Personal information
My name is Jip de Kok, I am a master graduate of the Systems Biology master at Maastricht University. Prior to my master's I completed my bachelor at the Maastricht Science Programme, resulting in a degree of Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences. During my academic career I focussed on programming and applying that skillset to a multitude of biological problems. I have always been interested in the life sciences, particularly the complex systems within the human body fascinate me due to the heterogeneous interplay between the different layers, be it genetics, metabolomics, or even at the organ level, the connection between the different systems is complex, and incomprehensible without the proper modelling tools. During my studies I have come to realise that what I enjoy most, is the programming part. Automating statistical analysis pipelines to test hypotheses, or formulate new ones is one of such applications. Moreover, I have grown very fond of the concepts of Machine Learning (ML) and am convinced of its potential for the future given the continuous development of data collection and processing hardware. My knowledge lies predominantly in the supervised area of ML, where we predict/classify certain outcomes based on labelled training data. I also applied such techniques in my master thesis where I evaluated the performance of many ML models on the prediction task of atopy using infant gut microbiome data.
Biology has always interested me, the high complexity and interconnectivity of the countless molecular pathways composing our body and keeping it in balance is fascinating to study and a great challenge to mathematically reproduce. During my study at the Maastricht Science Programme I have taken multiple courses regarding cell- and molecular biology. Additionally, I have applied this knowledge in practice in the labs of the Brightlands campus at Chemelot. As I had laid my foundation of biological knowledge, I saw the opportunity to combine my interest in biology with my passion of computer science. Hence, I started taking programming and maths courses in which I could frequently apply my biological knowledge.
Already at elementary school I was interested in computers, and then I don’t just mean video games. I was always trying to tweak my slow bulky laptop into a somewhat-less-slow laptop with a gorgeous third-party user interface. Indubitably, I usually ended up bricking my system, forcing me to completely wipe and reinstall my windows partition. However, I think this where my passion and knowledge about computers originated from. After, exploring many Linux distros and upgrading my laptop’s RAM I soon realised I had pushed my laptop to its absolute limits and I started saving up for a high-end pc. With this increase in performance, new hobbies arose. I started programming and modelling 3D objects. These hobbies have persisted until today and I have used and improved these skillsets during my academic career. 3D modelling came in handy for various visualisations that I have made during my academic career and programming allowed me to do a variety of complex data analysis tasks and also for visualisations of complex data as I always find it satisfying to have a visual end product. Currently, I have a wide variety of computer skillsets and would like to start specifying in a more specific field in which I can excel.
That’s enough about my academic background, here I’ll briefly talk about myself personally. Besides my passion for computers I love to go outside hiking, skiing, mountain-biking or any other sport really, as long as it’s not ice skating. From my 16th I have been a boy scout leader, where I lead a group of boys in the age range of 7-11. Moreover, I play Spanish guitar which comes in handy to play some campfire songs during summer camp, although I prefer to play some more classical music when not around the campfire. <p class='informalUndertone'> Last but not least, I like to go out with friends in my pursuit of happiness. </p>