Knowledge is power and a door to opportunity
Sarah Lovely
Experience Information
Employer: GVSU IT Department
Job Title: Computer engineering intern
Major: Computer Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Grand Valley State University's Information Technology department is divided into different sections such as academia, IT help-desk, network support, software analysis and e-learning. These groups are the reasons why GVSU webpages (blackboard, Banner, main webpage, library & etc). The department where I worked is located at the fourth floor of Kindschi Hall of Science.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
1- Add new data columns into the financial aid maintenance table 2- Allow users to sort data from different columns. 3- Increase accessibility for each project completed in the past using google plugin (WAVE). 4- Designed and implemented a new software (Blackboard test file generator) for all faculty at GVSU to use. 5- Analyse all of the projects and change any queries that pull a person's name to use a different function.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I have further developed my knowledge in the following skills: Software design, ColdFusion, HTML, Bootstrap, Javascript, critical thinking and CSS.
Favorite Part of the Experience
Faculty at Grand Valley State University sometimes need to create quizzes or tests for their students through Blackboard. However, Blackboard does not allow faculty members to create each question and assign the answers. they must upload a file with different codes, such as MA which indicates a multiple answer type or ESS to indicate an essay answer type. Faculty do not know nor have the time to create a file which Blackboard accepts, they usually paste their text format into a file generator, retrieve the new file then upload it to blackboard for the test to be created. The file generators that the faculty members use are created by other universities. Grand Valley does not own a website that allow faculty to obtain such file. I was given the assignment to create such software. At first, this project was intimidating, since I had to figure out a way to read the text that the professor pastes into a text area. Basically, my program had to make sure that the text uploaded was correct, it had to be able to analyze each line of the text and to differentiate between a question and an answer. Answers of each questions were marked by an asterisk at the end. A multiple-choice question only had one asterisk and a multiple answer type of questions had several asterisks, along with other answers which were incorrect. Writing the algorithm for this project was very interesting, I had the opportunity to test my knowledge in ColdFusion, software design, HTML, Bootstrap, JavaScript and develop my skills in critical thinking. I completed the project successfully and it is available for all faculty member to use. This was truly one of the best project that I have submitted.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
As I am getting closer to obtain my bachelor degree in computer engineer, I am starting to apply for full time job and looking into graduate schools. My experience at the IT department has directed me to a path which I never thought I would take. With the skills that have acquired during this internship, I am highly interested in obtaining my master in computer science and later obtain a position at an innovative software company, such Google or IBM, that is looking for experts candidates in the skills that I have acquired throughout this internship.