UWTSD Applied Computing Blog
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Graduate Profile: John Rees @ ARM
Q. What is your Name? John Rees
Q. What University course/s did you study? B.Eng Computer Systems Engineering (Electronics)
"A stepping stone to engineering."
Q. What is your job title and role? Technical Director at ARM. Leader of the ARM Mali GPU SW Architecture Team. I lead a team of architects who work to define the SW architecture of the GPU driver for supporting OpenGLES, Vulkan and OpenCL khronos APIs for mobile, digital television and emerging markets demanding the needs of a GPU.
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? ARM develops and licenses a wide range of software and silicon IP for inclusion in SoC designs that are deployed in very wide number of market segments and domains, Arm is unique in that it does not produce SoC devices itself.
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job? Embedded Systems, Digital Systems, Digital Signal Processing, Object Orientated Programming, Control Systems, Electronics
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it? There is no typical day! Working on GPU's is a challenging environment and we face new challenges almost daily stemming from new trends in the market place, new technologies in silicon, competitors and the continuous customer quest for differentiation and pushing the boundaries of technology. Beyond that the typical day is spent analysing incoming product requirements and finding solutions within the many constraints, requesting or reviewing GPU HW features, obtaining wider ecosystem support, documenting the SW designs, engaging with customers and as a leader ensuring that people collaborate well together.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most? I really enjoy my job when we can find a solution to a given problem, there is a real buzz when you find it, I have found over time that it does not matter if it is hunting a bug in a system or code module, finding a solution to a architectural problem or fixing some working practice or process within an organisation where it will improve engineering. Working with many bright people and understanding how different people solve problems, it can be challenging to come to some alignment but satisfying when you do. Another aspect is seeing products in the market that I can attribute to my work and show people.
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career? I would advocate using your spare time for hobby projects, its a cliche but there really is much to be gained from practical application. You can learn a lot of essential and transferable skills that you will draw upon throughout your University program and your career. Further, it can help to narrow your interests that you really engage with and enjoy. Having some of the skills on board before you join an organisation can really help you in your early roles.
Q. A Quote that sums up your time at the University? A stepping stone to engineering.
For more information about Applied Computing courses at UWTSD please click-here.
UWTSD
Graduate Profile: Matthew Meader @ NWIS
Q. What is your Name? Matthew Rhys Meader.
Q. What University course/s did you study? BSc (Hons) Computing & Information Systems (1st Class)
Q. What is your job title and role? As a Senior Software Developer, it is my role to engage in all phases of the software development lifecycle that include the analysis, design, development and support of nationally used clinical systems used within NHS Wales. It is also my role to mentor new staff with less clinical and technical knowledge and expertise.
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? I work for the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS); we supply over seventy software services to users across NHS Wales and to other parts of the United Kingdom. We support doctors, nurses and other clinical professionals, helping them provide specialist care to patients in hospitals, GP practices and across the community.
My team in particular are responsible for updating, maintaining and creating new modules for the Welsh Patient Administration System (WPAS). This system records details of patient's hospital visits, including waiting list management, medical records, inpatient treatment, outpatient appointments and emergency visits.
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job? The most prevalent skill I gained whilst at University was the ability to write clean code and learn new languages as and when required. Other skills I learned that were helpful include:
• Project Management.
• Software Development Methodologies (Agile etc…)
• Usability Engineering & UX Design.
• Web Design.
• JavaScript, JQuery, JSON, Web Services (REST/SOAP), CSS/LESS.
• SQL.
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it? My typical day usually starts at 0800 with me planning the day ahead by checking emails and the Team Foundation Server (TFS) to ensure that all work tasks are on schedule and prioritised correctly. We hold daily SCRUM meetings to divide workloads amongst the team and to effectively help those struggling on certain tasks. Throughout the day, the team (Including myself) work on agreed tasks, but sometimes we have to fix bugs identified by users. This usually comes through from the helpdesk, though we do have to call users to gain an insight into the bug before creating a fix. Once a fix is completed and checked into Source Control, tests are conducted against the Systems Requirements Specification (SRS) document as well as a pre-defined Test Plan that the developer creates at the start of each task. The job at times can be unpredictable and requires focus and efficiency.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most? I enjoy problem solving, especially when it takes a long time to solve and it gives me great joy when a piece of work that I have developed is released LIVE with the knowledge that it is being used in hospitals across Wales.
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career? If you wish to start a career straight from University, then I suggest looking for jobs half way through your third year, this will give you scope as to what is out there. Also, look out for Graduate schemes in workplaces, these will give you the experience you need and can help you progress in that organisation. Also to Quote Vincent, van Gogh:
"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
Think about this as you start each assignment and think what grade you wish to achieve at the end goal 'Graduation'. Also, remember to ask questions.
Q. A Quote that sums up your time at the University?
"Teachers/Lecturers open doors, but you must walk through them yourself. "
I loved my time at university; it gave me perspective into my capabilities and motivated me more than I ever was in school. The lecturers were extremely helpful and I urge students to talk to them whenever they can.
For more information about Computing courses and opportunities at UWTSD please click here.
School of Applied Computing
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Graduate Profile: Nathan Dickinson
Q. What is your Name? Nathan Dickinson
Q. What was your University course? B.Sc. (Hons) Computing & Information Systems
Q. What is your job title and role? My current job title is Product technical lead for the vDoc product of the Vizolution product suite.
Q. What does the role involve? This role involves me being the de-facto technical expert in all aspects of the vDoc product production with the overall goal being to align multiple development teams to delivery and fulfil customer requirements. Daily duties include attending stand-ups, providing estimates for new functionality, ensuring coding standards and providing technical leadership to development teams and steer and provide technical design and architecture for requirements. Also heavily involved in product support and deployments to ensure smooth roll-out and running of the product on a daily basis.
vDoc is an unassisted document sharing solution that allows customers to seamlessly progress their own customer journey through the upload, download or electronic signature of documents via a secure customer portal.
http://www.vizolution.co.uk/solutions/vdoc/
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? Vizolution is a CX Tech company focused on streamlining difficult customer journeys. The Vizolution suite of digital products streamlines the end-to-end customer journey and supports the omni-channel strategy of our customers across branch, telephony and digital channels. It's SaaS products are quick and easy to implement. The solutions eliminate breaks in the customer journey to deliver improved compliance, customer service and satisfaction and conversions as well as reduced costs.
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job? Confidence and self-belief, the environment in the university was very open and students were encouraged to interact as much as possible, feedback was always constructive and lecturers often pushed to get the best from me. This really helped with my self-belief and confidence allowing me to step out of my comfort zone and push my self and my abilities. It is this I believe has allowed me to progress to where I am today.
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it? My days vary quite a lot but usually start with attending stand-ups for the development teams of which there are five that work on the vDoc product. I am then usually attending meetings to either provide high level estimation and technical implementation guidance/design for new functionality. Performing code reviews to ensure code is of a suitable standard and follows our defined coding standards. Assisting other developers with issues or problems and providing technical guidance. Occasionally I have the chance to develop some functionality myself but I am mostly in a hands off type of role now.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most? It would have the be the problem solving, quite often I am faced with complex issues to which I need to provide technical guidance for, whilst this can be challenging and frustrating at times. The sense of achievement when something you've planned turns out how you expected it to or sometimes even better it makes it all worth it. My position can be quite stressful but its taking these small wins and seeing the impact our technology is having is what keeps me motivated
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career? Prepare early, there are going to be hundreds of graduates across the UK in your sector all looking for jobs, be proactive and get your foot in the door first. Look for summer placement work, try and reach out to places where you would like to work to see if they have any openings or what opportunities they have for graduates. Most important be persistent and be strong minded, there will be times where you will be turned down at interview, instead of taking that negatively look for the positives and look for areas to improve and come back stronger. You've done the hard work in getting into university and taking your degree so you deserve a good career so just remember that.
You've done the hard work in getting into university and taking your degree so you deserve a good career so just remember that.
Q. A Quote that sums up your time at the University? One of the most challenging but at the same time rewarding experiences of my life.
Guest Speaker Rob James on New & Immersive Technology
The School of Applied Computing welcomed Digital Architect Rob James from the DVLA in Swansea this afternoon. Rob spoke with students studying the Change Management module on the Business Information Technology and Applied Computing degrees about the ways in which new technology such as VR, AR, AI and The Internet of Things (IOT) is changing the way businesses are being run.
A fascinating insight into how new technology is shaping the future of business!
Thanks Rob!
DVLA Swansea
Graduate Profile: Adam Davies
Q. What is your Name? Adam Davies
Q. What was your University course? BSc Computer Networks
Q. What is your job title and role? Infrastructure Engineer. This involves managing a virtual infrastructure built on VMWare vSphere along with managing the SAN, backups, operating systems and servers
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? CGI, a Canadian company which operates out of 40 countries with 68,000 employees.
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job? The most useful skills I learnt at University were from the module based on network design. It got me to think of the bigger picture and how each component affects the other. This has been useful when implementing new services into the existing virtual infrastructure that I manage.
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it? The best thing about my job is that there isn't a typical day; I could be swapping out a failed hard drive or troubleshooting a virtual machine one day or adding new components to the infrastructure the next day.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most? The thing I enjoy most about my job is when something goes wrong. This is where your skills are really put to the test and you always end up learning something new.
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career? The best advice I could give current students is to stay up to date with the IT industry. It's ever evolving so in order to make an impact you really need to know what's going on in the industry. Get in to the habit of reading articles as this will help you identify what's up and coming and what your employer can use to improve its offerings to its customers.
Happy Holidays :-)
The Applied Computing Team would like to wish all our Students, Graduates and Partners a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – Enjoy the Holidays Everyone
Graduate Profile: Ana Mirsayar
Q. What is your Name? Ana Mirsayar
Q. What was your University course?
· BEng Computer System and Electronics
· MSc e-Commerce
· PHD in Telecommunications from King's college London
Q. What is your job title and role? UK RTI (Research, Technical and Innovation) Coordinator/ Project Manager. I work for Thales UK, Vice President of RTI which enables me to get a helicopter view of the company's business units (Under water systems, Avionics, Defence, Cyber security and Transportation). I go to different Thales sites to hear the progress on major works. I also manage my own projects
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? Thales is a French company that has expanded internationally. They work on many different business units and some great examples of their work can be found under the activities tap. It is such a large company with a vast scope of work that if I was to give you small examples then I won't be doing it justice.
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job? Some of the soft skills that became handy were communication, team work, task prioritising and discipline and the attention to details particularly for example in PCB design. Work under pressure, I remember for our final project work one of the guys dropped out of the course due to personal reasons and we had to pick up on his work and still deliver on the same deadline.
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it? I am usually in a couple of teleconferences, and a meeting or two. On a quiet day I look at the road map for my projects to monitor progress. I regularly ask for updates from the team and plan ahead and I allocate tasks to members. I must say that I've only been managing projects in the last year. Before which I was a senior design engineer who designed and developed mathematical algorithms. So I'd say my maths modules became very useful. Also understanding the systems at a top layer and looking down was also something I had learnt at university which is essential for detailed designing as you need to understand the concept of operation and applications.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most? I enjoy having an appreciation for the technical nature of the work as it always helps the project managers make better decisions in comparison to the mangers that have a business background. My job is varied and it involves travelling inside and outside the UK which I do enjoy. Interacting with customers and hearing their needs for our products is also enjoyable.
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career? My humble opinion for the students would be not just to study for a label (PhD) or just to get high marks. Make sure you really understand the concept because the devil is in the details and that is the most important thing. Engineering is a great career to have as it is fun, satisfying, challenging and its safe, as many surveys show that job security in engineering is quit high.
Graduate Profile: Luke Byers
During the Working Week
At the Weekend 🙂
Q. What is your Name? Luke Byers
Q. What was your University course? BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology
Q. What is your job title and role? Technology Risk Analyst
Q. Could you briefly describe the organisation you work for? Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ)
Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job?
Business environments (internal and external), Business Continuity Management (BCM), Written and presenting skills.
Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it?
Analysis and reporting of data, testing of controls in place to mitigate risks and providing assurance to risk managers. Providing advice to ensure people comply with policies.
Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?
Operational risk is an interesting space with so many factors, In particular I enjoy working within the Technology department and understanding how a large financial organisation deals with the changing landscape of technology trends and cyber threats.
Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career?
If you see an opportunity that interests you don't be afraid to go for it. Prepare for interviews well, be confident in yourself and you will get a chance!
I learned a lot while having fun and making friends along the way, what more could you ask for!
EntrepComp Conference
The School of Applied Computing produces enterprising solution-focused students that are equipped to create innovative solutions to today's problems / opportunities.
Enterprise education has been a part of the School's curriculum for many years and it is proud to support the European Commission and the development of Enterprise & Entrepreneurial policies within the EU and beyond. Members of the School recently attended and supported the Enterprise Conference 'Putting the Entrepreneurial Into Learning' (pictured below) hosted by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
The Conference explored current trends in Enterprise education and focused on the practical implementation of entrepreneurial learning using the new European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. The European Commission identified Enterprise and entrepreneurship as one of the key competences necessary for all members to be successful in the knowledge-based society. The EC produced this framework to help education providers understand and integrate Enterprise and entrepreneurship into the curriculum to help equip students with the necessary knowledge skills and competencies to take society forward and create new innovative solutions that have a positive social impact. There is a growing awareness that entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitudes lead to the widespread development of entrepreneurial mind-sets and culture which benefit individuals and society as a whole.
The School would like to thank all involved including the Conference organisers and it's supporters for the invitation to participate and the success of such a positive prestigious policy influencing event.
Enterprise Education
First Class Result for the School of Applied Computing
At the School of Applied Computing exceptional numbers of First Class Honours students have graduated, with many also receiving the prestigious British Computer Society (BCS) Award.
Professor Ian Wells, Head of School said: "The School of Applied Computing at UWTSD is proud to announce that we have an exceptional number of First Class Honours students graduating this year. We have eight in Computing and six in 'Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (two of which are at MEng (Master of Engineering) level). Five of the Computing students will also receive the British Computer Society (BCS) award giving them full Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status and membership of the BCS. In a profession where traditionally there are few females these results are of particular significance since four of the students receiving the award are female."
Professor Wells added: "Holding CITP status reflects your integrity, professionalism and dedication to your work. Your status will be recognised in a formal listing of Chartered IT Professionals on a register available to potential clients and employers on the BCS website."
To continue reading please click-here.
First Clas Honours
UWTSD Applied Computing
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