Personal Pursuit Programming and Piano

Guido van der Heijden is one of the first year ATLAS students who will do a personal pursuit for the first time. The personal pursuit gives the opportunity to do a personal project tailored exactly to your interests. Guido plans to create a computer application to make composing and writing piano music easier.

“I have been playing the piano for five years now, and already in high school, I had the idea to combine music with programming. I want to make an application that can write sheet music based on a piece of music that you play. The application should also give instructions on how to play, for example, how long you should press a key. It is meant to be an addition to playing the piano, not to create music using a computer.” Before Guido can start making the application, he first needs to learn to programme. For this, he will follow an online course from Coursera. In addition, he will study music theory, to fully understand how sheet music can be written and improved.

Guido van der Heijden, Class of 2020

I don’t want to specialize myself too much. I know I want to continue with engineering or physics, but it is good to also learn about social science.

Guido van der Heijden, Class of 2020

Guido is looking forward to learning about programming: “I don’t want to continue with only part of the knowledge, instead I want to master programming so that I can actually start on the application, without needing tutorials. My final product will be a working application and I will finish the assignments on Coursera. It will be challenging, but I think I can manage, especially once I get a supervisor. We are now approaching PhD students at Human Media Interaction to supervise me, which would be a good fit.”

The first-year students have two weeks at the end of the semester, to work on their personal pursuit. Their projects and classes will already be finished, so all the time can be dedicated to the personal pursuit. Guido plans to spend this time on programming and testing his application: “I have an electric piano, so while working I can continuously test my scripts.”

Guido finds the freedom in his personal pursuit also in the regular curriculum at University College Twente. This is one of the reasons he chose for ATLAS: “I don’t want to specialize myself too much. I know I want to continue with engineering or physics, but it is good to also learn about social science. One of our courses, Innovation in Business and Society, focuses on society’s response to technology, which I think is very interesting. The freedom also allows you to do anything you want. I recommend using your personal pursuit for combining studying and your hobbies and not only focusing on academics.”

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.

Author
Roos Bulthuis
Writer, Class of 2016
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