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Sergio Pacheco Sanchez (Mexico)
EMCL at Bozen-Bolzano: very tough, very intense and very rewarding
year, definitely one of the best years of my life!
The EMCL programme at Bozen-Bolzano offers an excellent balance
between studies, friendly and stimulating atmosphere for research,
great spirit of collaboration between Academic staff and students, all
surrounded by a beautiful natural landscape at the foothills of the
Italian Alps.
The EMCL programme provided me a deep insight into the foundations of
the Semantic Web: a wide interdisciplinary field having its
theoretical and practical roots in Logics, Mathematics and
AI. Bozen-Bolzano is definitely the best place to get to grips with
this new challenging and promising area!
Ekaterina Lebedeva (Russia)
University's Life. There are both practically and theoretically
oriented courses offered by the Faculty of Computer Science at
FUB. The accurate organization of a workflow allows students to
comprehend and manage well several courses simultaneously. Professors
are always open for questions and ready to explain in details the most
difficult moments, therefore helping to reach the required high level
of acquirements. Upon the interest of a student Professors are pleased
to recommend extra-literature for reading and to arrange a meeting for
discussing a topic deeply.
There were series of seminars and a PhD summer school organized by the
Faculty. I attended all of them and was really satisfied with the
organization and the level of events. It was a great opportunity for
me not only to extend my knowledge in Computational Logic, but also to
get a comprehensive overview of other topics in Computer
Science. Being accepted to the PhD summer school I met young
researches from other Universities. That was an invaluable experience
to discuss different research topics and share ideas, which reinforced
my motivation to continue academic career.
Social Life. In spite the fact that I came first to Bolzano among
other 2005-2006 EMCL students, university staff was very helpful
arranging everything that was needed to solve bureaucratic matters
individually for me. Upon arriving of other students, a welcome
meeting was organized, where Professors were introduced to us. The
process of adaptation at the University was not difficult for me
thankful to constant assistance of the International Office,
Professors of the Computer Science Faculty and help of new friends.
The social life, particularly sport life, is very active at FUB. There
were many sport-events organized by Sports Club of the University
Bolzano (SCUB). We played volleyball, went swimming with other
members of SCUB regularly. Besides, due to the location of Bolzano in
the centre of the Dolomites, we used to ski in winter. At the spring
time and summer we went climbing. The perfect geographical location
and the atmosphere of South Tyrol creates good opportunities to
keep-fit and, of course, to meet people.
Thankful to International Office of the University, EMCL students were
living at the same student hall. Therefore, we had met before the
academic year started, which helped to adapt more easily to the new
environment and start university-life. Most of the time we spend
together, discussing our research interests, sharing ideas and helping
each other with studies.
Luca Quaglia (Italy)
I don't remember where but of course I remember when I have read about
EMCL for the first time. It was the beginning of my second (of 3)
year of bachelor. At that time I didn't even know that there was a
university in Bolzano but I soon realized that such a kind of Master
would be very close to my interests. After more than one year, in
March 2006, I remembered about that and, looking on the website of
Unibz, I saw that the first call for students was open. In that
moment I was going to the end of my bachelor but I was not so happy
with my former university. So I decided to send to send the request
for admission and try to get into EMCL. Only when I knew I was in I
realized that my life would have changed in few months. I graduated
at the end of September and a week after I was in another city,
hundreds of kilometers far from my hometown, attending a new
university. It was a weird sensation.
Now I think that it was a very good choice, one of the best in my
life. Really. During the year I have studied many things (of course,
it's a master!) and even the most theoretical courses showed to have
an application: they were not only useless theory (that was a
persistent sensation in my bachelor). All the environment of the
university has been helpful and available, as I have never seen before,
from the administrative staff to the professors. Moreover, Bolzano is
one of the best city to live in Italy. The available accommodations are
nice so at the end the quality of student's life at FUB is really
high. And now, after this beautiful first year, I'm ready to change
city again. This time I will also change country (first time in my
life) but now I'm ready to tackle such a new situation. Now I have
grown.
Lina Lubyte (Lithuania)
The year (2004) that I've spent at Free University of Bolzano has been
really rich for the experience I've gained both as a student and as a
person. Of course, the latter sounds banal, and the ingredients for
making this experience rich are not original as well :) As an
ex-participant of EMCL programme, I'd outline two things that were
crucial in gaining positive experience: efficiency at university and
pleasant stay.
Regarding efficiency, first of all, interaction with professors was
surprisingly easy. They were available either for "pass by" meetings
or by fixing an appointment before couple of days. Second, university
has a huge library (as for such a small university) with all books
needed for studies (and not only!) and comfortable places for
studying. Third, the faculty secretariat was always ready to answer
all the questions related with the study plan, enrollment to exams,
etc directly, and without waiting a queue for several hours!
Living in Bolzano was really fun. The surroundings provide plenty of
activities in every season of the year: skiing, sledge-riding, hiking,
climbing, biking, etc etc. Also, my course-mates were coming from all
sides of the world, so we used to share cultural and, especially,
culinary experiences :) There was no time to get bored! After all,
Italian wine, coffee, ice cream and Italian in general simply inspire
a great affection!
Yansen Darmaputra (Indonesia)
When I got news that I was granted scholarship to
take EMCL at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (FUB), at first I
thought: "Where is Bolzano?". OK, it is true that it is me, myself, that
choose FUB. However, when I applied, I merely chose FUB because I
liked the EMCL courses offered by FUB. But now I had some doubts
whether FUB is the right choice or not.
The show must go on, and I found that from the pre-departure, up to my
arrival at Bolzano, the International Relations Office and Faculty
Secretariat were really helpful in giving information. They guided me
step by step to prepare departure, apply for visa, fill academic
administration, arrange accommodation, etc.
Starting study at FUB, at first I had some difficulties to understand
the courses, because what I had studied in my Bachelor of Electrical
Engineering is quite different from what are taught in EMCL. However,
the nice things about FUB professors are that they are really
determined in teaching and give explanations if you don't
understand. They are very easy to be met (using office hours) or
reached by email.
The four-story FUB library contains so many reference books so that
you will always have something to read. FUB also provides links to
some websites where you can update yourself with the newest scientific
publication, paper, or journal. The wireless connection all over the
university ensures that you can easily connect to Internet, everywhere
around university.
Choosing FUB as your destination to study EMCL is really a choice you
should make. The combination of world-class professors in their field,
high-level of teaching, and various facilities provided by FUB will
surely shape you to be a world-class logician.
Evgeny Kharlamov (Russia)
There are two things I like most about the FUB: a very nice atmosphere
for studies/rest and the facilities.
The faculty of CS is a small one and there are like 10-15 students
subscribed to classes in average. This gives opportunities for more
individual work of professors with students. Professors are open for
discussions, flexible and propose interesting topics for students'
projects.
Bolzano is a compact city. This helped me not to loose time and energy
in public transport to reach places. Living in a student hall I could
reach the university, students' canteen, swimming pool, food stores,
etc. just in 3-10 minutes.
There are lots of opportunities for sport activities at the
university. One can become a member of the Sport club of the FUB (SCUB)
and participate in yoga, swimming, skiing, hiking, tennis, etc. All
the activities are almost for free. I went to do swimming with SCUB
and paid 15 Eur for a semester.
The university is very well equipped. There is a good library,
projectors in each study room, wireless connection. There are almost
no problems in getting good new book on the CS subjects.
Mohammad Aminur Rashid (Bangladesh)
After 1-year study in Dresden, Germany my second year was fixed to be
at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. Although I am a
non-European student, I got the Visa without any trouble. I was
fascinated at the sight and scene of Bolzano. I never had experienced
of watching big mountains so closely.
After my arrival, there was a welcome party and some formalities. The
International Office helped us with some official matters like police
registration, paying taxes and other non-academic activities. The
University campus is near to the city center and also close to the
railway station. The city is small and it is well connected by a
confortable bus service.
The most important part of my study was the 24-hour Internet facility
and a well- organized library with large collection of books. The
computer laboratories also provide good support in order to work all
day long. The course plan for our program also seems well balanced and
up-to-date.
By providing wireless LAN connection within the campus for students
and long time study time in library help the students do their study
efficiently. Moreover during the weekend the students go for hiking to
nearest mountain or travel to other beautiful cities of Italy with a
low price.
The lectures given at the classroom gave me lot of inspiration to study
in details every course. The Professors and instructors in Bolzano
are very good to explain the things well. I found my program more
interesting than before. However I still have to finish my thesis and
project from this university. I hope I can do better with the guidance
of the skilled people from the university.
Frederico Franzosi (Brazil)
As a foreigner student, EMCL's first year studies have been a good
experience. The whole degree proposal is very well followed in the
most relevant courses taken and the overall practice with logic does
pushes one to a higher level comprehension of systematically work with
logic.
Concerning Bolzano as a city. I would say that it is a pleasant city
in terms of: weather, as the sun is shining lots of day; location, as
it is close to mountains, as well as some good places to visit in
Europe in the spare time; natural environment, as the city is of trees
and vegetation all over the places especially near to the historical
center.
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