UNAIR NEWS – A student of Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) has once again secured an international internship opportunity. Zakkiyah Mazaya Salma, from the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (TRKB) program at the Faculty of Advanced Technology and Multidiscipline (FTMM), was selected to intern as a researcher at the Human-Centered Robotics and AI (Hucenrotia) Lab, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan.
Salma joined the program through the Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP), an initiative of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education that connects international students with universities across the country. The program provides both academic and non-academic experiences to broaden participants’ knowledge and skills.
Building practical expertise
Salma’s path to NYCU was not without challenges. She went through multiple interviews with various laboratories but did not succeed initially. Still, she remained determined throughout the selection process, especially during the final stages with Hucenrotia Lab.
“Before being formally accepted, Hucenrotia Lab gave me a challenge to complete a Kaggle competition project. Alhamdulillah, I placed third, which secured my spot at the lab,” she recalled.
At Hucenrotia, Salma joined a team working on Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) and locomotion systems for robotic dogs. VLN research combines natural language processing with computer vision to develop robots capable of understanding spoken instructions. Meanwhile, locomotion studies explore how quadruped robots can move stably and adapt to different environments.
Her primary responsibility was to reproduce previous research projects and present the results to her team. “I once replicated a project from the TrackVLA paper, which enables quadruped robots to follow human instructions such as ‘follow the person in black.’ I also worked on a project based on the Extreme-Parkour paper, which allows quadruped robots to perform advanced parkour tasks such as long jumps, high jumps, and even handstands,” she explained.
Making most of the opportunities
During her internship, Salma gained not only academic insights but also cultural exposure and international connections. She attended seminars, took Mandarin language courses, and participated in cultural activities.
By making the most of these opportunities, she hopes to strengthen her skills and prepare for life after graduation. “I also hope this experience helps me become more ready to take on challenges in the professional world,” she said.
She encouraged fellow students who aspire to join international internship programs to continuously sharpen their skills and prepare mentally. “The culture here is very different from Indonesia, and each lab and professor works in unique ways, so adaptability is key. English proficiency is critical, and a little Mandarin is also useful. Don’t forget to strengthen technical lab skills in your field, because you need to contribute meaningfully,” she concluded.
Author: Selly Imeldha
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
