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Campus

We understand more than we can say

Four Indonesian friends were among the 30 MSc students graduating last week. They%ve graduated with distinction (three cum laude) from TU Delft%s aerospace engineering program and two of them, Ony Arifianto and Rukmi Widayanti, even found time to make the first MSc baby.

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Clever

%TU Delft has a very good reputation in Indonesia,” says Ony Arifianto, whose MSc research focused on neuro-fuzzy controllers. %In fact, most lecturers in ITB%s Aerospace Engineering department graduated from TU Delft.”

Now that Arifianto, his wife Rukmi, and friends Hendarko, and Awan Umbaran have completed their MSc degrees, they believe that the TU%s fine reputation is entirely justified. %At Delft you can do research in almost any subject you like and it%s relatively easy to find someone to fund your research,” says Umbaran, whose MSc project focused on improving the quality of an existing filtering technique to extract good data from noisy measurements with fuzzy logic. %However, there%s not a lot of competition among students in Delft,” he adds. %Here, student attitudes toward fellow-students seems to be, %be as clever as you can, it doesn%t bother me.% In Indonesia, it%s much more competitive and lots of pressure is put on you to achieve something. In fact, I%m much more relaxed here than I was at ITB.”

It hasn%t been all smooth sailing for the Indonesians at TU Delft, however. Hendarko, who developed a handling qualities toolbox for evaluating and improving aeroplanes, wrote about the problems he%s encountered during the course for the MSc yearbook: %In the beginning, the faculty gave me quite a shock. The curriculum wasn%t very well prepared. Sometimes we had almost no courses and some courses were simply cancelled. This forced us to get more credit points in the second year in order to fulfil first-year requirements, which resulted in an imbalance in our study load. However, the university has kept on striving to improve this programme.”

Friends

The four MSc%s have already found an employer in their home country: Indonesian Aircraft Industry ITPN. %I hope we%ll have something to do there,” Arfianto says. %In Indonesia, they sometimes hire you without being able to offer a real job. It%s like that in many state-owned companies.”

Asked to relate their most spectacular experience during their stay in Delft, Hendarko and Umbaran, beaming with pride, say simultaneously, %The zero-g flight!” Arifianto, however, cherishes a more profound experience. His wife, Rukmi Widayanti, who graduated cum laude, gave birth to their first son, named Arif. %That outweighed all other experiences in Delft,” Araifianto muses.

The four friends, however, all agree on the worst thing about daily life in Delft. %Biking in the cold wind and rain!” they exclaim, the misery of the experience still detectable in their voices. They were also surprised and impressed by how well Dutch students speak and write English. %In Delft, you can survive without learning Dutch,” says Umbaran. As for learning Dutch themselves, the Indonesians haltingly pronounce a few Dutch words and then all agree with Alifianto when he says, somewhat mysteriously, %We begrijpen meer dan we kunnen zeggen.”

Four Indonesian friends were among the 30 MSc students graduating last week. They%ve graduated with distinction (three cum laude) from TU Delft%s aerospace engineering program and two of them, Ony Arifianto and Rukmi Widayanti, even found time to make the first MSc baby.

Clever

%TU Delft has a very good reputation in Indonesia,” says Ony Arifianto, whose MSc research focused on neuro-fuzzy controllers. %In fact, most lecturers in ITB%s Aerospace Engineering department graduated from TU Delft.”

Now that Arifianto, his wife Rukmi, and friends Hendarko, and Awan Umbaran have completed their MSc degrees, they believe that the TU%s fine reputation is entirely justified. %At Delft you can do research in almost any subject you like and it%s relatively easy to find someone to fund your research,” says Umbaran, whose MSc project focused on improving the quality of an existing filtering technique to extract good data from noisy measurements with fuzzy logic. %However, there%s not a lot of competition among students in Delft,” he adds. %Here, student attitudes toward fellow-students seems to be, %be as clever as you can, it doesn%t bother me.% In Indonesia, it%s much more competitive and lots of pressure is put on you to achieve something. In fact, I%m much more relaxed here than I was at ITB.”

It hasn%t been all smooth sailing for the Indonesians at TU Delft, however. Hendarko, who developed a handling qualities toolbox for evaluating and improving aeroplanes, wrote about the problems he%s encountered during the course for the MSc yearbook: %In the beginning, the faculty gave me quite a shock. The curriculum wasn%t very well prepared. Sometimes we had almost no courses and some courses were simply cancelled. This forced us to get more credit points in the second year in order to fulfil first-year requirements, which resulted in an imbalance in our study load. However, the university has kept on striving to improve this programme.”

Friends

The four MSc%s have already found an employer in their home country: Indonesian Aircraft Industry ITPN. %I hope we%ll have something to do there,” Arfianto says. %In Indonesia, they sometimes hire you without being able to offer a real job. It%s like that in many state-owned companies.”

Asked to relate their most spectacular experience during their stay in Delft, Hendarko and Umbaran, beaming with pride, say simultaneously, %The zero-g flight!” Arifianto, however, cherishes a more profound experience. His wife, Rukmi Widayanti, who graduated cum laude, gave birth to their first son, named Arif. %That outweighed all other experiences in Delft,” Araifianto muses.

The four friends, however, all agree on the worst thing about daily life in Delft. %Biking in the cold wind and rain!” they exclaim, the misery of the experience still detectable in their voices. They were also surprised and impressed by how well Dutch students speak and write English. %In Delft, you can survive without learning Dutch,” says Umbaran. As for learning Dutch themselves, the Indonesians haltingly pronounce a few Dutch words and then all agree with Alifianto when he says, somewhat mysteriously, %We begrijpen meer dan we kunnen zeggen.”

Editor Redactie

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