In 2015, Romy Blankendaal obtained her Bachelor's degree at VU in Artificial Intelligence, which was called Lifestyle Informatics at the time. She then successfully completed the Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, with a specialisation in Human Ambience. Today, she works as a researcher at The Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research (TNO).
“What really attracted me to the AI programme was the diversity of the courses. You take many courses together with students from other programmes, such as computer science and psychology. I find the combination of people and technology very interesting. We have so many new technologies at our disposal—how can we use them to support people in their daily lives?
“One of the courses I enjoyed most was Project Artificial Intelligence. This course was given at the end of the first year, and we applied in one month what we had learned over the first year. The different components came together while we conducted practical research: reading literature, developing a practical application (in this case an app) and testing.
“During my studies, I took part in an ongoing research project as part of the Honours Programme. Together with a fellow student and the research team, we conducted an experiment, which was later published in an article. It was interesting and fun to learn more about how research is carried out from start to finish and to work together with VU researchers.
“After my studies, I worked for a year as a junior researcher and junior lecturer at VU. I then started looking to take the next step as a researcher. Now, I work as a junior scientist innovator at The Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research (TNO). I conduct applied research into the use and possibilities of learning technologies. I focus on how we can use technologies and techniques to support people in education and training, especially those who work in complex and demanding environments.
“In my current job, I’ve benefited greatly from the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in AI. With the projects I work on, AI and other knowledge and skills I learned (e.g., the use of immersive technologies such as virtual reality) come up every day. I built a strong foundation in these things during my studies. Both the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes are multidisciplinary (courses from different disciplines). Because of this, you learn how to work with people who have different areas of expertise. I personally like being able to be a bridge between technology and people. In my work, project teams also often consist of people from multiple disciplines.”
