The National Institute for International Education (NIIED) has successfully held the 2023 GKS (Global Korea Scholarship) Year End Party on December 20, 2023 at the NIIED office located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. The event was attended by GKS students, GKS alumni, NIIED President, and NIIED employees. The main Agenda of the event was to award Excellent Academic Achievement Awards to three outstanding students at each program of Bachelor, Master, and PhD. Indonesia should be proud, because one of the recipients of the award is a GKS student from Indonesia named Ahmad Zainudin. The author interviewed him on February  2-4, 2024 via Instagram of his wife to discuss his success story as a winner of the Excellent Academic Achievement Awards.  Here's the discussion in our interview.

Briefly introduce yourself 

My name is Ahmad Zainudin. Currently a PhD student at Kumoh National Institute of Technology (KIT), Korea. In Indonesia, I am a lecturer at the State Electronics Polytechnic Surabaya in the Telecommunications Engineering Study program. For my educational background, Bachelor of Telecommunications Engineering, and Master of Electrical Engineering at the State Electronics Polytechnic Surabaya.

Since when did you become a GKS scholarship recipient?

In 2020, a one-year Language program at Kangwon National University. In 2021 began the PhD program at KIT.

Why did you decide to apply for a GKS scholarship to continue your studies at S3 level? 

Before I decided to apply for the GKS scholarship, I was interested in continuing my PhD in Korea. Because the development of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Research is very advanced in Korea, which is my research field. The government strongly supports research in the field of ICT, it is seen a lot of research in the field of ICT on Korean universities. After that, I decided to apply for a GKS scholarship, because this scholarship is very prestigious given directly from the Korean government and provides several facilities compared to other scholarships. Some of the facilities provided include a free language program for one year which is very helpful for everyday life in Korea, round-trip airline tickets, fully funded, health insurance, and several other facilities.

Why did you choose Electronics Engineering at Kumoh National Institute of Technology? 

That must be because my master degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering and my research field is also the field of ICT. When I did a survey to find a campus, I was interested in the Nslab (Networked Systems Laboratory) in KIT with research fields that fit my field and NSLab is a productive Lab that has a lot of funding from the Korean government and abroad. Thus, this lab productively publishes several reputable international journals. This Lab under the supervision of Professor Dong-Seong Kim and Professor Jae-Min Lee has approximately 8 post doctoral, 15 PhD, and 14 master's student members.

You have won the Best Paper Award at the ICTC 2022 International Conference. Do you want to be clear and concise about your paper?

Thank God, I got the best paper from the 13th International Conference on ICT Convergence (ICTC) 2022 which was held in Jeju City on October 19-21, 2022. My Paper is titled "FedDDoS: an Efficient Federated Learning-based DDoS attack Classification in SDN-Enabled IIoT Networks."There are 614 papers from around 35 countries accepted at this conference. 

What is the process that you have to go through so that you get the Excellent Academic Achievement Awards?

Two months before the award ceremony, the international office of each campus conducted an internal selection to select campus representatives based on the achievement of the last year'S GPA. Each campus will be selected one representative of GKS scholarship recipients for PhD, Master, and Bachelor programs. After that, the international office KIT informed me that I was selected as a KIT representative as a candidate to receive the Excellent Academic Achievement Awards at the 2023 GKS Year End Party. I was asked to complete several documents such as transcripts in Korean, fill out an assessment form by writing several publication achievements, such as: international/domestic journal (title, Journal name, impact factor, and edition of the year published); international/domestic conference (title, conference name, and year of implementation of the conference), and several other award achievements such as the best paper award. Furthermore, I was also asked to complete the documentary evidence of several publications that I wrote down on the assessment form. After the document is complete, the international office sends the document to NIIED for the next stage of selection. At this stage, NIIED conducts selection from all universities and selects award recipients for PhD, Master, and Bachelor programs. Then, the international office informed me that I was selected as the recipient of the Excellent Academic Achievement Award from NIIED for the PhD program as well as being invited by NIIED to attend the 2023 GKS Year End Party to receive the award.

Which universities received the Excellent Academic Achievement Awards?

For the universities that received the Excellent Academic Achievement Awards from each program as follows:

a. Master Program from Chungnam National University

b. Bachelor Program from Korea University

What are the agendas of 2023 GKS Year End Party?

The event began at 16: 00 Korean time which was opened directly by President NIIED. Then followed by remarks from several representatives of embassies of friendly countries and after that the awarding ceremony. There is also a chapter sharing event filled by GKS students and GKS alumni sharing.

How did you feel after receiving the award?

I am very grateful to receive this award as well as my motivation to complete my PhD program well and always productive for the publication of research.

How did the award have a positive impact on your life?

Through this award could motivate and increase my confidence to deepen my research and publication in reputable journals.

What are the electrical engineering sciences that you have learned in Korea that can be applied to build the electronics industry and overcome problems related to electronics in Indonesia?

My field of research is not purely electrical science, but more into the field of ICT and more focused on network security. Hopefully it will be useful in Indonesia, especially to improve cyber security.

What are your future plans after graduating from Kumoh National Institute of Technology?

I will return to campus again in Indonesia and teach as a lecturer at the State Electronics Polytechnic Surabaya.

Are there any tips or suggestions in living life as a PhD student in Korea?

Focus on the lecture and make every effort to achieve the best results. As well as increasing the publication of both reputable international journals and international conferences.