One of my favourite things about my course,
Software Engineering, in Southampton is the way it will sometimes engage you
with its fair share of theory and skill-based learning in laboratories and
lecture theatres, but simultaneously often it just tends to throw you into real-life
situations and challenge you to learn enough on your own to stay afloat – with
help on offer if needed, of course!
And so the case was proven in just the one
week since I returned from Christmas holidays, stuffed with food and decidedly
sleepy every day, which became a bit of a culture shock when I had to start
waking myself up early enough to go straight into the thick of things! As ever
with third year it’s been a tricky week at times, but one which, looking back,
has ultimately felt very fulfilling indeed, both from an academic perspective,
but also a developmental (not to mention useful for the CV!) view as well.
It began in a bit of a haze with the need
to finish off a group project for an early-in-the-week deadline – well, there
go those new year’s resolutions (although I’m claiming I’m still keeping to
them on a technicality)! The initial challenge, set out a couple of months ago,
was to formulate ideas for, design, develop and then pitch an innovative web
application to potential business clients, with several technical requisites
demanding that you pick up a whole host of skills in the process, including expertise
in a couple of programming languages (namely Python and JavaScript) and an
understanding of the backbone of such applications. Needless to say, I’m now taking
the code that makes my email inbox accessible a whole lot less for granted!
We were given several introductory lectures
to the concepts and languages early in the semester to give us enough of a
footing to fill in the rest for ourselves, and were then set on our way. As we
were in self-selected groups, the variation in people’s prior experience and
knowledge was quite significant, with myself being a total beginner to web
application development (although I did already know plenty about web design
and Python, at least!), so to be put in an entirely fresh developmental context
was initially a huge challenge, and one which required me to… *shudder*… actually take out a book from the
Hartley Library (not an activity frequently undertaken in Software Engineering,
where research tends to be more journal-based), ahh!
However,
the freeform nature of the assignment meant that we as a group were all working
towards building a technology that we knew we would enjoy making and, fingers
crossed if it ever worked, using! So, at the beginning of the week, with a few
loose ends to tie up as the work levels undertaken over Christmas started to
flag a little towards the end (it’s an accepted truth that working over the
Christmas holidays is practically impossible!), we spent a number of hours in
computer laboratories as a team, making sure that our application could do
everything we wanted it to do before submission – hopefully, all things being
well, without crashing!
We were
then presented with the challenge of showcasing our work in a professional
demonstration to the mock “clients” assessing the application, and thankfully
all seemed to go well. I’m not going to disclose exactly what the project did
at this stage, mainly because at the pitch we received encouragement to
potentially take it forward commercially – we thought it might be quite
innovative ourselves – so fingers crossed this is the first place that you’re
reading about the next big thing! If not, however, we’d gratefully take getting
a decent mark in its stead – so here’s hoping!
On top of
the web app project, I also had the small matter of an academic conference to chair
on behalf of my coursemates, lecturers and other invited guests. One of my
modules in the first semester, named “Interactive Multimedia Systems”, took a
rather different approach to its imparting of knowledge; instead of the
traditional lecture and lab-based assessments which make up most courses, we
were encouraged and assessed throughout on our contributions to an entirely
student-organised conference event, which was to cover topics surrounding the
world of interactive multimedia like gaming, interfaces, mobile technologies,
video screens and so on, in turn reflecting similar real-world events. These
contributions manifested themselves in the forms of contributing an original
and self-studied research paper (mine being on the topic of classifying addiction
to multimedia), peer reviewing others’, and then presenting it via the medium
of a poster pitch to guests and the public (and fielding resulting questions).
The
set-up for the annual Interactive Multimedia Conference at ECS, 2014 edition! (Credit:
Matheus Beleboni)
For the
extra challenge, however (and because I don’t know how to say no to things, it
seems!), I volunteered at the beginning of the process to chair the “conference
committee”, a team of six brilliant and enterprising students who all took on
various organisational roles for the main event itself, successfully bringing
in, over the course of three months (and with guidance when needed from our
lecturers), sponsorship, keynote speakers, refreshments (thankfully covered by
the University – although my housemates ended up benefiting from the
leftovers!) and advertising, in turn undertaking all necessary administration
and booking a suitable venue for it, as well as formulating a programme for the
day designed to give everyone the chance to demonstrate their findings.
The
poster pitch session allowed us all to wander around and find out more about
one another’s work – there was some truly fascinating stuff on offer! (Credit:
Matheus Beleboni)
In truth
it took up a greater amount of time than I’d perhaps expected (so yet another
degree distraction!) – particularly finding a space to host more than fifty
people for five or six hours, crikey! – but it was a tremendous experience and
was hugely enjoyable throughout, working closely with an enthusiastic and
creative set of people to deliver as professional an event as we could muster,
particularly when, with all the preparation done, we were able to enjoy the
fruits of our labours on the satisfying and fascinating day of the conference
itself.
On top of
that, as Chair, I was tasked with being the one to stand up and make the
opening and closing addresses, running proceedings and introducing each speaker
as their turn arrived – granting me the opportunity to tailor the old stand-up comedy
set to a Computer Science audience, amongst other things! Although I found it a
bit nerve-racking at first playing host to the whole event, particularly in
terms of trying to make sure everything kept to time (and when I knew my
contribution was being assessed!), once I grew into it I found I was having a
fantastic time with my fellow committee members, which proved that when thrown
into such situations, you can get the most out of them by just going for it as
confidently as possible, a lesson I hope to take forward the next time a
presenting opportunity rears its head!
Despite
being a little nervous at first, I had a brilliant time in the Chair/Presenting
role for the conference! (Credit: Matheus Beleboni)
Moreover,
students and staff alike all had a great time getting to ask people about their
work, learning aplenty about some exciting new technologies (discovering more
about autostereoscopy, or ‘glassless 3D’, was my favourite – brilliant work,
Andy Davies!) from coursemates, as well as explaining and debating the
conclusions of our own with passers-by, which, to my surprise, I found was very
enjoyable indeed, although I felt like I was talking at a hundred miles an hour
to try and fit it all into a succinct pitch! Nonetheless, if the event and
indeed course was a true reflection of the process of contributing towards and
participating in an academic conference (and graduates from the course have
commented so in previous years), then sign me up for another – I had a blast!
So on the
whole, it’s been as hectic a start as ever in Southampton, but one which has
been hugely fulfilling as always, gifting me several opportunities already to
taste the oncoming professional world in a couple of different contexts, in
turn arming me with a number of skills, experiences and embellishments to the CV along the way. Despite the initial challenge of being thrown into such
situations, finding a way to get the most of them has enabled myself, and many
others, to draw the best from ourselves – and, strange as it may seem, enjoy
doing so!
Let’s
hope the same can be said for the onrushing exam period, I guess!
Robin
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