Rick Groenendijk, an ATLAS alumnus from the Class of 2016, was among the first ATLAS graduates to start a Master program. He currently lives in Amsterdam and studies MSc Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam.
Halfway in the ATLAS program, during the second year, students are supposed to identify which field of study captures their interest and what makes them the most curious. Rick originally wanted to pursue a biomedical engineering or nanotechnology degree, but he noticed that most of his electives were in the field of programming and computer science and he enjoyed learning more about this. “In my fifth semester, I went abroad to study in Trondheim, Norway. I wanted to take courses that I could not take at the University of Twente and two of these courses were Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Programming. These courses helped me in my decision, as well as the other programming courses and projects within ATLAS.”
Artificial Intelligence is about creating smarter and more creative algorithms to take advantage of new technologies and the vaster amount of data all around us. It can be applied in many different fields. Rick: “I am taking courses such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision and Knowledge Representation, so a wide variety. Moreover, the program is research-oriented, so hopefully, I can do a PhD in a few years, although I might first want to explore the technology sector in Amsterdam.”
“I like my master’s program for its pragmatic research-oriented approach to education. We get to read recent publications on developments in artificial intelligence in different fields. I am most excited about the future of computing in the context of linguistics and I really like that we get to apply some of the ideas ourselves. One minor downside of the program is that it is not as personal as University College Twente; it took a while to get used being in a lecture hall with 50 to 100 students.”
Within the ATLAS program, you get to explore many different fields of study, before you must decide which field you want to continue in. According to Rick: “Having three additional years to orientate myself is something I am really thankful for. It has made me more confident in the direction I am taking now. Moreover, in ATLAS you get the opportunity to do what you really like and even though this might not always get you into the Master’s program of your dreams, all my classmates including myself are doing well in their respective Master’s programs!”
University College Twente offers a unique bachelor’s programme, Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences, to top students. Visit the University College Twente website for more information about the college and Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences website for more information about the bachelor program. Or visit us during the open day, a student-for-a-day or an insight-day.
