ITS Campus, ITS News – Completing his studies of eight semesters for four years and managed to achieve an almost perfect Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.94, Firman Maulana was crowned as the best graduate of the undergraduate level of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) at the ITS 122nd Graduation Ceremony. The graduates from the Informatics Engineering Department will graduate online on the third day of the procession, Saturday (24/10) tomorrow.

This student who was born in Surabaya, June 13, 1998, made a lot of contributions to ITS through the achievements he received during his university years. One of his accomplishments was achieving the Champion title in the 2018 Game Development Competition. In that competition, Firman developed a game with voice recognition as a controller. In 2019, he was also a finalist in the Indonesian Cyber ​​Community Competition conducted by the Indonesian Army.

Firman Maulana, a graduate from the Informatics Engineering Department, crowned as the best graduate of ITS at the 122nd ITS Graduation Ceremony for undergraduates

Apart from being active in competitions, Firman also joined many organizations within ITS. Starting from serving as Senior Staff at the Research and Technology Department of the Student Executive Board (BEM) of the Faculty of Intelligent Electrical and Informatics Technology (ELECTICS), Senior Staff at the ITS Computer-Informatics Engineering Student Association, until serving as Senior Staff at the ITS Muslim Informatics Family.

As a student who is quite active outside of the usual university classes, Firman can still maintain his academic achievements well. This is proven by his GPA that was achieved at the end of his study, which was 3.94, close to a perfect score of 4. During university, Firman received a perfect grade point average (GPA) four times, namely in semesters three, four, seven, and eight. According to him, the key to the balance between academics and non-academics is being good at time management.

“The key is to focus on what’s being done. If it’s the time to go to college, take the right course, and if possible, complete all academic matters during class hours, so the rest can be used for others, for example, organization, refreshing, socializing, or even sleeping,” he listed, giving the tips he had been doing so far.

Officially graduated from ITS, Firman was previously accepted to work at the Tokopedia marketplace company starting October 2020. In this digital-based buying and selling company, Firman will work as a software engineer. “Previously, I did an internship at Tokopedia as an internal software engineer from June to September 2019, I worked on software engineering aspects such as data migration, software design, bug hunting, and many more,” he explained.

Firman Maulana (right), when he won the 2018 National Game Development Competition

When asked about his motivation behind achieving the best graduate, Firman elaborated that it was actually his huge interest and passion in his chosen field of study that made him enthusiastic about learning. In the field of Informatics, Firman is interested in game development as well as software design and engineering. “Due to the interest in the field of study itself, there is an initiated effort to explore it further. As for the title itself, for me, maybe it’s just a bonus,” he stated when contacted via online message.

At the end of the interview, Firman advised ITS students to focus more on the areas that interest themselves and not because on the interests of those around them. “Don’t forget, too, that the main purpose of attending university is for self-development. Hopefully, everyone will achieve their own versions of success,” he expressed. (sin/ory/ITS Public Relations)