Student Sander van der Drift - MSc Geo-information Science

My background

The master Geo-Information science contains students with a wide variety of backgrounds. It’s a melting pot of people with different nationalities, cultures and skills. I am a Dutch student and my background lies in building technology, architecture and energy. I completed my bachelor in building technology and did a pre-master architecture. Within these studies I have learned to approach difficult problems, involving multiple stakeholders, in a creative way. I am passionate about visualisations, sustainability and the urban environment.

Upon completion of my studies, I worked as an engineer in the energy sector for four years. This job gave me the opportunity to develop my technical and IT skills in a professional environment. My employer gave me a lot of freedom to carry out my own initiatives. They were mostly related to programming and implementing the use of geo-information in the company. I started to like geo-information that much, that I decided to enrol in the fulltime master Geo-Information Science at Wageningen University.

Geo-Information Science

I have just completed the first year of the 2-year program and I couldn’t be happier with my choice for this master and the Wageningen University. It has been both challenging and interesting since day one. I have gained valuable knowledge about geo-information, remote sensing, programming and data management. What I really like about this master is the content and the structure of the program and the personal contact with the teachers and fellow students. During relatively short periods, you’ll work intensively on one or two courses. The many contact hours make it easy to share knowledge and get inspired by the work of others.

As a student, you are free to tailor the master program to your own preferences. Within my study program, I have put a strong focus on geo-information technology. I did so by following optional courses like Data Management, Programming in Python and Software Engineering. This enabled me to work on some very cool projects like building a web application to distribute geographical data and a database for an energy company. We have even created our own Android application!

In my second year of the master, I will start with my thesis and end with an internship. In my thesis, I will focus on the visualization of spatial-temporal data on interactive maps using programming languages. Furthermore, I will be a student member of the program committee where we will debate about the content and the future of the master Geo-Information science.

The future

I strongly believe that the knowledge and skills you gain during the master Geo-Information Science fit very well to the positions that are currently being offered at companies. Geo information will continue to evolve and grow in the coming years and I’m excited to start my career in this field of expertise.

Sander van der Drift

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