Over the past 50 years, both education at Maastricht University and the university itself have changed enormously. New buildings have been added; at the same time, new degrees have been developed and curricula have evolved with the times. Study programmes that were still finding their feet decades ago have now come of age. The same goes for the first cohorts of students who took them. To shine a spotlight on these changes, we’re speaking to an alum from the first cohort and a current student at each faculty. This time, Michal Dudek and Rogier Thissen, student and alum of the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, share their experiences.

Rogier Thissen was among the very first students to enrol in Knowledge Engineering in 1993. At the time, the programme was a collaboration between Maastricht University and the LUC (Limburgs Universitair Centrum) in Diepenbeek (now Hasselt University). Partly because of the demanding mathematics component, his compatriots dropped out one after another until Thissen was the only Dutch student left. Fortunately, even the maths exams turned out not to be in vain: more than 30 years later, he still uses what he learnt every day in his role as Chief Technology Officer.
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One-on-one lectures

“I don’t think the collaboration with the LUC was a great success,” Thissen says with a laugh. “We started with about 15 Dutch students, and I was the only one left in my year.” This led to some unusual situations: on occasion, Dutch lecturers travelled to Belgium especially for him. “That did have one advantage,” he recalls. “If I failed a course, 100% of the class would have failed. That must have motivated the lecturers to explain things extra well.”
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The Netherlands vs Belgium

Thissen looks back most fondly on the lectures in Maastricht. “They were much more to the point and interactive than the lectures in Diepenbeek. In Belgium, we sometimes had to reproduce 15 pages of mathematical proofs. That didn’t suit me as well. And in Maastricht, we addressed the professors by their first names; in Belgium there was a lot more distance.”
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Nightmares about maths exams

While he enjoyed most courses, he found the maths lectures tough. “We attended them together with maths and computer science students. The level was extremely high. Sometimes I still have nightmares about a maths exam I haven’t studied for,” he laughs. “Fortunately, I had high marks in other subjects, so I was able to compensate.”

AI before the hype

Artificial intelligence already existed when Thissen was a student. “The theory has essentially stayed the same. But back then, we worked with very slow machines, which made programming time-consuming. And we had to program everything from scratch. Nowadays there are lots of tools and ready-made models you can use.”
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Study association

One highlight was co-founding the study association Incognito with his fellow students. “In my second year, I was the only remaining student from Maastricht University, so I had to become president of the UM study association. It’s very special to see that Incognito has since grown into an association with hundreds of members. We recently celebrated our 25th anniversary.”
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Chief Technology Officer

In his current work, Thissen is still involved in knowledge engineering on a daily basis. “We’re developing plug-in home batteries that allow people to make smart use of solar energy and lower electricity rates. The batteries are equipped with smart software and AI control, so they charge and discharge at the right moments. The knowledge I picked up during my studies still comes in handy.”

Michal Dudek was looking for a degree that would allow him to pursue his interests in programming, mathematics and logic. It had to be hands-on, not overly theoretical and preferably a little futuristic. Wanting to stay close to his family in Germany led him to study Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at UM. “My favourite projects are those where we work in AI labs,” he says. “Fortunately, it’s not a programme where you only work with pen and paper.”
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Theory and practice

“In this programme, you don’t have to spend six months reading literature before you get to apply anything,” Dudek says enthusiastically. “There’s plenty of scope to gain practical experience. Coding is a major part of the curriculum, and you can choose projects that match your own interests. It’s a broad programme, but because of all the applications, you immediately see how theory translates into practice.”
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Natural language processing

Dudek is particularly fascinated by natural language processing (NLP), which focuses on enabling computers to understand human language. “For one project, we applied models to real-world data from X, formerly Twitter,” he explains. “We analysed whether tweets contained hateful content. Tools like that are becoming increasingly important in our digital society.”

Two master’s programmes

After completing his bachelor’s, Dudek decided to pursue two master’s degrees simultaneously. “I couldn’t choose,” he laughs. “Exam periods can be intense, but otherwise it’s going well so far.”

He sees a future for himself in AI. “I’d enjoy doing research to improve AI models or make them more efficient, so they’re less harmful to the environment.” That said, he’s still exploring his options. “Data analytics and consultancy also appeal to me. Luckily, my double master’s will keep me busy for a while.”


‍Tekst: Romy Veul
Fotografie: Philip Driessen