Asidua

Barry

I’m studying a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen’s University, Belfast, and I’ve just completed my first year.

I chose to study Engineering as I felt it offered me the best graduate employment opportunities. I really enjoyed first year, and am very pleased with my results, as they put me on target for a first class honours.  As a mature student I know the value of practical experience, and it was the guaranteed placements that first attracted me to Asidua’s scholarship. I am honoured to have been selected, as I know how capable and clever the other applicants are.

If you want to learn more about my experiences in Asidua, please read my regular blog updates below…

 

27th May 2011
There’s nothing quite like the exam season to make you relish the opportunity for a yearlong work placement. My part time placement is coming to an end and I’m looking forward to getting onto my own project, full time, from mid June onwards.

June will see the start of quite a few new placement and scholarship students, and new graduates, so it’ll also be the first big test for the Device Services School that I was charged with overhauling. Helping to get the new starts settled in will be useful for me as well. After all, it’s only when you try to explain something to someone else that you realise what how much you’ve learned.

I’m in the middle of my exams, so now’s probably a good time to summarise my second year at university. This year in QUB has been challenging. The amount and difficulty of the work has really ramped up from first year, but some of the modules were really interesting. My course encourages more and more specialisation as the course progresses, so my placement year experience will feed in to my final year module choices. It sounds strange to say that working will be just the break I need, but I enjoy my work in Asidua, so it should be a good way to ‘recharge the academic batteries’ for final year.

 

25th February 2011
I’ve been back working in Asidua, part time, since early December, alongside doing the second year of my course. My experience in Asidua over the summer helped me to progress quickly through some of the coursework modules, meaning that I had some spare time in my week. My hours are flexible and the work is varied. My Line Manager made it really easy for me to work my hours round my course commitments.

Splitting my hours over the week does bring its own complications though. Initially, it was difficult to make a lot of progress when you can only apply yourself to a task for a few hours at a time. Keeping good documentation becomes second nature when you get into the habit, and it makes it easier to pick up where you left off. You’d be surprised at how cryptic your own code can seem if you’ve not reviewed it in a while. Good comments can save hours of confusion.

As well as my day to day work, I’ve been able to undertake self paced learning courses available via the company intranet and from the company library. These range from soft skill courses (communication and team working) to technical courses (technology specialism and telecomms courses). There are also regular master classes and instructor lead courses which are an invaluable resource.

 

12th July 2010
This week felt like a short week because of the public holiday. I’m consolidating the school modifications before moving on to the more advanced WinPath (a Wintegra Network Processor) tutorials, that cover the main part of Asidua Device Service’s work. Many of the more advanced tutorials are written by Asidua staff who’ve been working with WinPath Network Processors for years. They are experts in their field, so my project will be more about applying a consistent structure from now on, as well as ensuring the material is current, and all the links work. I’ve still quite a bit of advanced material to cover though, so I’ll be busy.

 

5th July 2010
Four short weeks, and I’ve recapped everything I’ve covered before in programming and embedded development over the past four years, and started to expand on it. It can be quite a steep learning curve, but there are an abundance of learning resources, and people are always happy to help. Two Computer Science placements students started at the same time as me, and we’ve been working through the school at the time. Their experience with Linux has been a real help to me, as I’ve never used it before. Likewise my embedded C experience has helped them, as most recently they’ve been coding in Java.

 

1st July 2010
I’m currently doing my first 8 week summer placement, in Asidua’s head office, near Belfast city centre. I had really wanted my placement to be with Device Services, and that’s what I got! The office is spacious and open plan, and my colleagues are friendly and happy to help.

I’m really enjoying my placement, and thinking back to the summer before I started Uni, it’s hard to believe I’ve been this fortunate!

 

28th June 2010
I’ve completed just under half of the ‘Device Services Training School’ and brought the tutorials I’ve covered so far up to date. My team leader gave me an recap of what he wants me to achieve overall, confirmed that he’s happy with my progress so far, and has said he’s happy to let me do it in my own way. He receives regular email updates on my progress from the school, and my journal entries, so he’s always up to speed on my progress.

I’m trying to keep the school clear and concise, but accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds. Asidua takes on Computer Science and Electronic Engineering graduates, so each person undertaking the school has a slightly different experience at the beginning. My challenge is to ensure that the tutorials are intriguing, logically structured, and satisfying to work through, without being prescriptive.

 

21st June 2010
My project requires me to work through the ‘Device Services Training School’, and update and expand its content. The ‘Device Services Training School’  takes the form of a set of tutorial style embebbed development tasks. Asidua is currently taking on quite a few placement students, as well as graduate and post graduate software engineers, so there are a number of people at different stages of the School. This week, I’ve talked to those who’re ahead of me to see what they felt should be improved upon, and worked through the introductory tutorials with the other placement students who’ve started with me.

The toughest part of this week was waiting for my results, which were released on Thursday 24th. I was very pleased with them, and as there were a few QUB students who got results that day, we clubbed in for ‘team buns’ to celebrate.

 

14th June 2010
I’m just finishing week one of an eight week summer placement, in Asidua’s head office, near Belfast city centre. I had really wanted my placement to be with Device Services, and that’s what I got! The office is spacious and open plan, and my colleagues are friendly and happy to help. I’m really enjoying my placement, and thinking back to the summer before I started Uni, it’s hard to believe I’ve been this fortunate! I am honoured to have been selected, as I know how capable and clever the other applicants were. This week, I was introduced to my colleagues, got set up in my work space and was given details of the project on which I’ll be working over the summer.