Great autonomy in studies and student life
My choice - University of Oulu
Zuojia graduated from Xidian University in China decided to continue her master's in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Oulu.
Fun fact about me, I was actually an exchange student for one year during my bachelor's degree. I decided to continue my master's in Oulu as I enjoy student life here.
As a student at the University of Oulu, Zuojia has autonomy in studies and student life in general. Especially during the pandemic when a big part of learning has moved online.
Zuojia thinks the University of Oulu is the right place to explore the Computer Science and Engineering programme. The programme offers three study options for students, and she chose Applied Computing as her major. "I can also choose other exciting courses apart from my curriculum, such as Machine Vision," Zuojia explains.
Opportunity to explore the technology and societal impact
Zuojia likes the course Virtual Reality Systems and Humans a lot. She took the course just when the concept "Meta Universe" became popular. Therefore, the course was very relevant and closely examined the new technology.
Some courses are interesting for me as those focus not only on the technological side but also user experience and societal impact.
In addition, Zuojia mentions that the course introduced many topics such as knowledge about physiology and lens as VR itself with a multidisciplinary approach. "The topics are interesting for me, and important as well because designing comfortable and good VR experience needs to take various factors into consideration."
The course offered us with the VR headset. We can lend VR headset for weeks to do the homework, and the homework is about playing, assessing, and even making VR games.
Apart from that, she likes her programme since it offers many hands-on coding opportunities, and she can learn something new and improve her skills.
Sisu and Arctic Attitude
Zuojia is from Wuhan, a big city in China with more than 10 million residents. Therefore, Oulu is very different from her hometown. "But surprisingly, I feel at home in Oulu with the beautiful nature and cool things to do here." Zuojia mentions.
"My first impression of Finland is very cold! I came here at the end of August, and I can vividly remember how I was almost frozen when I was exploring the surroundings the night I arrived," Zuojia mentions. But over time, she learned to live with the cold and enjoy the winter.
We definitely need "Sisu" and "Arctic Attitude" to overcome the dark long Finnish winter!
"The university has provided various activities for students to meet up and explore interests together." Zuojia is always trying to have an open heart to embrace all the possible life experiences ahead of her. Given that she is planning to start her internship soon to unlock and enjoy the working life in Finland.
