E K M, also known as ken, is a software engineering student from Tanzania. He had an amazing time during his college classes, and it is no wonder that he received numerous awards, to name a few: Zhejiang Provincial Govt scholarship 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, ZJUT academic scholarship first prize 2017/18, 2018/19, second prize 2019/20.

Life

1. Do you like China? What are the reasons and motivations that made you want to study in China?

At first, I didn’t really like it, my mom suggested that I study here. Going to another country anywhere in the world for studies, was just a good and exciting Idea for a young me. I should rather say what motivated me to keep up studying in China because there was a point I was just about to quit. The things that have helped me to stick around are technological advancement and very cordial people I have met here. The more I have lived here, the more I have liked the place and I appreciated that I came here.

2. As a new foreigner in China, did you get used to your new life easily? what are the challenges you faced when just arrived and how resolve them?

Not at all, everything seemed to be very different at first. The biggest challenge was the language, I found it to be very difficult. I learned that it needs a lot of writing and speaking practice to just grab the basics. So, in my first year, I spent so much time outside classes hours to practice Chinese. I will fumble to draw the characters on the handwriting book again and again and I’ll exchange voice notes with my Chinese friends to improve my tone.

study

1. Congratulations for your very good results in the specialized courses of your major. Why did you choose that major?

I honestly didn’t have a good reason that led me to choose software engineering. I just heard someone saying it needs more creativity and critical thinking, and I thought this is maybe a good thing for me. This interdisciplinary nature of artistic and engineering paradigm in software engineering major is what gave me the guts to choose it. In the early C++ programming classes, the teacher will ask a volunteer to write a simple program that will be run on his lecturing computer. That always fascinated me and the amusement has motivated me to stick around for 4 years.

2. Do you have any particular learning methods? Can you share it with us?

I think that curiosity is a catalyst that enhances learning. So, the best way to learn something very well is to first develop an interest in it. This helps even when things go marginal because you loved something, you would want to keep learning. Another practical thing is that I take a lot of notes when studying, something that I see a lot of people around me don’t do. When you try to write down something you heard or read, you have to recall and summarize it before you write. This really helps me to remember things.

3. Which courses do you think are particularly important or particularly useful in your studies field?

I think data structures and algorithm analysis is the only course I deem very important for computer science and software students. Programming and advanced mathematics skills are something that all engineering professions are required to have these days. But I think what separates a computer engineer from the rest, is the ability to make the right decisions on software architecture and algorithms design.

Apart from programming and mathematics fundamentals, all other courses are just specialization courses. Also, most big tech companies are very keen to hire candidates with strong algorithms design understanding. This is just something that every computer student should grasp very well.

What message do you want to address to the freshmen?

To the freshmen:

The advice and small tip that can give is to study hard and score very high in your first and second year. If you do that, the third and the last year will be so easy because most things are stack on top of each other. The opposite of this is an academic catastrophe.