土木二 張艷芬 (Jennifer)
Opportunities often come in unexpected forms, and sometimes they require us to step out of our comfort zones. For Sri Ratna Wahyuningsih, coming from Indonesia, studying at National Taiwan University offered a world of new possibilities.
The beginning of the journey
Starting her academic journey at Parahyangan University in Bandung, Indonesia, Ratna earned her Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering. After graduating in 2017, she dived into the professional world with GW & Associates as a junior geotechnical engineer. There, she honed her skills in geotechnical design and analysis of shallow foundations, slope protection, and retaining structures. Her growing expertise soon led her to a role as geotechnical engineer at GEOTEKINDO (Shanghai Geoharbour Group), focusing on ground improvement design and project management and cost estimation.
While working, she had a passion inside of her to pursue a Master’s as she also dreamed of studying abroad. Thankfully, she was able to receive a scholarship from her professor at Parahyangan University. And so with delight, she took on this opportunity to pursue her Master’s at National Taiwan University.
Adapting in a new environment
Ratna started her journey to Taiwan in August of 2019. When she first arrived, she was quite overwhelmed by the language barrier since she had limited prior knowledge of Chinese. Fortunately, some of her professors at NTU were very understanding of this and were able to instruct their classes in English, making her feel very appreciative of them. Despite this, most of her classes were still mainly taught in Chinese. Moreover, there weren’t many international students in the graduate department. But this is also what made Ratna enjoy her time studying here. The challenges of befriending and learning in a new language did not deter her but instead spurred her to immerse herself into Taiwanese culture. With the help of this and taking many Chinese classes, she was able to immensely improve her Chinese during her time studying in NTU.
During her studies, Ratna focused her research on soil foundations and improvements. She started gaining interest in soil improvement when she worked as a geotechnical engineer back in Jakarta. At NTU, she was able to deepen her research and understanding in this field when she researched the effects of bacteria in soil improvement and strength under the advised care of Prof. Dr. Louis Ge. The innovative approach of injecting bacteria into the soil is said to improve the overall soil strength. With a solid soil foundation, the soil will be able reinforce and ensure the stability of the structures built atop better.
Upon her two fruitful years at NTUCE, Ratna graduated with a Master’s in Geotechnical Engineering. She decided to stay and pursue a career here in Taiwan as she feels that the civil engineering field here offers a different perspective than the ones she has experienced in Indonesia. She also hopes to improve her skills and knowledge here in order to contribute her knowledge and implement them for future construction projects in Indonesia.
Ratna’s graduation in 2021.
A new insight in her field
Currently, Ratna works as a geotechnical engineer at Moh and Associates (MAA) Taipei, an engineering consultancy firm. Her work focuses on design analysis of excavation works, retaining structures, and foundation. She also does project management and planning. One of the recent projects she has been working on is the MRT extension for the red line in Xinyi. They have been designing new models for this project and have started construction. She has been tasked to monitor the excavation construction and do design analysis on it.
Ratna working at the MAA soil lab
Working on projects like these have helped Ratna improve on her expertise in geotechnical engineering, specifically in excavation. She said she is especially interested in expanding her knowledge in excavation methods because it is not as common to excavate in Indonesia as it is in Taiwan. In Taiwan, excavations can be done up to 5 floors deep whereas in Indonesia, it would only be done up to 2 floors. Ratna says the excavation levels done in Taiwan and Indonesia differ greatly due to the amount of land available in each country. Since there is not much land left to be built on in Taiwan, constructions here must either be excavated deeper or built higher in order to meet the required capacity demand. In contrast, Indonesia is a vast country where there is still a lot of vacant land yet to be explored. Therefore, excavations in Indonesia do not have to be as deep as the ones constructed here in Taiwan. Additionally, Indonesia has varied geological conditions (thanks to its thousands of islands) making the soil softer. This soft soil also adds another challenge in excavating projects from a civil engineering standpoint.
Ratna feels that the knowledge that she has learned about excavations here is very important and insightful to be brought back to Indonesia in the future. She says that learning how to implement a deep excavation project is very important when building MRT tunnels. Currently, Indonesia only has one MRT system located in Jakarta, so she hopes these methods can be implemented for future constructions of MRT systems in other cities in Indonesia.
Opening up new doors of opportunities
“Going international has opened up many new opportunities for me,” said Ratna. Having the opportunity to study at NTU has given her the chance to speak with many experts in various fields of civil engineering, thus allowing her to gain a more mindful insight into the field that she is learning in. It has also opened doors to network with others on a more international level since many international conferences are also often held in Taiwan. Ratna says that although the civil engineering industry is also highly respected in Indonesia, studying in Taiwan has broadened her perspective, knowledge, and skills in this field. She also added that seeing many women pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering in Taiwan (as compared to a low number in Indonesia) has also motivated her to strive harder during her academic years at NTU.
To conclude, Ratna shares a word of advice for all her juniors in NTUCE: “Dream big and dare to fail.” She says that during her university days, there were moments where she did not take the chance to try because she was afraid to fail. Looking back, she now comes to regret the chances that she did not try to take as she believes that without failure, nothing can be achieved. She hopes that others will be able to take on all the opportunities (along with the challenges) presented to them to make the most of it and achieve success.