Name: Richard Vdovjak
Place of Birth: Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia
Year of Birth: 1974
Studied at TU/e: Computer Science, PhD 2000-2005
SW Engineering Design (OOTI), PDeng 1998-2000
Current position: Project Leader & Senior Scientist at Philips Research 

Why did you choose to study at TU/e at the time?
I had just completed my master’s degree in Informatics and wanted to extend my education in that field further. To be completely honest, I found out about TU/e by lucky coincidence when I noticed an  announcement about an available position on a bulletin board at my university back in Slovakia. It was a great experience and in retrospect, I'm really happy with the time and effort I invested in the lengthy process of obtaining my PDeng and PhD. And it definitely  seems to have been worth it, career-wise . 

How did you find a job?
Maybe I was lucky, but shortly after my PhD I had four job offers to choose from. I simply wanted to combine research challenges and real-world problems. I deliberately chose a multinational with a global reach. I became a project leader in the field of healthcare informatics. While I was well-prepared as far as informatics and computer science were concerned,  I admit I had to learn a lot about the clinical domain(s) we provide healthcare solutions for. Paying attention to cultural differences is very important: I currently lead a cross-continental project between China and Europe and we’re likely to expand to Brazil next year.

What are your plans for the future?
I want to continue working on high-impact innovations for now. I enjoy being involved in busy multidisciplinary, multinational and multi-time zone projects and activities, but I also like to balance my hectic day job with my passion for photography, where I focus on long-term documentary projects devoted to people stories in remote areas of the world, and underprivileged minorities in Europe (some of my photos can be found at www.vdovjak.com).

What advice would you give current students?
Try to base your research on real-life problems, e.g. by finding a PhD research program that’s (partly) funded by the industry. Make sure you know how to communicate your research results as well as your dreams and passions clearly. As for countries, that’s for everyone to decide for themselves. My work takes me to different corners of the world, so I'm kind of a ‘world citizen’ and I like it that way for now. But the truth is that I love my homeland and I'm always very happy to return to see my family and to have a great time. After all, there is no place like home.