Hi, I’m Anita and I am a Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence (CSAI) student at Tilburg University! In highschool I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I wanted to study. Back then, I would spend my downtime coding my own little videogames, complete with self-made sprites and animations. As well as making cartoons, music videos and even a feature-length action movie for Greek history class. (It was as glorious as it sounds.) Obviously, I was very surprised when we were not allowed to pick art and chemistry or physics at the same time, as if there is no shared realm between art and tech. :,^)
Luckily, today I find that all my hours of ‘just creating things’, then have been incredibly useful in the long run. I think I had a shared moment of recognition with Jos when animating a NAO robot for the first time: “Of course! It’s just like making keyframes in (animation software of choice)!”
I think the most satisfying part of our endeavors is to see just what we are capable of when we are four brains working together on one goal. We all have our own strengths and quirks which, fortunately, work very effectively together. As such, I think my role within the Brainihacks has become: That girl who waves around a whiteboard marker and says things like “Wait- I need a video of that!” and “Where is my data?!”
(Disclaimer: We are all very nice to each other and no one gets hurt during our work, except Caterina who keeps having to squish her head into a tiny EEG cap.)
What interests me most about my study path is that we are encouraged to be creative, and push the boundaries of our capabilities using what we have learned. The Br41n.io IEEC SMC Hackathon in 2021 is the prime example of such. Ever since we made our winning project there, we decided to stick together as a group and find more challenges to tackle. It has been an exciting journey, from our basement trips to Mindlabs to a Biodevices conference to wherever else the road may lead!