The teachers from the Department of Computing Systems and Networks told me about the master's program when I was a 4-year student. Then I read more information on the website of the MaCICT program and I decided to apply for this program. From the first week of training, I realized that it would be very interesting for me to study and I would get really important skills for my future work in IT.

I am very glad that I took part in the MACIC project as a member of an international students team which completed the course "Software Development in Large Teams”. I consider this to be my first experience of working really close to a real-world project. Our team has developed a web-application for a Danish real estate sales and rental company. For the first time, I tried on the role of a business analyst who was responsible for communication between the Danish and Belarusian sides, as well as for identifying customer requirements. I improved my time management skills, broadened my professional horizons. I included participation in this project in my CV and confidently went to the job interview. As a result, I got a job offer and I am currently working as a business analyst at an international IT company.

The academic disciplines for the master's program are very well organized. This allows better assimilation of the material. My master's thesis is related to the processing of big data, so it is very good that there is a laboratory for practical research.

I am currently working for an IT company. Studying in a master's degree program allows me to develop not only professional skills, but also soft-skills that are important for my job and it helps me to communicate with my colleagues in an international team when we work on a project.

I came to Belarus from China, interested in the advertised new master's program "Computer Engineering". I was enrolled in a master's program, but at the same time did not have significant programming skills, and only knew the basics of HTML. During my studies, I was learning programming technologies and programming languages and now I am working with a great effort on a project to create an interactive web-guide for foreign students of the university. It is my first project of such a big scale that I will complete with a good level thanks to courses that I took here. The professional and soft skills acquired during my studies will allow me to get a job offer when I return to my home country. For me personally, this is a very important result.

I learned about the MACICT project when I was invited to participate in an international student software development project. I agreed right away, since I knew that I would work in an international team and carry out a project proposed by a real IT company. It was a great experience. We worked together with students from BrSTU, our customer was a Danish startup "The Seed". It was difficult at first. The work on the project presupposed possession of technologies that we owned at a very modest level. In addition, communication with the customer and the product owner required a good knowledge of English. This was a barrier that we have successfully overcome by the second sprint of the project. Thanks to participation in this project, I mastered not only new technologies, but also learned how to work with project management systems, with version control systems, overcame the communication barrier, learned how to work in a team, significantly improved my English and even learned how to speak publicly, which I was very afraid of before. After the completion of the project, my team and I got involved in a new university project, we are working on it using the same Scrum methodology. And yes, I got a job and now I work as a backend developer in a Grodno IT company. I think this is an excellent result. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Can you briefly tell us what course you took in the fall?

It was a course in industrial software development, where the focus was directly on the development process in a team using the Scrum framework. Well, that is, we had an introductory lecture, they explained to us what it is and how it works, and then gave the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in practice.

Exactly the same is not present. I talked with guys from other universities with whom we studied together on the course and they said that they did not study flexible methodologies at all. There is a similar course in my specialty, very cool.

Are you glad to have participated in this project?

Absolutely yes. It is not often that there is an opportunity to learn from specialists from other countries, while immediately applying the knowledge gained on real projects from real customers. This is an invaluable experience that allows me to significantly grow professionally, to which a pleasant addition for me personally was the opportunity to obtain a CSM certificate from the Scrum Alliance.

When I learned about the launching of a new master's program "Computer Engineering", I immediately decided to apply and was not mistaken in my choice. While studying for a master's degree, I significantly improved my professional competencies. I found especially interesting courses on the development of soft skills: business and personal communication skills, public speaking skills. I have not studied such courses before. In addition, studying at YKSUG,  I am working on an interesting project "Data processing system for the urban environment based on data warehouse technology." The project has not only a technical, but also a scientific focus, so I also acquire the skills to perform scientific research. During the training I was especially interested in the course "Database Design and Maintenance". I even got a chance to try myself as a teacher's assistant, teaching practical lessons on this course for undergraduate students. I hope that after completing my master's degree, I will be able to apply for a higher position in the company where I work now. And most likely I will combine my professional career as IT-specialist with teaching at the university.

My impressions of studying at the master's degree are the most positive. I deliberately made a choice in favor of studying in Belarus, in the city of Grodno, as I had heard from my compatriots about the high level of IT education in Belarus. I am no longer a young person and it was important for me to get an education that would allow me to apply the knowledge I gained in practice and get a job. My expectations were met. The university where I study actively cooperates with IT companies. Thanks to this, I was able to participate in many workshops organized by IT specialists, as well as attend their master classes. This greatly expanded my professional horizons and helped me to make a choice of my future activity in IT.