch we can eat anything in restaurant near the company. And I can tell you that the food is deliciooouuuss. I ate pizza almost everyday. This is real pizza not the one like in pizza hut (I asked my colleagues, they said pizza hut is not pizza 😀 )

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A post shared by Taufan Ardhinata (@taufanardhinata)

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A post shared by Taufan Ardhinata (@taufanardhinata)

But wait, life is not only about good things, there are also bad things. That is for instance taxes 😀 Pretty common problem everywhere. Working when I’m still a student, I still have to pay taxes (even my scholarship is subject of tax as well) :cry:. As comparison, in Germany, working student is free of taxes as long as the salary is less than +-500 Euro.
Okay that is story for now, Good night, I hope I can maintain my writing mood. Hopefully it wont takes more than a year again to write another post. Ciao Ciao!!! 😀

Working as HiWi in Germany

In Germany, student are allowed to work maximum 20 hours per week. Many students took this chance to get more money and off course experience. The job type is vary from shop keeper, freelancer, teaching assistant, or research assistant. Student can work in commercial company, university, or research company. Here, I will write about my experience working as research assistant in one of the biggest research company in Germany, Fraunhofer Institute. In German we call it “Hilfswissenschaftler” or “HiWi”. For me this is the best job for student, what can be better for student than getting paid for study? 😀

Fraunhofer IESE, Germany research Institute for Software Engineering. Place where I’m working as research assistant/HiWi.

Job: For 2 months I’ve been working as a so called “Hilfswissenschaftler” or “HiWi” which translates literally as “Help Scientist” in Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (http://www.iese.fraunhofer.de). Fraunhofer IESE is a research company that focused in Software Engineering methods and processes based on empirical evidence. Regardless of whether software is information system, embedded in cars, planes, or medical devices, their project work is based on state-of-the-art scientific knowledge.

New life in Germany

Halloo guten tag! 😀
Finally my first post from my new country. I didn’t feel it’s been 3 months I’ve lived in Germany. Its quite unbelievable for me, its like..dream. And it’s still felt just like that even after 3 months passed haha. Btw in this post, I will not write much. Wise man said, let the picture talks 😀 So this is it.

My dream began here. Erasmus mundus scholarship ceremony in Jakarta.

Erasmus mundus scholarship award ceremony.

And then I fly from Surabaya -> Jakarta -> Doha, Qatar -> Frankfurt, Germany.

Frankfurt Airport

I still remember just after this arrival, I did ‘Sujud Syukur’ in the airport. Dont care what others said haha. And then from frankfurt I went to Kaiserslautern by train, my living city for next 1 year.

Enjoy Taiwan 1 : Chiang Kai-sek Memorial Hall

After deciding to choose EMSE program and drop my study in NTUST, all that I care about is enjoy my last remaining days in Taiwan and visit all famous places here. I only have 3 days remain because I have to go back soon to Indonesia to proceed my visa to study in Germany. Yesterday I have bought a ticket using cheap flight fare Jetstar Air. It cost me around 8700TWD (2,7 milion IDR).

I remember back then my college mates invite me to visit some famous places in Taiwan, but at that time I think I still have plenty of time in Taiwan, so I refuse them. I prefer to stay in Lab or dorm to do my research or just having chat with my girlfriend :D. Now I bet all of them have been enjoy their time in Taiwan, and poor me I haven’t even once visit any beautiful place here.

Saying farewell to professor

Alhamdulillah..yesterday, finally I’ve made my decision to choose EMSE program and drop my current master study in NTUST. Its very difficult to decide, but after having discussion with my family and my friends, I came up with this decision. I hope this is the best decision in my life. The first person that I have to tell about this is definitely my professor.

Professor very seldom coming to our lab, our meeting is usually held every week in Thursday at meeting room to deliver our research progress. So I have to visit his office if I want to meet him in Friday. Probably at 03.00 pm, I came to my professor office and slowly tell him my purpose in this visit. I tell him honestly, that its not that I don’t want to be here in NTUST, but by perforce I have to drop my study here. I tell him that I was admitted in EMSE program and have to continue my study in Germany and Italy. I also tell him what is my plan after this. Prof Teng is very kind person, he seems understand my condition. So he allowed me to drop my study, but in one conditions.

Nice one

Very short post. I just like this movie, funny happy sad touching..Watch it then you know why i like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTR8wmbgV7w

ps: one of these movie scenes taken in NTUST, in the students dorm. The place where I write this post right now :p

European Master on Software Engineering (EMSE)

Today I cannot sleep at all. The past few days just went the same like this. I cant even close my eyes. So I think maybe it will be more useful to write any blog post.

Several days ago, I receive a shocking email. It was from European Master on Software Engineering (EMSE) consortium. EMSE is a master degree program that being part of erasmus program. Well maybe you already know what erasmus is. It was very famous scholarship around the world. You can see in this link for more details about EMSE program : EMSE Website.

Anyway the email said like this :

Dear Mr. Ardhinata

Congratulations!
we are glad to inform you that you have been admitted to the European Master in Software Engineering. You have also been selected for one scholarship of the EMSE Consortium for the learning path UKL-FUB.

Please, send to emse-secretariat@unibz.it a confirmation email that you accept the scholarship for the given path (write the path explicitly) by 18th of April. If you do not answer by that time the scholarship will be re-assigned.

New family, Networked Robotics Lab

NRLab – Networked Robotics Lab

Sebulan setelah kuliah di NTUST, saya masuk jadi research member di “Networked Robotics Laboratory“. Leader dari lab ini adalah Professor Wei-Chung Teng, DEng. Beliau adalah doktor dari University of Tokyo, Japan. Research area di lab ini mengenai Networked Robot Systems, HCI on Teleoperation, and Network Communication Protocols. Agak berbeda sih dengan minat saya sebelumnya yaitu di bidang Sooftware Engineering. Tapi setelah masuk jadi research member, saya jadi bersyukur. Banyak banget fasilitas yang diberikan, mulai dari di kasih Mac Mini, Ipad, Kinect, dll untuk kepentingan research tentunya.

Journey to NTUST Taiwan

Beberapa bulan lalu setelah lulus sarjana, saya ikut seleksi beasiswa master di NTUST (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology). Kira-kira sebulan setelah lulus, saya ikut wawancara di gedung rektorat ITS. Yang mengadakan wawancara adalah beberapa professor dr NTUST. Agak gugup juga waktu itu, tanpa persiapan, ngeprint cv juga baru sejam sebelum wawancara. Untung dibantuin sama neng cantik ini hehe. Setelah semua persyaratan cukup, interview dimulai.

Waktu interview professornya nanya macem-macem. Mulai dari minat, keahlian, toefl, sampai rencana tesis. Untungnya sebelumnya udah pernah pengalaman wawancara waktu dipanggil tes kerja sama bank xxx. Jadi gak jelek-jelek amatlah jawabannya, and finally the interview is over. Setelah interview, dan nunggu beberapa waktu tiba saatnya pengumuman, Beberapa orang yang diterima dr berbagai jurusan dipanggil maju, mulai dr jurusan Electrical Engineering, Construction Engineering, dst. Setelah tiba di jurusan Computer Science, namaku dipanggil sama salah satu professor. Guess what? I was admitted as NTUST scholarship awardee. Lalu professornya ngasih surat kaya gini nih, alhamdulillah sesuatu 😀

Letter of Acceptance

Few months later, saya dipanggil lagi seleksi beasiswa. Kali ini adalah seleksi BU (Beasiswa Unggulan) dari Dikti. Seandainya lolos, saya akan diberikan beasiswa penuh untuk kuliah S2 di ITS. Lalu saya mikir, saya lanjutkan atau tidak seleksi ini, mengingat saya juga sudah mendapat beasiswa penuh dari NTUST. Well, setelah mikir-mikir tidak ada salahnya saya coba seleksi BU, hitung2 untuk menambah pengalaman.

Seleksi beasiswa unggulan dikti lebih rumit daripada seleksi beasiswa dr NTUST. Ada tes tulis, tes potensi akademik, dan terakhir wawancara. Singkat cerita, saya lolos lagi. Saya bersyukur banget, sekaligus juga bingung, beasiswa mana yang akan saya ambil. Setelah mikir lamaa banget, akhirnya saya pilih NTUST. Pertimbangannya adalah nilai beasiswa yang lebih besar, Universitas yang lebih bagus, dan lagian siapa sih yang gak mau kuliah di luar negri? hehe

Tutorial/E-Book XNA game studio 4.0 “Make Your Own Game”

Tutorial/ebook ini sebenarnya adalah materi pelatihan yang saya buat untuk pelatihan ini XNA Game Studio Training. Dalam tutorial/ebook ini kita akan belajar membuat game dengan XNA 4.0 mulai awal hingga menjadi sebuah game jadi yang dapat dimainkan. Materi ini saya rangkum menjadi sebuah ebook yang terbagi menjadi 2 part. Masing-masing part memiliki materi sendiri-sendiri, namun saling berkelanjutan hingga peserta membuat sebuah game jadi.

Untuk screenshoot game yang dibuat seperti gambar dibawah ini :