What do you like about the programme/specialisation and why? How has the programme/specialisation challenged you (in relation to your previous education)?
The Software Science Master's is really about everything regarding software development, ranging from mathematical theory to more practical programming. I like this variety, even though the mathematical courses are a lot more challenging (for me at least). Luckily there are lots of courses to choose from.
What do you think about the atmosphere in class?
Most courses have only a small group of people coming to the lectures. Combined with having lectures in a smaller room, this gives an almost cosy vibe where it's easy to feel part of the group. Interactivity is easier at such a small scale, and all questions, remarks and conversations (with the teacher or with fellow students, or both) are very much welcome.
What do you find most challenging in your Master’s (specialisation)? Have you encountered any obstacles?
I'm not that good at the theoretical courses, and they make up a large part of the specialisation electives. A couple of those courses have required a lot of work for me to understand the material, and I wasn't always interested in the contents. But for most of them I'm happy I did them in hindsight.
Are you currently doing an internship? Or what is your thesis about?
I'm doing my internship at TOP Software, a small company on the university campus. I'm working on a project to generate LLVM code from Clean bytecode, in order to generate both WebAssembly and native executables from that. My internship is about integrating a garbage collector for WebAssembly specifically. That means I'm simultaneously working with Clean, Clean's ABC bytecode, LLVM IR, WebAssembly and C. That's quite a lot of things to juggle, but it's right up my alley.
Why do you think it is important that there are people with this degree? What are your plans once you have received your Master's degree?
The next big programming language isn't going to develop itself! You need people for that, and Software Science gives the right background. After my degree I hope to find work related to programming language development somewhere.