Alumni Feedback

2014


Nadia AhmedNadia Ahmed

This Summer School was really amazing, it was my first experience and it was very nice. I met a lot of great people and I learnt a lot about semantic web in a short time. I am very impressed to see diverse people from different countries sharing the same interests in the domain of semantic Web. I would like to thank all the tutors for sharing their knowledge and expert advice, and encouragement. And I hope to see you some where ๐Ÿ™‚

Rowida Alfrjani

Finally at home with a bag of new friends, new experience, good understanding to semantic Web. I have to thank all tutors and organisers for their high standard of work as before I came I was not sure if I will benefit from this summer school or not. Now, I am sure that I got many benefits and I hope this will improve my work in my research.

I want also to thank people who gave us an excellent key notice lecture. I was happy to see them and speak to them face to face.


Abduladem AljamelAbduladem Aljamel

First of all, I would like to thank “Taha Osman”, my PhD supervisor, for recommending this summer school. It came in a perfect time, in a very early stage of my PhD research. It changes a lot of misunderstanding of Semantic Web and its research directions.

Last of all, I would like to give BIG thanks to all attendants for their cooperation and support. Also, I would like to give a special thanks to “John Domingue” and “Irini Fundulaki” for their feedback for my PhD proposal that helps me a lot.

To all summer school's students and tutors, I wish you safe travel and good luck in your study or work.


Prashant GuptaPrashant Gupta

As my excursion to Kalamaki comes to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the ESWC summer school organizers for such a fantastic event and the tutors to share their valuable time and experiences. I enjoyed the whole learning process with the experts and peers, along with the informal gatherings and discussions. I could not envision a better way of learning and connecting, and becoming a part of the Semantic Web community. I wish to stay in touch with all the awesome people I met here and wish them all the best for their future endeavors.


Emna HachichaEmnâ Hachichâ

As a first summer school, really it was a great and enriched experience with awesome persons! Thank you all tutors for sharing knowledge and being generous and thanks to all students and hope sincerely to see you all again ^_^


Fadhela KdjFadhela Kdj

Back to Paris, cloudy, but could be worst…

Thanks to all the tutors and students for the knowledge, I really learned a lot, personally and professionally. Hope meet you soon somewhere else.


Olga KovalenkoOlga Kovalenko

Finally back to Vienna! Its rainy outside, but memories about the friendly and positive atmosphere at the Summer School keep me warm inside. Thanks everyone, tutors and students, for making this such an amazing experience!

And some personal thanksโ€ฆ Thanks to Barry for reminding us how important and cool it is, when one is truly inspired by what he is doing. Also, now I know that a truly gifted person is good at everything โ€“ dancing, DJing, handling with very big sticksโ€ฆ (to be extended by next generations of students at the SS ๐Ÿ™‚ ); Thanks to Elena for keeping the proper level of discipline among us and for restraining us from being up in the clouds (e.g., presentation timing, no impracticable project topics, etc.); Thanks to Irini for her always thoughtful and deep comments; and for being always cordial and open to our questions; Thanks to Isabelle and Maribel for showing that one doesn't necessarily have to have 10-20 years experience in the domain (although it helps a lot ๐Ÿ™‚ ) to be an expert and a great tutor; Thanks to Fabian and Aneta for always trying their best with helping us and answering all the various questions, while staying friendly and courteous (although we asked a lot of them); And special thanks to John for bringing all these different people together and making them such a great team!

Thanks to all the students, it was a pleasure to meet you guys. I wish everyone a great success with the PhD and hope to see you again!


Yassine MrabetYassine Mrabet

Many thanks to all tutors for organizing the summer school in that place, in that way and for sharing with us a lot of their positive energy and knowledge. I ended the week with new friends and that is really invaluable. I don't think that would have been possible in other summer schools, so just keep the secret formula. All the best.


Suad SejdovicSuad Sejdovic

Thank you for all the insights at the ESWC Summer School. It was an awesome experience.


Karn YongsiriwitKarn Yongsiriwit

ESWC Summer School was awesome, seriously! I would not expect at all to meet so many cool people (tutors and students) there and learnt a lot from them. Thank you all tutors, students and whoever involved making this summer school happen. I would definitely recommend the ESWC Summer School to other students. Hope to see you guys again somewhere, maybe at some conferences.

P.S. really miss kalamaki already. ;( – feeling great at Kalamaki Beach, Corfu.


2013


Gopala Krishna KoduriGopala Koduri

It has been a fantastic experience that ironed out many of the gaps I found during self learning, while also pointing me to the topics I should further learn. It also left me with many contacts whom I can readily approach.


Katrin KriegerKatrin Krieger

The biggest benefit for me was the really positive feedback from different people on my PhD project. Most of them said, that they find this really useful and a good idea, others asked smart questions and shed light on perspectives I hadn't looked on so far.


2012


Maribel AcostaMaribel Acosta, Venezuela/Germany

What I liked about the school was the balance between a very challenging, hands-on program and the enjoyable people and venue on the other hand. The lectures and keynotes were all done by experienced Linked-Data lecturers and I made a lot of contacts with junior and senior researchers from the field. In fact, attending this summer school eventually lead not only to some nice paper collaborations but also paved the way to the PhD position in Germany that I'm currently holding. And now, 2 years after, I'm even part of the organizing team. So you can say that the ESWC summer school was an extremely valuable experience for me.


Okan BursaOkan Bursa, Turkey

I knew that my knowledge about the Semantic Web was not the best and I didn't know the community, but I knew as well that I would be able to make new social contacts easily and learn something interesting. This was my motivation to go to the ESWC 2011 Summer School and indeed they had fascinating speakers. “Summer” is actually summer in Crete and they have very nice historical places as a plus. Even with these beautiful distractions, I was motivated to collaborate on each session. Instructors are very helpful and friendly and organization was exceptionally well coordinated. We studied during the day and made new friendships at night. I am still in contact with most of my colleagues from the ESWC Summer School and we even had a tiny meeting last year here in Turkey too. So don't be shy about your project topic nor your social skills, join the summer school, have fun and learn much in such a beautiful place and friendly organization.


Anisa RulaAnisa Rula, Albania/Italy

From start to finish, my experience at the ESWC summer school 2011 was utterly special. I knew from the beginning that this was the right summer school to apply for. Indeed, as a young PhD student I had the opportunity to enrich my theoretical background with practical parts during the hand-on sessions. It was a great experience for my research because I attended lectures from well-known researchers in this field and learnt how to use and build Semantic Web applications. Last but not least was the social part, which was aimed at making friends and creating networking opportunities with people from different institutes all over the world. As of now, the contacts I made in the summer school were very useful. I met so many different people and learned so many different aspects based on their working experience in the Semantic Web. Even today the connections I made in the summer school allow me to still collaborate on projects and paper writings with ex-summer school students. This experience resulted to be extremely rewarding because furthermore I had the opportunity to stay in Germany and working closely with some of the summer school students. Finally, I could say that the place where the summer school took place with the beach and the open air was very joyful.


Ke TaoKe Tao, China/Netherlands

Only reading a couple of existing standards or a textbook might make you doubtful about Semantic Web, either its future or the possibilities of monetization. However, the experience at the ESWC summer school, where I heard lectures from tutors who energetically apply latest developments in their research, gave me a brand new understanding and inspired me. Moreover, I got to know tens of young researchers active in this community. The communications and teamwork at Kalamaki as well as the cooperation afterwards definitely gave me advantages in further research. And, having lessons next to a swimming pool and reaching a beach on the Mediterranean sea in 2 minutes are an amazing experience, aren't they?


Ruben VerborghRuben Verborgh, Belgium

Looking back after two years, I can say that the ESWC summer school has been the most influential event in my research career so far. You get to know many people at once, giving your network a serious boost: you'll never walk alone at any Semantic Web conference. For me, it has also been the start of two rewarding friendships and research collaborations. We all gladly look back at our time in Greece.


Amrapali Zaveri GokhaleAmrapali Zaveri, India/Germany

Don't be fooled by the nice pictures of the beach and the pool, they make you work for it ๐Ÿ˜‰ Seriously though, it was quite an intensive week, but well worth both the effort and money. Attending the summer school not only gave me the opportunity to meet different tutors and students from several different institutions and countries but also helped me gain insight into what's “hot” in the field. The hands-on tutorial sessions were extremely helpful as were the student projects. These sessions helped build team, communication as well as technical skills. Overall, it was an excellent opportunity for students to meet other students who are working on closely related projects and interact with experts to get feedback and advice for our projects. In fact, I am still in touch with most of the students and already collaborating with three on different projects!

Blog post: http://blog.aksw.org/2011/aksw-at-eswc-summer-school-and-conference-2011/