Scholarship / Commercialized CAE software for Indonesia - Chevening Scholarsip - Career Plan Essay [4]

Hi everyone, this is my essay for chevening scholarship. Any correction and/or comment would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

Prompt: Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals.

According to an article titled 'Which ASEAN country is the most competitive?' released by World Economic Forum in 2015, Indonesia only ranked in fourth position on economic competitiveness and it has a correlation with R&D expenditure. My experience as CAE Pre-sales Engineer has brought me to a revelation that low R&D activities in Indonesia is caused by high expense of CAE software-caused it is actually imported product and the price depends on foreign currency-thus blocking their technological development. So, my goal is to make it affordable for them by developing Indonesian-made CAE software code.

Inspired by NASTRAN code which started from NASA, upon completing study on Computational Engineering in the UK, I will head back to Indonesia and join Indonesian National Department of Aeronautics and Space (known as LAPAN) as a researcher. I will focus on doing numerical simulation of engineering problem and learning to develop my own solver in the meantime. With the knowledge I acquired from master course, I will propose a research project about developing finite element code to solve LAPAN's engineering challenges.

I know it is a long journey to build a commercialized CAE software. It requires not only technical skills, but also marketing, management, and networking skills. But I am sure with adequate knowledge and determination, I can make this come true. I am sure with affordable CAE software, it could rise Indonesian technological development, especially in automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, and manufacturing industries. This could leads to healthy investment climate thus emphasize Indonesia international trade, including between United Kingdom. According to 'Doing business in Indonesia: Indonesia trade and export guide' released by British Government in April 2015, advanced engineering including automotive, aerospace, maritime, and manufacture of machinery industries is one of UK business opportunities in Indonesia. I believe that if this condition can happen, fortune will be brought for both parties.