02 the road
to programmer

So here I am, on the eve of a brand new adventure. At a time when people move around the world with their laptops. Some of you know that I like to travel a lot, but being able to work and earn money during that trip is a unique opportunity that fits the times in which we live. Working from anywhere in the world as long as you have Wi-Fi. In recent years my desire has grown to work abroad for a longer period and to use the skills learned at Wageningen University here. I'm really looking forward to getting this wish started tomorrow. The people I work with will largely stay behind in Wageningen, while I will work from sunny abroad, how unreal!

People who work abroad are also called expats and when they earn their money working online from different places they are called digital nomads. The first concern that came to my mind was whether as a digital nomad I would not miss physical colleagues very much. Who greets you good morning and with whom do you drink a cup of coffee? As a primary and secondary school teacher, I got so much energy from dealing with people. In recent years, partly due to corona, the number of digital nomads worldwide has increased at a rapid pace, to about 35 million, with a doubling expected in just a few years. This of course gives the hope that I may not have direct colleagues, but that I can meet many people who walk the same life path.

For my study Forest and Nature Conservation at Wageningen University, I started my internship at the Dutch organisation State Forestry in December 2020. I was given the assignment to take a closer look at the Soerense beek, a stream near the Dutch city Arnhem, because it was increasingly dry due to the warming of the climate. I wrote a report about the research into this stream, which covered, among other things, the biodiversity, history and water quality. Making the report and bringing representatives of surrounding estates, nature organisations, municipalities and local residents to the table provided a fantastic learning experience. And yet I noticed that I was missing something in the career opportunities as an ecologist. The fact that there was a limited range of ecological functions did not give me a good feeling. For example, it is not uncommon for graduate ecologists to start an HBO position while they have completed a university education. When I looked at the organizational structure of State Forestry, I wondered whether I would see myself grow in this organization. Job security also played a part. As soon as a government cuts back on nature, you will have to wait and see if you keep your job. Although it would be fantastic to be involved with nature on a daily basis, the above questions kept me busy.

After the internship I wanted to learn more about the digital geographical maps that I had made in the State Forestry report. I had heard that you could shape the maps with more possibilities when you designed them by typing codes. This seemed very interesting to me. I met up with student assistant Robbert, who I knew had a great passion for programming. 'Well..' said robbert, 'You could take the GeoScripting course where you learn the basics of different programming languages.' That seemed an excellent plan to me, after which he continued. “And I don't know if you like it, but the Machine Learning course will be offered in the period after that.” I had never heard of it, but machine learning turned out to be part of artificial intelligence, in which the central point is that computers try to imitate human decisions. Artificial intelligence, abbreviated AI, I knew from films of futuristic worlds with robots that could one day help us in the household. What felt like miles away suddenly came a lot closer. As I was about to pack up my things, Robbert said 'And by the way, I'm closing the year with the Deep Learning course, which goes a step further since in deep learning, decisions made by the computer are based on neural networks, similar to how signals are passed through neurons in our brains. It seemed hugely complex to me, I didn't see what it would do for me at all, but my interest was aroused.

I followed exactly the path that Robbert outlined, in which the courses were bundled together into a minor in Data Science, which was essential for my graduation thesis. I approached teacher Patrick of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation department, a researcher on wildlife cameras, because he had most in common with the computer direction I wanted to go in. I was the odd man out because artificial intelligence was already widely used in agriculture and livestock farming, but surprisingly hardly when it came to nature. I said, 'Patrick, I really want to do a thesis, but I took machine and deep learning courses and I insist on applying these brand new techniques in my thesis. After some deliberation, we arrived at the following study 'Automatic behavioral recognition of red deer in the Veluwe with the help of deep learning'. Soon after downloading the software, I realized that the programs were a lot more difficult than previously thought. Independently typing codes to get the deep learning algorithms working turned out to be very complex. My supervisors, Patrick and colleagues themselves had hardly any experience with artificial intelligence, let alone with the complex DeepLabCut program, which a select group of mainly experienced programmers work with. The unexpected problems piled up because my PC wasn't powerful enough, because I couldn't split my dataset, varying photo dimensions, having a wrong number that prevents you from going any further, to errors with countless possible causes. Then I asked on the forum, which could take a few days and if I was lucky there would be a response that showed, for example, that a comma was wrong. It ended up being a year-long monster job that I turned in on April 1, 2022.

It was often working alone and figuring out a lot for yourself. Miraculously, I managed to gather the most diverse people who helped me. A great PhD student Helena from the Farm Technology department, Ramon a programmer from Deventer and Brandon, a father from America met on the internet, who all volunteered to help me look at the scripts. In addition, there were also people from the university who simply said that they did not have time or were not given hours to supervise students. Anyway, the thesis was assessed with an 8.5 and I was very proud that, as far as we know, I am the first Forest and Nature Management student to have pioneered with artificial intelligence. Of course I was also relieved that I could finally close this chapter.

The diploma had arrived. The behavior of an animal could now be determined at the touch of a button to the computer . For everyone to understand while the way there is so complex. 'The model' that was completed gave such satisfaction that despite the setbacks I was sure that I wanted to develop myself further in artificial intelligence. At a company or as a PhD student/PhDer? I didn't know exactly what I wanted, which made it a logical next step to publish my thesis in which you make your research known to a large audience, for example through a scientific journal. Unlike during my thesis, there was now much more interest in working on it together. This was partly because people could now also become co-authors and academics simply have to publish a lot of articles. Although the change in help and involvement took some time getting used to, I am very happy to be able to collaborate on an equal level with people specialized in AI.

In Wageningen I noticed that my time as a student was coming to an end, for example when I told my fellow students at the rowing club that I was 29 years old and had graduated. I suddenly felt old while at 27 I was still fully immersed in student life. Efforts to build new friendships were not rewarding as before. Nevertheless, together with Mark, my old rowing coach, we did strength training at the club for a few months, which gave the days a wonderful structure. Not being a student anymore, but also not having a job yet felt like falling between two stools. No grip on the future and the realization that I can write the planned article anywhere in the world as long as I have Wi-Fi, led to the thought 'Why don't I move to a warm country?' There are a lot of remote workers and I really hope that I will even meet a number of people who are also involved in artificial intelligence, so that in the future I may have more people to exchange thoughts with than during my time at Wageningen University. Of course, the nice weather, the relaxed culture, the dance and the delicious Mediterranean food don't have to be wrong either. And so the rollercoaster started to save as much as possible in a short time, to say goodbye to the student house, the nursing home and friends. Of course my last days were in Bavel. Together with comrade Rob we gave a fantastic party in a packed cafe De Publieke Werken in Breda with 75 friends, including friends who had come especially from Wageningen.

It will be an exciting time full of new encounters and sunny adventures. I am really looking forward to it and will miss the people around me very much. A familiar conversation with someone you know so well. Elderly woman Ger said to me 'And then you will definitely come back with hanging legs'. You never know, of course. I can't wait to make a fresh start. We are going to make the best of it, nice that you are also part of 'The Expat Experience' through this road. More coming soon!