Software Dev
Internships
During both of these internships I was a member of a team of full-stack developers. I assisted with creating new features, addressing bugs submitted by customers, creating and modifying SQL queries, and modifying the product's user interface. I also participated in several projects searching for innovative solutions
My Role
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Software Development Intern
Methods
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Full Stack Development
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Microsoft Azure
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SCRUM/ Agile Development
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Research
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Debugging
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Java programming
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Interface design and Improvement
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SQL server and Oracle
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Documentation
Time
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May 2019 - August 2019
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May 2018 - August 2018
The Product
Servigistics is a leading service part optimization software that can help companies with supply chain optimization by using forecasting calculations to calculate what inventory should be kept at which locations for maximum efficiency.
Daily Responsibilities
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Investigate and solve bugs and other requests submitted by customers using the large codebase
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Debug and modify SQL queries to seed, improve design, and improve efficiency of the database
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Develop additional features and improvements to the Servigistics software
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Improve the product's user interface through investigation of problems and providing solutions
Other Tasks
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Perform research on ways to improve UI design, material design, data science, and machine learning forecasting methods
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Work as part of a machine learning team and create prototypes of machine learning methods that could be used for forecasting using Microsoft Azure
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Test machine learning prototypes using customer data
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Assist with quality assurance tasks including writing and evaluating automated tests
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Assist with documentation of the software
UI Evaluation
I evaluated the product's UI in terms of learnability, ease of use, efficiency of use, error tolerance, and aesthetic appearance. As a new member of the team I had not had any previous experience with the software, so I would attempt to use it and report any issues I had. I submitted this report to the team so that they would be able to know what to focus on for future improvements to the software.
Machine Learning Team
As a member of the machine learning team. We started by evaluating potential uses for machine learning in the PTC software, including for forecasting and clustering. After performing the initial research, I focused on using Azure ML to create prototype machine learning algorithms to cluster large amounts of product data. I tested these algorithms and presented them to the team as potential next steps in implementing machine learning into the software.
Feature Development
I developed a new feature for the service parts management software which allowed users to categorize different entities. That way they could search by category. Implementing this feature required me to code necessary queries in SQL, code the required Java code to allow for this feature, and create a page in the interface for this feature.
Reflection
These internships taught me more about programming and software development than all of the courses I have taken combined. I knew how to program before I had participated in these two internships, but this internship taught me to program in a different way, with projects with hundreds of thousands of lines of code written by many different developers. I learned about many stages of the development process, even aspects that I did not work directly with. I was given the opportunity to meet and speak with a variety of members of the development process and spent time assisting with a variety of tasks. I learned much about backend development, debugging, the importance of documentation, and UI. Without these two internships, I wouldn't be able to program nearly as well, my understanding of the development process and the engineers who work on the product themselves would be limited, and I'd be less confident in terms of learning new programming languages.
While I don't aim to be a software developer in the future, these internships allowed me to gain a deep understanding of the technical aspect of the software development process and will be a great benefit to me when I enter the UX field.