My name is Khairunnisah. I’m a graduate of Bakrie University (Indonesia) with a major in Computer Science. During study, I got a scholarship covering full tuition from Bakrie University.
Since undergraduate study, I already had a keen interest in programming and data. During my undergraduate study, I was elected as a teaching assistant for algorithm and programming and mobile system programming courses. Then, I opted for elective courses such as data warehouse and mining in the 6th semester. Furthermore, when I got my statistics class for the first time I immediately fell in love with this subject because I studied data and I learned that data can give us meaningful information. It will make sense if we know how to read and interpret it. In my last year of undergraduate study, I also chose to do an undergraduate project that was still related to my passion for programming and data. I worked on a project of medical images at that time with the title “Detection and Classification of Non-Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy using Support Vector Machine and Artificial Neural Network “. This project had several stages namely image pre-processing, image segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. When I worked on my project, I finally realized that I also had an interest in machine learning, specifically all machine learning related to data. I managed to finish my thesis or project even though I ended up finishing my undergraduate study in 5 years. In the 8th semester, I also did an internship which I regretted because I realized I needed to focus to finish my project on time. From this fault, I learned a lot so that my future studies will finish on time. Besides academic studies, I also participated in English Debating Club in my university during my first year. It taught me how to think critically and logically. It also made me practice speaking in English.
After graduating, I worked as a programmer specifically for website development or feature addition in private companies. Then, from 2019 until now I have been working as an IT staff in one government institution namely The National Archives of The Republic of Indonesia. When working in a government institution, I had several tasks such as building websites, managing websites, managing databases, fixing bugs or errors in websites, making IT policies or recommendations, and other IT-related stuff.
When managing websites and databases, I have been dealing with a lot of data. Currently, we have approximately 550.000 data. This number will continue to increase because every year our stakeholders will input their data into this website managed by my division. The data stored is in the form of documents, photos, audio, and videos. All our data is about the history of our country, important figures, etc. Since I am very passionate about working with data and machine learning, I want to do a lot of tasks related to data and artificial intelligence in the future. Besides, I plan to do freelance and open a new business as a consultant in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. I have ever been in business before even though it is not related to IT and I have already closed this business. By having a degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, I will be more trusted and have proof of my expertise when offering consultancy and doing freelance jobs related to Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Hence, I am writing to you to apply for a master’s degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
I strongly believe Skoltech will help me in achieving my objectives. First, Skoltech offers students a truly international learning experience during academic mobility at partner universities and provides a variety of opportunities like Innovation Workshop, Industrial Immersion and research internships in hi-tech innovative companies both in Russia and abroad. Skoltech believes that modern science not only needs innovators, but also entrepreneurs. This is in line with my goal which is building new business in IT related to Data Science and AI. Second, a wide range of elective courses are offered that can be chosen based on professional needs and 8 weeks of industrial immersion. As a professional who will build a business in Data Science and AI right after graduation, this is highly beneficial. Lastly, there are many student clubs in Skoltech. I believe student clubs will enrich my experiences as an international student because I can also experience socializing with other students outside the academic context. I plan to join English reading and water/ice sports clubs.