Sasmito Adibowo at the Faculty of Computer Science

We have this neighbour, their eldest son studied economics at the University of Indonesia (UI). After graduating, he got a scholarsip for a master's degree in the US. The scholarship was given by ADB. At first, he was only granted partial scholarship. Eventually, he was given full scholarship with stipend.

My mom was impressed by that fact, and told me to go to UI or other state universities. The problem was that getting accepted to such universities is not a trivial thing. The entrance test (UMPTN) was very difficult, and only about a hundred are accepted out of several thousand every year for each major. So I studied day and night to get accepted there, primarily to please my parents.

My efforts paid off. I got accepted at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia in 1999. I was astonished for that moment; someone with virtually no significant academic achievement is now a student in a top university.

My college life is quite ordinary. Mostly I study and do assignments. Sometimes I get lucky enough to get a project. Also I participated twice as a commitee in the campus fraternity nights.

The third semester was the most intense up to now. I got a job in PointAhead.com. Was doing a project for the Faculty of Economics (SIAK-FE). What became my pride is that I was able to maintain my B average and still keep up with all that.

At the fourth semester, I'm still in my job until February 2001. PointAhead was shut down, because the founders concluded that the Indonesian market was still not ready for them; and they want to move on with other projects. Meanwhile I had completed my assignment in SIAK-FE, but there were many uncertainities. I didn't knew the problem much back then, since I was only a coder. I think it was because of management problems; both on the client's side (FE) and on Ristek's side. My attention back then was more focused toward two most time consuming courses: Software Engineering and Computer Graphics.

The fifth semester, things are a bit stable. I became a teaching assistant for the first time. On the down side that semester I had a morale crisis. Often, I had "BeTe" attacks -- strikes of bad mood. That alone cost me my performance.

Now I look back and realize that I already had earned 110 credits out of 144. Graduation day is getting near, and I should make plans on what to do. Perhaps get a master's degree, or maybe simply get a real job. Nevertheless, I dream of starting my own software development company, and I intend to fulfill that dream.

Here you can find some of the things I did in college:

Interaction Systems A research I did on human-computer interaction systems. It explores the possibility of an Indonesian-language web browser.

Computer Graphics Assignments for the Computer Graphics course that I took during the fourth semester. The materials includes 2-D drawing algorithms and 3-D rendering algorithms.

Sports Club Information System The project I done for the Software Engineering class. It is an accounting system for a sports club.

Academic Information System A project I done with Ristek Fasilkom. It is an information system for the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia.

There are also some MIDI files: