Being a student (again)

another new post after a long hiatus. It’s been a while since my last post, but a lot has happened in the meantime.

Getting accepted in CMU

As for my latest post https://baktistr.github.io/blog/not-a-small-updates/, I was in the process of applying to several universities to pursue (another) master’s degree. I was in the process of applying to several universities to pursue (another) master’s degree. Fortunately, I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon University’s Privacy Engineering program. The program sits under the Computer Science department and feels like a perfect fit for my background and interests. It focuses on the intersection of Security, Privacy, AI, and Human–Computer Interaction (Usability). Getting this acceptance still feels surreal, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

Move to pittsburgh (alone)

After many long discussions, my wife and I decided that I would move to Pittsburgh alone. She still has a full-time job in Indonesia, and our daughter has already started school, so relocating as a family just wasn’t realistic at the time.

It was one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make. Being physically apart from your family is never easy. But looking back, I genuinely believe it was the best decision we could make under the circumstances.

The good news is that they’ll be visiting me and staying in Pittsburgh for more than a month, right up until Eid. Having that to look forward to makes everything feel much lighter.

Studying is fun, but hard

Back in my undergraduate years, I realized something important about myself: my main struggle in engineering courses has always been math. That doesn’t mean I’m bad at it—I just need more time to really understand what’s going on under the hood compared to people who are naturally brilliant at it. I’ve always been… average.

That said, studying here has been incredibly rewarding. One thing I really appreciate is how cool and approachable the professors are. I had a unique experience after receiving a pretty bad score on a midterm exam, the professor personally emailed me, asked what happened, and offered suggestions that turned out to be really helpful for the final exam. This kind of experience is something I never had during my studies in Indonesia.

My classmates are also great. Many of them come from big tech companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon, which creates a very high-energy and intellectually stimulating learning environment.

It’s easy to see why CMU is often considered one of the top universities in the world for Computer Science, AI, and Cybersecurity.

AI is a real deal now

AI today feels very different compared to just 2–3 years ago, when I was working as a data scientist and AI engineer. The pace of progress is honestly wild.

With models like Claude Opus 4.5, and even powerful open-source models such as GLM 4.7, I can’t help but think that the value of purely “writing code” is slowly diminishing. That doesn’t mean engineering is dead—but it does mean the skill set is shifting fast. Understanding systems, security, privacy implications, and human factors feels more important than ever.

And AI is not just about writing code, it can do almost everything. It helps with research, assists with lab assignments, and even fixes the grammar in blog posts like this one! I also fully migrated my WordPress blog here with the help of AI

OSCP

On the offensive security side, I finally bought the PEN-200 (OSCP) course during last year’s Black Friday sale. The plan is to take the exam after this semester ends. It’s been a long-time goal of mine, so actually being on this path feels very satisfying.

What’s next ?

I’ll be staying in the U.S. at least until December this year. During that time, I’ll be actively looking for a summer internship opportunities in cybersecurity-related fields. Wish me luck ~