Student Voice: [ISSE] Keep your passion burning at Ritsumeikan

Written by International Admissions Office | Mar 5, 2025 1:00:00 AM

Welcome to the Student Voice series. The series interviews students in our English-medium programs. We hope these interviews can be helpful to you when thinking about choosing to come to Ritsumeikan University (RU).

Post by International Admissions Office

Dylan from Indonesia

College of Information Science and Engineering,　
Information Systems Science and Engineering (ISSE) Course

High School:
MISJ Intercultural School Jakarta

Hobbies/Interests:
Running

Why did you choose RU and the ISSE Course?

I was introduced to video games at a very young age. I spent a lot of time with my brother playing games such as Super Mario Party. My interest in video games led me to discover PCs and their respective hardware parts. I researched and assembled my own computer by the age of 15, and not long after I decided that I would like to pursue computer science for my higher education. After creating my first mobile application by the age of 17, I knew that my passion is in programming.

In pursuit of a university to study computer science, I discovered Ritsumeikan University (RU). RU is very different from other universities that are more lecture and exam based. RU is more project based and this is more in line with my passion of creating projects and applications. Since being enrolled in the ISSE Course for 2 years, I have created many academic projects and several personal projects. I've met brilliant classmates who motivate each other and work together to create stunning class projects and I've been expertly guided by the professors of this department.

I have 2 more years at RU and I expect that I will still have more things to learn from the peers and professors here.

About your studies...

Give us an overview of your studies and course schedule from your first year to now.

First year was very tough since everybody came from different cultural and academic backgrounds. The courses were designed to make sure we had the same foundational knowledge for succeeding semesters. Second year was equally as tough, but for different reasons. We had to do a lot more projects compared to theory, and that required us to take more time outside of school hours to accomplish the assignments and prepare for the classes.

Find out more about the curriculum of ISSE

What was the most interesting class you have taken so far?

Project-Based Learning 3 was the most interesting and influential class that I have taken in this program. The class was basically a software engineering class where we learned how to create a large scale project from scratch with 6 other individuals. We learned how to design, plan, execute, and troubleshoot a computer vision program to detect vehicles violating traffic laws for the Indonesian government.

In ISSE, students join engineering projects from the first year.
Which project(s) have you found the most interesting so far? What was the project about, and why was it interesting to you?

During my first year, my most interesting project was creating a sentiment analysis machine learning model that could analyze anger levels from user speech. I worked with 4 other group members and it was very fun and informative when we discussed together how to approach this problem. We were equally inexperienced with machine learning, so we had to help each other and learn about machine learning together in the limited time that was given to us for the class.

About Campus life...

Do you regularly use the cafeterias on campus? What is your favorite dish?

I love the Osaka Ibaraki Campus (OIC) cafeteria. There are a variety of food choices and even a variety of food sources on campus, such as the school cafeteria, bento shops, surrounding food trucks, and 7-Eleven. My favorite lunch option is rice with minced katsu and an assortment of vegetables from the school cafeteria.

Message to prospective students

Please come to Ritsumeikan University!

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