Zora Jurriens

Prior education: Bachelor's degree in Artificial Intelligence (University of Amsterdam)

'I was never into the typical girl stuff as a child, I really liked playing computer games and reading fantasy stories. Even then I was already thinking about how these games could be improved, what applications would make it more fun or easier. The interaction between computers and humans has always been something that fascinated me.'

'In practically every course there's team work involved. Personally, I really enjoy working together with others, because you can share your ideas and viewpoints. The student population is quite diverse, so you can benefit from this interdisciplinary knowledge. As one of the few girls in the programme I'm usually working together with boys, but that's no problem for me. Quite the opposite, I like being part of the guys! They're straightforward and in general cause less drama than girls...'

'For my thesis I'm also working together with another student. We're trying to develop an application to view architecture on mobile technology. The idea is that you can walk around a city with your mobile phone and point it at certain buildings or statues to get information about that particular architectural project. When was it built? What style does it represent? Information like that. On a deeper level, we would like the system to respond to the way the owner uses the application. For example, if a person has looked at a certain type of architecture, the system would automatically point out other buildings in that same style. While my partner is working on the underlying technical system of the application, my focus is on the direct interaction and ways to evaluate the system. What do people like about the system, what do they find useful or fun and how can you use this information to make it better.'

'I'll probably go abroad for half a year to do an internship or a language course somewhere. After that, I would like to work in the e-learning field. During this Master I have discovered that this is what I'm most interested in. I really like the idea of using computer applications for educational purposes. As a student-assistant I'm involved in a project to teach nine-year old children English using mobile applications. This experience has strengthened my intention to work on projects like this in the future. I think the combination of my Artificial Intelligence and Human Centered Multimedia, now known as Information Systems, background will definitely help me find a job in this field.'