"I want to be where the cutting-edge technology is"

“I met other students of my age as well from my track as from other tracks. More and more people are taking this step to study again. It is not given to everyone to continue to learn within their twenties. I met people older than thirty who are studying, it is not uncommon, and it is getting more prevalent.  Especially now the job market is changing so fast. New jobs are created, and old ones disappear.

The challenge for me was that I have other stuff to think about than most students, having a family – I have a daughter of five years old – and organising a lot of things like permits, documents and so on.  A challenge was also to leave a comfortable life and move together. But it was a shared decision between me and my wife to do this. If we wouldn’t take that opportunity then, it would never happen at all.“

“Initially, I was more interested in data science, then I thought that all this hype around data science at some point is going to step into the physical world. I thought that autonomous systems are more promising. This field goes beyond artificial intelligence and the data science hype. I have always been fascinated by science fiction and robotics. Now I am in the midst of it. That seems unreal.”

“It was a huge challenge for me to go back to school after so many years; to go back to student life, to get to read all the literature. I got doubts in the beginning and feared to have made the wrong choice; my first exam failed, and my second one too. At some point after some successful exams, and seeing that also other students have been struggling, and the support of fellow students, I noted that I am not that far off.  I felt I can do it.  This was the biggest lesson for me.  Also, with the support of my family, I found my confidence and I did it. I am now finalising my thesis and have already found a job in robotics, in the field I wanted to be.”