Computer Science

Michal Szymaniak, software engineer @ Google Headquarters, California

Can you summarize your study curriculum at VU university Amsterdam?
I did my bachelor studies in Warsaw university, and the first year of my master's. I then took the opportunity to follow an international short track master's program in Amsterdam, which gave me a joint master degree from both universities. I enjoyed my stay at the VU so I started a PhD in the same group. My research topic was "Latency-Driven Replication for Globally Distributed Systems".

How did you end up working for Google?
I received my doctorate from the VU in 2007 and then started working for Google. It was in fact a straightforward transition after my summer internship with Google in 2005, when I validated some of my research ideas on the Google's global infrastructure. The internship was also a great opportunity to find out how Google works and how it touches lives of millions of people every day. Looking back, I think it was that prospect that ultimately convinced me to join.

What is exciting in your job?
Very often, we launch new product features to a small group of users and then analyze how they react to it. If the response is favorable, then we launch the feature to more users. Otherwise, we drop or fix the feature and try again. Being a researcher, I like this approach a lot - its being based on facts helps us quickly make right choices without being overly attached to any initial intuition.  

What kind of work do you do?
As for my own career at Google, I first worked on the system that identifies Google users such that they can personalize our applications to their own needs.

Peter Mika, researcher @ Yahoo! Research, Barcelona

"After finishing my MSc and PhD degree both at VU, I got a job as a researcher at the European research lab of Yahoo in Barcelona, Spain. The most visible part of my work is that I contributed to the conceptualization and design of SearchMonkey. SearchMonkey uses semantic technologies to improve how search results are displayed, by including images, links and data inside the abstracts. I like this job because I'm interested in applying semantic technologies to improve search. This not only means Web search, but also searching inside the vast content assets owned by Yahoo, including news, finance and product data, emails, videos and images, social networks, user profiles and much more."

Christian Rossow: PhD student @ VU University, Amsterdam

"VU University Amsterdam is an excellent learning environment with international multi-cultural flair. Driven by my interests, I followed the Computer Science Master studies at VU University Amsterdam and was never disappointed in my choice throughout the two years. I particularly liked the flexible study programme, which allows you to choose theoretical and practical subjects from a wide study catalog. And whatever course I took, I was satisfied with a high quality of teaching. To me the studies at VU University Amsterdam were a perfect preparation for my current PhD career." Any questions? You can visit my personal website for contact details: http://www.christian-rossow.de

Alessio Sclocco: finishing the GSEEM international double degree programme @ Italy

Alessio was in Amsterdam at VU University Amsterdam in 2010. We asked him some questions about his experiences here.

Who are you and what master have you done?
My name is Alessio Sclocco and I come from a small town in the center of Italy called Pescara. At the VU I am enrolled in the GSEEM program (Global Software Engineering European Master), an international double degree master in computer science - software engineering specialisation

Which bachelor did you do before and how did you hear about this master?
I did my bachelor in computer science at the University of L'Aquila, a small university not so far from my hometown. One of our professors back there told us about the opportunity to enroll in this master and study at two universities in different countries. I really wanted to have an international experience so I applied few days after my graduation.

What are you experiences with this master?
I liked the international background of this master, having to travel to a different country, meeting students from all over the world, it was great. It was an opportunity to form an international network for me; I should say that before coming to Amsterdam all my friends were from, almost, the same place as me and we were talking the same language. I had the opportunity to get in touch with some companies during my studies in Amsterdam, but I preferred to postpone everything until my graduation.

Where are you now and how did you like the VU?
Now I am living in my hometown in Italy, where I am finishing to write my master thesis and giving the last exams of the master.

The VU was a great place to study and I am looking forward to be back there for my master presentation. The courses I took were really interesting, and I had the opportunity to discover fields of computer science that previously I didn't know a lot about. For example I had no experience in parallel computing before the VU, and now I am doing my master project in this field.

Something that I really liked is that you can really feel that what you are studying is at the border line with research, so you always study new and exciting things, and many times the lecturers are also the authors of the scientific papers you are studying on. I am still in contact with some of my fellow students at the VU, and I am glad I had the opportunity to meet them.

What are your plans after finishing the master?
I still have to decide. I want to apply for a PhD in computer science, but if I will find a challenging job before, then I can decide to move into the private industry. However I will decide as soon as I will finish to write my thesis.

Tudor Didilescu is doing his MSc in Computer Science with a specialization in HPDC (High Performance Distributed Computing).

I applied for a MSc. at the VU University in January 2009, while finishing my bachelor at "Gh. Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania. For my bachelor, I have majored in Information Technology, graduating in the top 5 students of my year. Fortunately, my application has been approved and I received a VUFP scholarship for the first year, a financial study aid that I was able to extend for my second year as well by having good academic results. 

I have initially followed a Software Engineering track, thinking that it would allow me to work more with design patterns and high level application development techniques while developing actual software. The courses on this track are more theoretical than I expected and since I am a very practical person, I decided to switch to the HPDC specialization. It gives me the necessary balance between the theoretical content (Parallel Programming, Distributed Systems) and practical work (Parallel Programming Practical, Cluster and Grid Computing, Operating Systems Practical).

I like this master because it is challenging. It gives you a glimpse of the immensity of computing power out there and all the possibilities that it brings with it. It looks at emerging paradigms such as Cloud computing and lets you explore this for yourself in a competitive manner. Large scale distributed computing is the future and I am confident that this master will help me greatly in my future career.

I live at the Uilenstede campus, in Amstelveen - a 15 min walk to the university. The university is very European; it has a great deal of cultures and diversity. I like the infrastructure and facilities that are made available to students, and especially students from the Faculty of Sciences. I consider it to be a good place to study and a great place to meet lots of interesting and really smart people (either professors or fellow students)

After finishing this master, I plan to work in the industry as an IT professional at one of the major corporations out there today (Microsoft, Google, Amazon etc.) and get the opportunity of participating maybe in some of the projects that will shape the face of computing in the following decades.

Alexandru Irimiea is an High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC) student at the VU

After finishing my Bachelor in Computer Science I had a hard time deciding between going directly into Industry or following a Master Program in a foreign country. I eventually chose the Industry and only after another two years did I pursue my initial intuition.
Being intrigued by the increasing presence of the paradigm of distributed computing I picked the HPDC track of the Computer Science Master Program here at VU. Of course, I made a number of assumptions about life in The Netherlads, the teaching level at VU and other aspects. In hindsight, though not all were correct or complete, after almost one and a half years spent here I believe that I made a very good choice. The teaching environment was all that I expected and more. All the professors are passionate about their particular field of interest and manage very effectively to inspire and motivate students. The courses are varied and offer together an in depth understanding of the broad field, allowing the students to make an informed decision regarding their future careers. Each year the content is updated and refined in order to fit in new advancements or to address student observations. The intense theoretical courses are combined with stimulating practical ones, where the challenges range from modifying the Minix kernel to programming clusters, grids and event the clouds of Amazon. To our surprise, for the last example we even needed a credit card! God forbid there is an unobserved bug that leaves processes running (and thus cash flowing out of your credit card!) Don't worry, it's not that expensive :-).
But what about social life? Well, the University and the campus offer a true international environment, which, of course, is infused in the particular culture of the country. I honestly cannot keep up with all the social and sports events that are available to me. The various student organizations make sure that you don't miss your weekly borrel, the chance to ski in the Alps or the hitchhike competition to I don't know what European capital. This place really confirms that indeed you can study harder and enjoy life better at the same time. I made a lot of new friends from all over the world, had new experiences and learned new things from them.
What will happen next is that I will choose a company that does something that I find particularly exciting and apply to work for it. I did not decide yet since I still have some time left here and am eager to start working for the Master Project, which can have quite some impact on this decision. With the toolkit that I will have built in the two years spent here I am confident that I will succeed in any environment.

Bas van Dijk is busy with this master: Internet and Web Technology

My name is Bas van Dijk, I am currently taking a masters degree in computer science with a specialisation in Internet and Web Technology. Before I started at the VU, I was in an accelerated program of informatics at the HvA Amsterdam. This master offers me a wide variety of courses like operating systems, distributed systems and human computer interaction, and offers me flexibility in planning my study. I especially liked the more practical courses like computer graphics and network programming. 
I live in a small city near Amsterdam, traveling to the VU takes me about 50 minutes by public transport. The reason I chose the VU was for its informal atmosphere and its interesting program.  Starting at a university as an HBO student turned out to be quite hard for me. There was a large difference between the way I was used to work and the way things work at a university. Nowadays, I am quite used to it and have found my flow.
After my master I plan to start a new web development company together with a fellow student of mine. Five years ago I started my own company (http://www.happyfish.nl) and after my master I want to expand this even further. I like the freedom of entrepreneurship and I am really looking forward to getting started.