Engineering Practices: Practicum Placement - Skills and Impact Report

This report provides an analysis of a practicum placement undertaken by a computer science engineering student at a software development company specializing in 3D software. The student's experience involved working with C++ and CAD applications, focusing on developing technical skills, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities. The report highlights the importance of practicum placements in integrating academic studies with work practices, improving academic grades, and understanding work culture. The report outlines the roles and responsibilities of software engineers within the company, including collaboration, code development, debugging, and participation in technical design. It also discusses the social and economic impact of software development, emphasizing its role in driving innovation, creating jobs, and transforming various aspects of human life. The report concludes that the software sector has significant economic and social importance, supporting innovation and creativity, and offering valuable opportunities for engineering students.

Running head: ENGINEERING PRACTICES
ENGINEERING PRACTICES
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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Engineering graduates require gaining some practical knowledge on their subjects so
that after completing their courses they easily get employed in different firms. Practicum
placement serves as a medium for the students to gain appropriate subject specific practical
knowledge. These help in improving the academic grades by providing a better understanding
of the theoretical knowledge attained in classrooms. Computer Science engineering is one of
the streams in the engineering curriculum and with the increasing use of computer systems in
day to day life, students are taking interest in the technology and pursuing the course. A
professional engineer needs to be a logical thinker and curious to know the reason behind
anything technical happening around1. Good communication skills and problem solving
ability also define a professional engineer. The other important qualities that a professional
engineer should have are paying attention to intricate details of the tasks and bringing in
creativity in the same. Studies suggest that practicum placements help in improving the
academic grades. Practicum placements are an effective means to integrate academic studies
with the prevalent work practices. The time duration of practicum placements varies as per
the courses. This provides the students with an opportunity to be a part of paid work
placement during their ongoing courses. The positive impacts of practicum placements have
been the reasons behind their implementation in the universities. Practicum placements
provide the students with the opportunity to understand the work culture and enhance their
communication skill at the same time. The company chosen for the practicum placement is a
software development company specializing in three dimensional software for designing,
analyzing and constructing. The company was looking for students who could do C++,
OpenGL or Computer graphics work for the CAD applications. This was the opportunity for
1 Grant-Smith, Deanna, and Paula McDonald. "The trend toward pre-graduation professional
work experience for Australian young planners: Essential experience or essentially
exploitation." Australian Planner 53, no. 2 (2016): 65-72.

2ENGINEERING PRACTICES
me to get a better understanding of my engineering curriculum and thus I undertook
practicum placement under this company. Computer-aided design interested me and this was
the opportunity to apply my concepts of C++ to CAD applications. The five main skills
required to work in engineering workplace are technical, communication, interpersonal,
critical thinking and problem solving skills. Other workplace behaviors that are important are
enthusiasm, motivation along with commitment2. Technical skills are what the recruiters look
for. Though practicum placements are for enhancing the technical skills, to be eligible for this
some basic technical knowledge form the course needs to be there. An engineering graduate
is expected to have some basic levels of technical skills acquired from the practical
laboratories. Practicum placement helps in sharpening these skills and provides a chance to
showcase the technical skills learned in the course. Engineering are considered to be
information heavy and thus engineers are expected to be capable of handling various mode of
communication that include technical and non-technical, online or in person and written or
verbal. Communication skills are required for team work that include brain storming,
problem solving and project meetings. Engineering professionals need to participate in multi-
discipline team work where as positive attitude is required to interact with the other members
of the team. Practicum placement provides students with the opportunity to interact with
experienced persons in this field thereby helping them to cultivate their interpersonal skills3.
Handling a work or a project involves technical problems and misunderstandings which
makes problem solving and critical thinking important soft skills for the engineers.
Enthusiasm to learn new things, motivation to apply the theoretical knowledge and
2 Blicblau, Aaron Simon, Tracey Louise Nelson, and Kurosh Dini. "The Role of Work
Placement in Engineering Students' Academic Performance." Asia-Pacific Journal of
Cooperative Education 17, no. 1 (2016): 31-43.
3 Edwards, Daniel, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, and Jennifer Hong. "Work Integrated
Learning in STEM in Australian Universities: Final report: Submitted to the Office of the
Chief Scientist." (2015).

3ENGINEERING PRACTICES
commitment to accomplish the task given are required to be an effective engineer. My
interest in CAD led me choose the company. C++ programs in the CAD applications to
develop 3D or 2D models of the physical components are the particular thing which I wanted
to learn. CAD is made use of highly in the engineering processes in conceptual designs as
well as layout of products. The use of C++ coding to the CAD applications will be my work
in the company. CAD engineers are hired by companies to produce electronic versions of
technical drawings made by a draughtsman on a drawing board. C++ programs help in CAD
and this is the opportunity for me to understand the programming language well by applying
the concepts to develop computer aided designs. The company deals in developing software
therefore the work force include software engineers who are working on diverse projects. The
main role of the software engineers is to develop 3D software for designing, analyzing and
constructing 3d models or computer aided designs. The engineers are proficient in
programming languages such as C#, JavaScript, Objective-C and C++. The responsibilities of
the software engineers in the company are as follows:
a) Coordinating with the Technical Director on the ongoing programming tasks.
b) Collaborating with the different programmers to design as well as implement features.
c) Producing well-structured, optimized and documented source code in time.
d) Creating as well as documenting certain software tools that are required by the artists and
other developers.
e) Debugging the source codes and polishing the feature sets.
f) Contributing to the technical design documentation.
g) Working independently when it is required and necessary in developing designs.
h) Participating in seminars and sessions to guide their juniors in the work.

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The senior software engineers in the firm are responsible for making plans, processing as
well as performing jobs efficiently without the assistance of the supervisors. The senior
software engineers are vested with the responsibility to develop new programs and proof read
the programs to make necessary changes assuring that the mistakes made by the juniors are
rectified. They are responsible to develop new programs, analyzing the current ones at the
same time processing and making recommendations yielding cost effective results. Technical
head who is above the designation of senior software engineer analyzes the system
specifications and translates the same to system requirements for the junior engineers4. The
newly developed programs are tested by the technical head to check logic errors if any. The
developed program needs to be oriented to its requirement and if discrepancies are found the
technical head sends it for rework or redevelopment. The engineers are require to be able to
solve problems in time and as fast as possible, multi task and lead the team members in an
effective manner. It is the responsibility of the software engineer to assist the program analyst
in making the designs of the programs and databases.
In the world of computer technology software development has wide scopes and has
been responsible for increase in the industrial competitiveness contributing largely to the
growth of the economy of countries. Software development offer new opportunities and has
provided employment to many since its emergence. The social impact of software
development can be well understood from the improvements it is bringing in human lives.
The company is mainly into software development that is transforming almost every aspect
of human lives thereby enhancing growth in the economy. Studies suggest that software
sector is driving almost more than trillion dollars in a year in economic impact. The software
4 Jackson, John, Martyn Jones, Wendy Steele, and Eddo Coiacetto. "How best to assess
students taking work placements? An empirical investigation from Australian urban and
regional planning." Higher Education Pedagogies 2, no. 1 (2017): 131-150.

5ENGINEERING PRACTICES
sector is successful in driving high-paying jobs with the software developers earning more
than twice the average value of annual wage for other occupations5. The continuously
thriving software innovations are creating a multiplier effect stimulating the other parts of
information technology sector and economy. Studies suggest that software revolution can not
only just improve human lives but has the capability as well to change the way humans work.
It can be considered as an economic engine that is responsible for creating new job
opportunities. The software development sector serves as the pillar for many industries and
various solutions that are vital for the future ahead6. The investments made in the software
sector are expected to help expand long term economic as well as innovative potential. In
almost all countries including Australia, the software sector is successfully driving economic
gains. This specific sector is of social importance as it has been effective in creating job
profiles such as application developers, web designers, software engineers and many more.
The engineering skills of a software engineer are essential is web site developments and
many more spheres. The software system can be attributed for the development of the online
platform and the revolution brought by e-commerce web sites. Therefore, it can be concluded
that this sector has a huge economic and social impact supporting innovations and creativity.
5 Lloyd, Natalie, Sally A. Male, and Megan Paull. "Strategies to increase equity of access to
engineering internships." In 29th Australasian Association for Engineering Education
Conference 2018 (AAEE 2018), p. 431. Engineers Australia, 2018.
6 Gribble, Catriona, Jill Blackmore, and Mark Rahimi. "Challenges to providing work
integrated learning to international business students at Australian universities." Higher
education, skills and work-based learning 5, no. 4 (2015): 401-416.

6ENGINEERING PRACTICES
References
Grant-Smith, Deanna, and Paula McDonald. "The trend toward pre-graduation professional
work experience for Australian young planners: Essential experience or essentially
exploitation." Australian Planner 53, no. 2 (2016): 65-72.
Blicblau, Aaron Simon, Tracey Louise Nelson, and Kurosh Dini. "The Role of Work
Placement in Engineering Students' Academic Performance." Asia-Pacific Journal of
Cooperative Education 17, no. 1 (2016): 31-43.
Edwards, Daniel, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, and Jennifer Hong. "Work Integrated Learning
in STEM in Australian Universities: Final report: Submitted to the Office of the Chief
Scientist." (2015).
Jackson, John, Martyn Jones, Wendy Steele, and Eddo Coiacetto. "How best to assess
students taking work placements? An empirical investigation from Australian urban and
regional planning." Higher Education Pedagogies 2, no. 1 (2017): 131-150.
Gribble, Catriona, Jill Blackmore, and Mark Rahimi. "Challenges to providing work
integrated learning to international business students at Australian universities." Higher
education, skills and work-based learning 5, no. 4 (2015): 401-416.
Lloyd, Natalie, Sally A. Male, and Megan Paull. "Strategies to increase equity of access to
engineering internships." In 29th Australasian Association for Engineering Education
Conference 2018 (AAEE 2018), p. 431. Engineers Australia, 2018.