National Exam for Indonesian Civil Servant Candidates (2014)

Identification card to follow the test. 

Just the other day, I did my national exam to be a civil servant in my country. I don't know much about how it is arranged in other countries, but in Indonesia, we have to become a civil servant if we want to work as a lecturer in public universities. Of course, to be a civil servant, you have to the exam. [site]

During my 90 minutes of computerized assisted test (CAT) for the national exam, I had to answer a total of 100 questions. The exam consists of questions related to common intelligence such as numbers and words, soft skills, and national insights regarding the constitution, etc. Five points is given for each correctly answered question. I got a 365 points out of 500, which is pretty good and still above the average grade.

After the CAT, there will still be the IQ & personality tests and interview. Fingers crossed!

Publication of second journal article

A couple of days ago I received an e-mail stated that my article entitled "Score calibration in face recognition" has been cited. I was so surprised knowing that this second journal article of mine was finally released and available online since February 2014 in the IET Biometrics journal. With so many hassle and procedure here and there, the paper is officially open-access such that everyone can have access to it. You can find the paper here.

Although it is available online, the paper is still under fast track article type. It means that it is available online such that people can cite and refer to it. Meanwhile, the paper itself is still waiting it turns to be included in one of the volumes of the journal. It has been indexed, but it does not have volume and page number yet.

With this second journal article published, I just need to work on my last journal article to complete my PhD research agenda.

A lecture on "Forensic science, biometrics and speaker recognition -- An introduction"

On this day I gave a two-hours lecture on "Forensic science, biometrics and speaker recognition -- An introduction". Around 35 students joined the class. There were lots of questions and discussions coming from the students related to all three topics, forensic science, biometrics and speaker recognition.

In the first hour, I finished my presentation. In the second hour, the students were divided into small groups containing 4--5 persons. I ask them to imagine: What if they are a biometrics expert and they are about to make a biometric system. What kind of systems will they build? 

Here are several interesting answers from the students: 

1. Fingerprint recognition for attraction ticketing in theme parks, 

2. Handwriting recognition for the students joining the national admission test for universities in Indonesia to capture cheaters, 

3. Facial recognition for smartphone (something that's already exist, I believe), 

4. Multi-modal recognition (fingerprints, iris, speech and/or facial images) for citizen identification in the national election, 

5. Iris, speaker or face recognition for access control at important buildings and/or rooms (this idea is not new, there are many examples found in sci-fi movies or drama),  and 

6. Biometrics (any kind) to access the information related to personal health track record. 

Moving back to Indonesia

As per 28 February 2014, I have ended my working contract with Radboud University Nijmegen. Given that, I don't have a permit to stay in the Netherlands anymore. My next destination is Indonesia, my home-country. There I will try to settle down as a researcher, lecturer and forensic expert. While doing that, I still need to finish my dissertation and get my PhD degree, hopefully this summer.

See you again NL!!

Research Update - Second Journal Article

At the end of my research contract, one good news came up. My second articles has just accepted for publication in the IET-Biometrics Journal. The paper entitled "Score Calibration in Face Recognition" presents the calibration approaches adapted from speaker recognition field to the face recognition. The paper will be available online, as soon as the process of paying open-access option finished.