Institut Teknologi Bandung

Vaghwa was a student of the Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering master’s Study Program. He studied the same course in 2004 before starting his career at the Balitbang Air Force of the Ministry of Defense, where he used his skills to make maps of Alutsista (Main Equipment of the TNI-AU Weapon System).

As time goes by, the digital era is approaching, and demand for better quality of defense equipment with digital geospatial data has become more prevalent. Currently, the KF - X / IF - X fighter development program is being carried out in cooperation between Indonesia and South Korea, which requires an accurate digital map.

Vaghwa mentioned that the knowledge he gained during his undergraduate studies did not use any digital means. Thus, he was entrusted to continue his S2 education at ITB in 2020 via a scholarship provided by the cooperation between the Ministry of Defense and ITB to explore digital geospatial.

Education systems experience multiple transformations in each passing year; this was felt by Vaghwa, who set foot again in the academic world after 16 years of his career. He was nostalgic about his moments in his bachelor years in ITB, where he was to recount the courses taught before and reconnect with various ITB personnel.

He admitted that these are all a portion of the benefits of being part of ITB since being an undergraduate student. Besides receiving assistance from his fellow postgraduate classmates and professors, he was also supported by his friends from the ITB Geodesy Student Association (IMG), which he joined during his undergraduate studies. “Thanks to my IMG friends from the class of 2018-2020, I was able to talk about my share of difficulties and continue to persevere.”

Vaghwa’s thesis title is "Quality Analysis of Thematic Geospatial Information of Passive Radar", and he has been working on it since starting his master’s study in 2020. In his research, he focused on improving the quality of geospatial information data. Dealing with unshared geospatial information data in Indonesia, he faced difficulties and had to develop new parameters for his research.

Graduating with a perfect GPA was something that Vaghwa had never expected, considering he must wisely manage his time with his work.

To put his time and mind into his studies efficiently, he advised always recording every class study session. He had done this method when fhe was an undergraduate student and found it useful to revise all materials after lecture hours. In addition, Vaghwa admitted that he is not a perfectionist, but he always ensures he is doing his work accurately. Like solving exam questions, he focuses on the questions he understands with references from journals or papers.

Thanks to the guidance of Dr. Akhmad Riqqi, M.Si, and his family, Vaghwa can graduate on time with great results. He thanked his wife, who has a doctoral background in the University of Indonesia FISIP, especially for the motivation to pursue further studies.

Vaghwa's academic journey does not stop here; he plans to pursue a doctorate degree in the next stage. He received support from lecturers to research in the Doctoral program.

"We have to love challenges because if we love challenges, then these challenges will naturally soften and love us in return," Vaghwa concluded.

Reporter: Pravito Septadenova Dwi Ananta (Geological Engineering, 2019)
Translator: Ruth Nathania (Environmental Engineering, 2019)