Martinus Azaryah

I am a 2 year MSPPM student for 2011-2012 period. My background degree is in engineering,

Industrial engineering to be precise. My work experience include working in the factory of

garment industry for one year as a system analyst (but not IT system), and as an auditor for

Indonesian government (2008-now).

I dont play soccer, i dont do surfing, I eat almost the same food as it was yesterday and the day

before and day before and so on. I dont like traveling, I think it waste of money that I hardly

collected, I dont like drinking, i think drinking is for a loser who just want to keep drunk all the

time and forget the reality, I dont smoke, I eat candy or chocolate instead, and I'm a guy not a

gay. I have a humorous personality and easy to approach (at list it was my impression for

myself). If you read my wiki and think that i sound like a grumpy old hag, well I am old, and right

now i just really want to graduate with a good mark......

Why so serious ????

Benjamin Ortiz

Hello everybody!!

I am Ben from Argentina, South America. Like many of you, a few years ago I would have never

thought I would end up studying so far from my hometown. However, this unique experience

proved to be worth it as well as enriching and life-changing. Besides taking the 2 year long

MSPPM I am working part time in a local construction company, so I am always juggling with

my time.

Having a civil engineering background encouraged me to undertake this course as GIS looms as

a paramount tool for any large project. Curiously, I did not have this course in my bachelor's

degree curriculum. I hope I can make the most of these 12 weeks and get familiar with this tool.

As to my personal life, I enjoy playing soccer and am a former amateur rugby player. Back in

Buenos Aires, I would attend every match Boca Juniors (the best and finest soccer team of

Argentina by far) played and I look forward to resuming that habit after graduation!! Even

though we will complete this class on line I am sure we will manage to get to know each other

on campus.

Cheers,

Ben

Chikezie Isiguzo

I am Chikezie (chi-ke-zie).

I am from Nigeria, an AUSAID scholar, on study leave from my employers the Central Bank of

Nigeria where I serve as Manager, Information System Audit .

My professional background include Accounting, Auditing, Enterprise Architecture, Information

System assurance and risk management.

I hope the course will help prepare me for the dynamic changes in the professional working

environment this generation is experiencing.

I also hope the class will allow me a new view of the world and presenteation/resolution of

issues through the perspective of GIS.

I have a lot to learn and know that each person has a lot to teach - and I expect to get the best

experience this class could give.

I am married with two pretty daughters (age 4years 10months and 1year 1month respectively)

I can't wait for December 2012 to be united with them, that is why I must do well and meet my

graduation date.

Cong Hoang

My name is Hoang Huu Cong (or Cong Hoang in English way :-) ), from Vietnam. I am studying

MSIT at CMU, Australia and in 2 years track. My background is in IT with few years experience

of software development. I just came Australia in January 2012. I also visited Belgium, South

Korea and US and Australia now is a new experience. Each country gives me a cool experience :-

).

I like playing and watching football (soccer), watching movies (action, science fiction and

comedy) and listening to music (love song or "soft" song, not rock music). Sometimes hang out

with friends in coffee shops to chat something and sometimes eat a lot :-).

Elizabeth Kioria

Am an a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management scholar, from Kenya taking the two

year session. This is my first Semester here at Carnegie Mellon University. I'm married and have

a 3 years and 8 months old daughter. I left my husband and daughter back in Kenya and hoping

that they will join me soon as I settle down. I love traveling, adventure or nature walks, reading

inspirational book, singing, meeting new people and watching movies. I have studied a

Bachelors Degree in International Business Administration, concentrating in Marketing. I have

also undertaken a Master of Arts in Organizational Management concentrating in Human

Resources Management.

My previous employment was in several Companies mainly in the Administration Department.

My past employment was in a National Assembly of Kenya Constituency office. I was

accountable to the Member of Parliament, of that Constituency, in the role of a Constituency

Manager. My job involved analyzing the challenges in the Constituency, deriving way to come

up with project to be funded by the Government under the Constituency Development fund to

tackle the challenges. This called for meetings with local leaders to discuss how the community

will become involved in owning and managing the projects. This was a challenging position that

involved a lot of planning, organizing and coordinating different events through out the

constituency.

I believe that studying Geographic Information Systems, will give me the skills and the

knowknowledgeanalanalyzinga that will be useful in making informed decisions. The class will

enable me interact with the faculty and fellow students that have fast experiences from

different countries therefore proppreparingto be a global partner in making a difference in the

world. Am looking forward to gaining more knowknowledgethe use of Geographic information

systems.

Hassam Raja

Hi Everyone

My name is Hassam Raja and I am from Pakistan. I am doing MSIT 2 year program at Carnegie

Mellon and I am graduating this December. My background is Computer Science and I have

three years experience working in technical consulting, software and web development. I am

interested in GIS since I am a part of a startup Bushfire Connect (www.bushfireconnect.org)

that maps bushfire emergencies all over Australia using the Ushahidi platform. I am interested

in learning data analysis using geographic mapping and deriving decisions based on them. I am

looking forward to an exciting journey through this course with you guys.

Regards

Hassam Raja

Jacqueline Belgica

Hi everyone!

I am Jacqueline Belgica from Manila, Philippines. You can call me Jacque. I am currently on my

3rd & last (Yay!) semester of my MSIT program.

I am a systems analyst back home, handling mostly SAP applications. I work for the Central Bank

of the Philippines, which is the bank of all banks. I am friendly, fun-loving and very positive

about life. Life is a continuous learning journey for me. I speak and write English, Filipino

(Tagalog) & Mandarin, but I know a little bit of Fookien too. I try to find time to learn new

things whenever I can (dressmaking, cosmetology, yoga, etc). I consider it a gift to be exposed

to many different cultures so I travel as much as I can (& as long as I am able to afford it.) I

believe that man is meant to explore the world so I try to discover it more one day at a time.

I read a lot of books, especially the works of Paulo Coelho and Sidney Sheldon in particular. I

like to keep myself updated with current events (although breaking news tend to be mostly

negative). Among my guilty (but unhealthy) pleasures is Hollywood gossip, so I take time to

read on those as well whenever I go online to check on the news. I always enjoy a good

conversation, especially with someone who is open-minded, insightful and smart.

Studying here at CMU has been quite an adventure. It has been a rich learning experience

working with people from such a diverse set of cultures. Living here in Adelaide (and away from

all the comforts of home) has taught me a lot on how it is to live independently. I discovered a

lot of things about myself here -- among them is that I can cook decent meals and can do

laundry!

As cliche as it sounds, I do want to change the world. How, I am still not sure! Although I am

looking at teaching part-time when I get back.. hopefully to impart some useful knowledge to

eager learners. I also want to start a fashion line once I am stable enough to fund one.

I am looking forward to learning a lot from this class and from all of you, so I hope we can do

that :)

Best x

Jaksha Shah

Hello Everyone,

I am currently doing my Masters in IT 5 semesters Management track. This is my 3rd semester

and just two go! :)

I come from India, Pune city. I completed my under-graduation as an IT Engineer.I decided to do

my masters as I wanted to develop my Management skills. Prior, coming to CMU-A I have

worked as an software application developer for two years at Bank of New York Mellon,

Chennai. My job description focused on enhancement and maintenance efforts in scripting. I

decided, to do GIS as I have heard from many students in the past the content of this course is

very good and also has demand in the industry. My take away from this course will be

understanding GIS concepts and applying to the real world problems.

In my personal life, I love to cook and try new things. I enjoy doing water, adventure sports and

travelling to new places.

Jimmy Galindo

Hi guys. I arrived to Australia a bit more than 1.5 years ago with my wife an my daughter full of

dreams. I got an undergraduate as a computer system engineer nearly 10 years ago and I

decided to start a master in Australia may be 4 years ago. Since that time I have to start planing

my new life in Australia due to impact of this decision in my our lives. Now, although some

times the situation is not exactly that I expected, I have enjoy a lot in this nearly two years.

I enrolled in this course just this week because at the beginning I did not think on taking GIS,

but I was told that this a very interesting tool that can help me get an important new

knowledge.

Kasimona Sichela

My Name is Kasimona Sichela. I am AusAID scholar from Zambia. My background is in

Computer Science. I have worked in Mining firm and later on two different health non

governmental organisations. I worked as data manager for my last employer and in the

course of my work, it became apparent that there was need to be able present reports

that show how geographical locations contribute to the reported indicators. An interest in

GIS was therefore birthed, hence my doing this course. I am particularly interested in how

i can be able to embed GIS functionality in software applications.

I find myself coming up with a lot of interesting ideas (of course i need to work on being

able to implement these). And i think i forgot to mention; i am doing the MSIT 3 semester

program.

I am not all about work though. I have a social life too! I have a beautiful wife and daugther (my

daughter just turned 1 today!!). They did not accompany me here and hence, i am having a

miserable time here. Cant wait to graduate in December, 2012 and be re-united with my family!

Facebook profile

Linkedin profile

Marco Salinas

Hello there, I’m Marco Salinas and I grew up in beautiful Mexico with

my dearest brother Daniel. Other than studying until late hours at

University, you can find me running around, biking and, most recently,

celebrating my birthday (May 17th).

This is my very first semester at CMUA and let me say I’m honored to

be part of this course and you are welcome to find more than a

college on me.

I’m currently enrolled to the MSIT program -two year track, and so far

the University has exceeded my expectations. I’m sure it will complete

my academic education and will provide the necessary tools to be

applied to improve my country’s public policies through the use of

information technologies.

Back in Mexico I worked as technological advisor for the

Undersecretary of Competiveness at the Ministry of Economy. My job

was to improve the Federal regulatory framework, particularly

concerned on businesses’ life cycle. And even though I am done with

that, I still have a couple of projects in mind I would like to flush out

the pipeline.

Some hobbies I stop doing since I arrived to CMU-A (need to get back into them) are: paella cooking, rock

climbing, guitar playing, and soccer -sport that I played for years as undergrad student. So feel free to leave a

message just to say hi or in case you are interested on doing such things...

Let me share this links with you: - ITESM (My Alma Mater) - My Favourite place in Mexico

- Ministry of Economy Mexico - How to cook a perfect paella

- My Resume - My Flickr account

- Digital Map of Mexico

Michael Kahuko

Hi,

My name is Michael Kahuko from Kenya.I am taking MSPPM two year track.I have a Bachelor of

science in Comupter science degree.I tutored various computer courses after graduating and

worked as a freelance web/software developer.I loved geography back in my high school days

and have always wanted to further my knowledge in the computer field with a course related

to geography and this I believe is my opprtunity.

I am a soft spoken person,but quite easy going.I love travelling and my dream destination is

Israel and Egypt.If I won a lottery I would set up a trust fund to help the needy people in my

country and use the rest of the money to travel round the world.

I believe this course will be really enjoyable.

Muhamad Arif Hadiwinata

G'day Mates

I'm a MSPPM student, and this is my last term..Hurrraahhh!!!!!

I come from Indonesia, and Jakarta is my hometown. My academic background was Sociology,

and I have 4 years experience working with National Government agency (Ministry of National

Education) and AusAID as an independent consultant in Educational Policy Reform in Indonesia.

Personally, I have no specific academic background in GIS. However, one of my working

experience was dealing with school mapping in Indonesia. I expect to gain a lot of skill and

knowledge after finishing this course, so when I go back to Indonesia, I can apply my GIS skill.

Playing guitar is my hobby, and I like 90s music, especially Brit Bands: OASIS, Blur, Radiohead.

and off course MUSE. I live in Adelaide with my wife and my son. I also like football (soccer) and

Liverpool FC is my favorite club. My biggest dream is that I have a time travel machine that

could take me back to May 2005 in Istanbul, when Liverpool won UEFA European Champions

League against AC Milan from Italy.

If one of you wants to go to Indonesia, I am more than happy to welcome you guys.

Cheers.

Quyen Le Hoang

(Xin Chao!!!) - Hi everybody, I am Quyen Hoang, I am come from Hanoi - the capital city of

Vietnam. The first thing I can say about myself that is a big secret garden always insides me ;)

Now just want to tell you a tiny corner of that garden. I got married in 2008 and have a lovely 3

year old daughter. She lives here with me now and we are enjoying happy life everyday. She is

really my treasury that I've ever had.

Graduated from Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (faculty of international law) in 2007, I was

recruited to work in a non-governmental organization headquartered in India named as

Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS). My main work was involved in implementing

research projects on competition law and consumer protection and some other development

projects.

Over a year working in CUTS, I noticed that I achieved development in working experience and

might have more positive orientations in career that could bring greater benefits to the

community. I decided to work for the Vietnam national poverty reduction program as a project

coordinator, I believed that this job not only would I be helping the community, but I would be

helping others to help the community as well.

The decision of acquiring master degree in public policy has been the turning point in my life.

Joining Carnegie Mellon University, I wish to develop my specialized knowledge based on the

focused ideas; issues and trends derived from public sector and community development

issues. GIS course to me is a new concept and methodology. However, I believe that its

feasibility and applicability would be fruitful to my future work related to development

projects.

In addition, I am addicted to travel ;) hence, GIS might take me to any corner in the world with

data, images and information that I am interested in.

I do hope you all guys and me will have amazing and fantastic time with GIS adventure.

Thanks and Good luck!

Cheers,

Quyen Hoang

Razaullah Khan

I am student of MSIT here in adelaide campus. I have a degree in computer sciences and has

been working in different organizations on different possitions. My primary experience is in the

system administration and support as well as implemenation of new systems. I can work on

windows, linux and unix and have an experience of almost twelve years with computer

hardware troubleshooting, maintenance and upgrade. I have worked on windows 3 and

windows workstation and MS-DOS when there was only the intel 286 and 386 processers in the

market and these systems have no harddrive and has memory of 32KB's. I remember how hard

it was to install and operating system when on of the large floppy disk gets corrupted and the

whole set would not work.

Before comming to Australia i was a system engineer at a goverment organization known as

"National Database and Registration Authority". Before that i was regional IT coordiantor for

one of the countries largest bank known as "MCB Bank Ltd.". Before that i has worked as a

lecturer at Pakistan airforce accademy and at the university of engineering and technology

Peshawar.

If anyone has a problem with there computer feel free to contact me for a solution.

I used to be a very active in sports but the Govermnment sector job didnt allowed me for much

activities for the last few years. I am a cricket player and had played up till district level. Back in

my home town cricket and wollyball are the only popular games. I didn't like the later one so

moved on with the first. I did have a good record in the game and would usually open the

bowling for my team apart from that i was a middle order batsman but never managed very big

scores but did managed to get the team to a good possition when needed.

My home town "Peshawar" is located just near the afghan border. Its used to be the most

peacefull city of the country but these days now one would like to travel to this area, I wish i

could see my city back with peace and harmony.

ROMEO LUKA

Hi there guys. I arrived in Australia over two years ago to study nursing which I successfully

completed in December 2011. I have an undergraduate degree in business information

technology and some working experience in the IT industry. On completing my nursing studies,

I realised that my true passion was computers and I decided to return to my first love. I believe

that life is about sharing and that everyone has a positive contribution to make. When we see

each other, share a smile with me. Cheers

Scott Yurcheshen

Hi Everybody,

My name is Scott Yurcheshen and I am in my last semester here at CMU-Australia. I have

wanted to take GIS since a few friends took it last year and spoke highly of the instructor and

content. Further, GIS seems very applicable across a variety of jobs, and I think having a

background in it will be useful. I have no prior experience with the content, but have installed

ArcGIS and am ready to roll!

I am from the U.S., where I grew up in New Hampshire and got my undergrad degree in finance

from Boston College. I spent the two years before CMU with the U.S. Peace Corps, working in

the Kingdom of Tonga. I lived on a small, remote island, without electricity, running water, or a

door to my bathroom. I just went to India for two weeks over semester break (hence my Taj

Mahal picture), and it was a fantastic experience.

Alright, that's all for now. Look forward to learning a lot.

Srinivasan Vembuli

Hello Everyone,

I'm Srinivasan Vembuli (most of them call me "Srini") from India.I'm doing 2 years MSIT

program at CMU Australia.

I have worked as a Software Engineer in HP for 1.3 years and as a Senior Application developer

in Bank of New York Mellon for 3.9 years. My work experiences have been varied from design,

coding, to leading and have provided me with an exposure to Financial domain. They have been

instrumental in directing and shaping my career goals.

In my first semester at Carnegie Mellon University, I had an opportunity to work on a project

with South Australian Police(SAPOL). The purpose of the project was to analyze and propose a

knowledge management system. The project not only increased my skills as a consultant

architect but also provided me an opportunity to engage in with SAPOL's senior management.

I'm looking forward to learn more on the GIS technology and its applications.

I love road trips.

Cheers.

Stephen Njuguna

Hi Everyone,

I am from Kenya and from a small countryside town called Nyeri, it is an amazing place to be

in,rich with fauna and flora. It is beautiful to wake up every morning and enjoy the scenic view

of the snow cupped mountains and the harmonious melodies of the singing birds.Talk of

adventure sites and you will find them here.If you are looking for a place for your holiday,I am

phone call away.

I am a Biomedical Engineer in my 5 semester track in MSPPM,it is amazing to be in Adelaide. I

have worked with the Government of Kenya and ECRAF both as an engineer and a

researcher.While working in the private I dealt with community health and social issues which

sparked my interest to learn more and coming to CMU was a right choice.Anyone out there

willing to train me more? I would be glad to

Cheerz guys

Ali Syedain

Hi Everyone,

My name is Ali Syedain and i prefer to be called Syedain (Sa-ya-dan). This is my last semester

and i couldn't be happier.

I am from Pakistan and i come for a humble family, where my parents are both retired and we

are 3 siblings. I have an MBA in marketing and this would be my second masters. It was my

dream to study abroad and to embrace diversity.Before coming to CMU i was a product

manager liabilies for a local bank and was damn good at it (but that part of my life is over and

now it time to look beyond).

A bit about myself, i am usually introvert in the start and i hate small talk and to mingle, but

people say i am almost bearable. I love cricket and love my country. I like breaking boundaries

and barriers, and love to challenge myself and stereotypes.

I love cricket,music and reading and i love, love,love travel ( i was a steward for an International

Airlines). My dreams keep on changing and i love to make mistakes in life cause my mistakes

and failures are my best teachers.

My latest two passions are Foreign Donation an NGO I started here in Adelaide with CMU

students and it encourage international students to be more prone towards the idea of

donation from blood donation to time and organ donation.

The second is the school called Hunar ( Urdu word meaning talent) where i started this for

theunder privilege people of my country. The idea failed,but after coming to CMU, i know soon

it will be time to pick up where i left out.

Thien-Huong

Hi everyone,

I am Thien-Huong, from Vietnam. The first time I heard about the word GIS was like six years

ago, when I was working as a graphic designer, a five page brochure about GIS. This sounds

interesting-I thought to myself - I never knew I would have a chance to get to know more about

it later on ;-).

Though loving working with colors and lines, I felt like I was missing something from this job.

One fine morning, I got a phone call from a stranger, he introduced himself as one of my friend,

(who had this believe that I should do something other than designing), asking me to come for

an interview for a PR position at his firm.

That was an awkwardly funny moment, I didn't even know if he knew my background or not but

I couldn't embarrass my friend so I said I'd come. I'd never been to a press conference, read a

press release or had any idea what is a media briefing, but somehow I managed to get thru the

interview, did well the test and the weeks after, I found myself there in the office, with my

teammates (who became my very good friends later) sometimes by 11pm preparing for an

exclusive interview, VIP visits or some events. The workload (also working time) was double to

what it was before but I was happy with it and really love it.

After few years working, I decided it's time to know something new and the world financial

crisis might be a good time for studying so here I am, back to student.

I am now on my second semester and GIS is my first distance course I've taken, but feel quite

"close" as I can find the answer to all my questions so far with detail and updated instruction

even with this Student Homepage. The only problem with me now is the VirtualBox to install

GIS software on, to what I understand a virtual motherboard for Window7 or something like

that but this minor problem will be solved on next Monday.

Thank you all for reading :-> Huong.

Umair Saeed

My name is Umair and I come from historic city of Lahore in Pakistan. I have a bachelors degree

in computer sciences and similar work experience. After getting the hands on experience while

working 4 years for leading telecom operator, I felt an urge to upgrade my skillset and for that I

came to CMU in 1 year MSIT track.

My motivation in this course is to learn the dynamics of GIS and ways it could combine the

underlying principles with other areas of IT and telecom to generate greater business value. I

want to understand that how companies such as Wal-mart have found unique ways to

integrate and automate business process and workflows with geospatial insights, integrated

within their BI system.

I hope to have a good learning experience with all of you.

Regards

Umair

Vinay Rajagopal

Vinay Dudda Rajagopal here. Doing my 1 yr MSIT at CMU A. This is my last semester.

Prior to CMU, I was working for Motorola as a Pre Sales Solution Architect for South East Asia

region. Prior to which I was a software developer for Motorola India in the WiFi division.

As part of my job, I have had experience of Enterprise Mobility deployments for major players

in Retail, Supply chain, Education and Manufacturing segments. My expertise is Mobile

computing, RFID and WiFi.

I love traveling, cycling and backpacking. Thanks to my previous job, I have had my fair bit of

luck traveling all across SE Asia and US.

Waiting to pass out and get back to 'work'!

On GIS part, I have had some exposure to ArcMap clients on Mobile computers. But never got

my hands dirty with server side of analysis. Hope to do that in this course.