<p> 1 On the Training of Software Engineers Matthew J. Drew, Member, IEEE</p><p>———————————————— Abstract — The world is becoming more and more 1* Matthew Drew is a Software Engineering student at Monmouth Univeristy, graduating class of 2019. He can be reached at reliant on technology. There is no facet of life today [email protected]. computer have not influenced. As technology becomes more evident in every facet of life, the collective Matthew Drew population must take a step back to examine who 1416 Cypress Street exactly is making this technology run and question how Point Pleasant, New Jersey is it solving today’s problems The people that design 08742 . this software affecting today’s world must also take a step back and examine how to properly examine a problem, and after identifying it, and solve it in the most efficient way possible. How software engineers achieve successful software lies in the basis of understanding of their profession, and is what is explored below.</p><p>—————————— ——————————  1 Introduction T is the uniqueness of the software engineer student’s There are strengths and weaknesses between each type of situation that allows for the analysis of the training of being education, and respective strengths and weaknesses in the Ia software engineer. A lot goes into the training of a integrated approach as well. software engineer, because software engineers need to develop systems for virtually every modern industry. This could include 2.1 Software Engineers with a Vocational anywhere from the development of eBooks, the creation of Education video games, data management systems to map a genome in Software engineers are educated in planning, desigining, biology, development of systems that help research historical creating, testing, releasing, maintaining, and ultimately life, figures, etcetera. managinging all aspects of a piece of software. Does that mean, It is important to understand the exact description of what a however, that they need to know every minute detail in order to software engineer is: they are professionals that “are accomplish their job? responsible for customizing existing software programs to meet If an engineer has a vocational based education, meaning the needs and desires of a particular business or industry,” [1]. that the engineer had an entirely hands-on, specific to an The key point here is that software engineers must meet the industry (“tunneled”) education, it seems that it would be needs of a business or entire industry – and can be expanded extremely difficult to properly create a piece of software that upon to meet the needs of a way of life. addresses and solves the needs of a client. What and how the software engineer has learned throughout Take, for example, if a person was vocationally educated to their education is incredibly important when addressing and be a programmer, and became an expert at many different solving the problems of a company, industry, or lifestyle. programming languages that all served the said programmer Software engineers are to be trained, because of the subjects well in different tasks he was assigned. He could create they solve problems for, in the general theory of all related programs that accomplished astonishing things in a short subjects rather than the mastry of one subject. This is because amount of time. software engineers are the architects of the software industry. One day, his supervisor comes in and decides to promote The software industry can be thought of as an industry that him to a managerial position – he is now in charge of a team of dips their fingers in every facet of the modern world because of software engineers that were to take a problem, solve it using that fact. software, and release it in 12 months’ time. His supervisor explains that the software was to track book sales 2 AN EDUCATION TO SUCCEED in the United States for a given publisher. When the The fact that software engineers are in such high demand in programmer starts development of this product, he does not society today means that their education is one of the most know how to begin because he knows nothing about the important pieces of their career. industry. What constitutes a good education? It can be argued that the With just a vocational education, the programmer can not most effective education can only be obtained thorugh excel at the capacity that is expected from his supervisor experience, but many people say that the idiosyncracies of a because he was not exposed to business, finance, marketing, profession can only be brought fourth by a theory-based literature, etc. Without this prior general knowledge, his education. A comprehensive analysis of exactly the best sort of product suffers because he does not gather the proper education is important to all engineers, especially software requirements, appropriate for proper risks, or produce the engineers. correct mathematical figures needed to accurately represent the While it may seem obvious that an integrated (experience product. based and theory based) approach to education is obvious, when Ronnie and Brandon, contractors who went to vocational the nitty-gritty details of each type of education is observed, the school, explain that their education is applied much differently, line between which sort of education is best becomes muted. although the contractors excel greatly at their professions and 2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, VOL. #, NO. #, MMMMMMMM 1996 are masters at their craft. The contractors explained that their engineer’s education arbritrarily, the engineer must learn the liberal arts schooling experience was “irrelevant and software industry and also the industry that their software is humiliating” and, “saw little relevance [to their craft]” when being developed for. studying relevant topics such as algebra and geometry. When A liberal arts education is so important, in fact, that the the men went back to work as contractors, they had to relearn author would argue that there is no other way of achieving the everything that was relevant to them [3]. optimal software engineering education without it. The disconnect from a liberal arts education that Ronnie and Brandon have is not unique, from the author’s own experience and experience in observation during his training as a software engineer. It is evident, that the men’s testimony on their liberal 2 3 An Integrated Approach arts education did in fact help them excel at their profession. At . the beginning of their careers, especially when they had to Although both discussed schools of thought have their strengths relearn everything they learned in school to apply to their jobs, and weaknesses, it seems that the best way for a software their efficiency definetly lacked. engineer to train optimally is to have a combination of both The testimony of the men suggests that the proper way to liberal arts and vocational education. The resulting software educate the men and women of the modern workforce is by a engineer will be both trained to master the ideals of software combination of vocational and liberal arts based education. engineering, but also have a basis in other professions. Software engineer students could benefit by this greatly: the The engineer can now design a system that encapsulates all ability to work with a company on a physical product would be of the requirements of the user. Take, for example, a library invaluable. The student that can figure out for themselves how catalouging and check out system. The engineer needs to know the direction of their studies will benefit the student in their exactly how the library is catalouged now, the library’s genres, field of study. This disconnect between the actual application how they are borrowed, how long they are borrowed, a current versus the study of the actual application is one of the the collection of all books, and how biggest hurdles that many students face in their post-secondary fines are tracked and collected. With an integrated approach, education. the engineer knows exactly what needs to be added to the system due to what they know from hands on, vocational work, 2.2 Software Engineers with a Liberal Arts and the liberal theory education. Education Software engineers, with an integrated education, can A software engineer must be flexible and have a working analyze situations in an arbitrary way. They can put themselves knowledge of the industry that it creates products for. If in other people’s shoes and imagine what they need and what working knowledge means that the engineer must research they do not. This is crucial in trying to understand the intensely to gather the proper understanding of a product to requirements needed to make a successful piece of software. A create a deliverable that is beneficial to a client, then so be it. It librarian might require a feature to track how many times a is better to have a complete understanding of what a problem is person has checked out a certain popular book to normalize the beforehand rather than later, so the development does not make flow of the book. This requirement might not be brought up by assumptions, leading to the wrong final product being delivered the librarian in the requirements gathering process, so it is up to to the client. This can be avoided with the proper type of the software engineer to think of these “what if” situations. An education. integrated education would be incredibly useful in this Taking the example from section 2.1, if the programmer had situation, allowing for the engineer to think out of the box due previous experience in business, finance, marketing, complex to their liberal arts and experience-based education to create an mathematics, mathematical modeling, and user-interface design effective and efficient piece of software. it would be much easier to accomplish the book tracking system. Studies prove that having a well-rounded education actually do The liberal arts education promotes the general well- help. The common controversy in schools today is the funding roundedness of a student’s education. Of course, when of the arts including but not limited performing, fine, culinary, declaring a major, a student must take a rigorous major-related and visual arts. It gives students a way to apply themselves and course of study that prepares the student for the real world, but be creative, all the while learning about their respective craft. the institution takes that rigorous course of study and makes the There are countless representations of studies in the fine arts student learn about related fields. Although a more focused being helpful towards students (see figure 1, 2, 3). The author’s approach is a fine idea for fields of study for more contained argument (the integrated approach is better than a solely hands- majors, the software industry, as stated before, has their hands on vocational or liberal arts theory based approach for software wherever computers interact, making the liberal arts education engineers) can be translated to apply to the fight between the more applicable to the education of the software engineer. funding of the arts in schools. It is easy to assume that the arts The education of the software engineer is much more would represent a vocational education. different than any other profession – the requirement of The evidence from one study from the Coloumbia extensive outside experience makes their education extremely University’s Center for Arts Education Research is unique. It allows them to understand and expand their working overwheleming, saying that, “[the education of] arts-rich knowledge to address and resolve problems using software schools is complex and…is most successful when supported by quickly and more efficient than someone that does not have the a rich, continuous, and sequenced curriculum,” [4]. The study previous knowledge of a certain field of study. Looking at the was incredibly complex and explored how a student’s creativity AUTHOR: TITLE 3 was affected through the prolonged exposure to arts training the reader can assume is both given and earned, goes hand in versus little to no exposure to the arts. The results were hand with the education of the engineer. overwhelming, proving without a doubt that students perform It can be argued that everyone has this “natural gift” that better in all facets of life when exposed to the arts. Vitruvius refers to: an understanding of the reader’s world As the reader can see, an integrated approach between the around them and a curiousity to discover why and how things in vocational, hands-on approach, and the liberal arts theory-based the universe work. The truth is, everything is interconnected in approach, just as students (and schools!) benefit from a healthy the field of engineering: as Vitruvious explained in his writings. arts program, is vital to the future efficiency of an engineer. The field of software engineering is no exception to the theme of everything being related. What the author hopes to 2.4 The Curriculum at Monmouth University convey is that with careful analysis of the software engineering The curriculum at Monmouth University, located in West Long profession, any other profession can relate to it through the Branch, New Jersey, is a perfect example to examine the assertions of Vitruvius. integrated approach engineering education. At Monmouth, all students start with the basics of coding in an introduction to computing class. The students then progress to basic object 4 THE SPECTRUM OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING oriented structures through learning Java. This framework lets A software engineer should know much more than just the student to start exploring why coding concepts work instead programming and the software process to deliver the best of just how coding concepts work through coding labs and possible product to the client. Much like Vitruvus’ writings on projects. At the same time, the basics of computing theory are what makes a good engineer, a software engineer must be able introduced. Students program through the projects in their Java to master the basics of many different professions. A further classes (learning about concepts in class, but also through trial, analysis will assert that software engineers should always know error, and their own research to complete those projects), but as much as they can about the product they are creating. To put also are exploring computer theory in a separate class – an it simply, the products that the engineers make reflects the job application of an integration between theory-based and hands- the product is made for – and engineers will most of the time on education. end up knowing the product’s respective profession just as well As the student progresses, more advanced subjects apply to as the actual professional working in the field. the integrated model. Students are required to learn about complex data types through various projects and design patterns 4.1 Software in Business to learn how to make code more efficient. Again, this is an Software is becoming ever more prevelant in business. Records integrated approach to theory and hands on education. of profits, losses, employment status, pay rate, taxes, and other While the student is going through their integrated major- personal information can be included in the business related courseload, the student is also simultaneously taking applications that companies today use. courses explaining the software process, which include courses Whole Foods Market, the world’s leader in organic foods for requrment gathering, testing, project management, agile, [7], is an extremely popular marketplace for organic-grocery and waterfall software methodology. customers around the world. Being the largest organic At the same time, students are required to take various foodseller in the world, there is a lot of data generated in courses relating to history, mathematics, business, science, and relation to the company. Whole Foods has, in 2016, expanded English to improve their education and expose them to different their technology system to include a separate team member, roles of their professions. The varied coursework that customer, and product platform in hopes of saving up to $300 Monmouth requires benefits the software engineer greatly and million dollars for the company by the end of 2017. allows for a varied and comprehensive background that In the team member platform, a lot of human resource graduates will undoubtably use in their careers. management issues hope to be mitigated using this system: including training, hiring, and budget management through online accounting. 3 VITRUVIUS The customer platform hopes to allow customers to check While the study and intrepration of the results of vocational prices in real time and letting the customer know about sales on versus liberal arts based training rages, the study of the training products that fits the customer’s need the best. The platform of the engineer is also at a head. A man by the name of also accounts online coupons for the customer to use. Vitruvius wrote a series of books explaining the training of a CIO Jason Buechel also spoke about the product platform: software engineer to the emperor of the Roman empire. “...it’s going to add a lot of new capabilities for us like Vitruvius was an architect, engineer, and author who lived replenishment, allocation, forcasting. It’s also going to support around 27 B.C. His ten books described a vast majority of our purchasing evolution as we adjust the way we purchase topics: from city planning, to architecture, to astronomy. His goods, select our assortment, price our goods and put them on works were written to appease and suggest to the newly promotion this will be our common system to allow our global crowned emperor, Augustus, new ways of imagining the Roman team members, our regional team members and store team empire [5]. members to interact together,” [8]. Vitruvius was and still is to this day a reference in the Whole Foods is on the leading edge of technology in explaination of how to be an engineer. In his works, he wrote, business, allowing for employee, customer, and product based “He ought to be both naturally gifted an amicable to platforms that allow for easier communication between each of instruction,” [6]. This natural gift that Vitruvius refers to, which the three respective platforms. It is hoped that the increased 4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, VOL. #, NO. #, MMMMMMMM 1996 communication between groups of employees (i.e the company) a complex integration of an online store, delivery companies, and the customer will allow for exponentially increased savings credit card companies, internet service providers, and the for the Whole Foods marketplace. Barnes and Noble company itself. In Whole Food’s upgrade of their system, new features are The software integration at Barnes and Noble stores is added and expected to increase savings, but the existing absolutely immense in an effort to keep up with the popularity platform, which included a point of sale system, experimental of technology. Let us take the example of creating the e-Book “Instacart” system (online grocery shopping) and self service tablet. A software engineer, to create the software essential to kiosks, is still in operation [9]. the tablet, must know about proper file input and output, the As the reader can see, for a software firm to create such a constraints of the tablet, networking, file management, complicated product, the engineer must know a lot about the formatting, app development, and even the integration of the business. In the example of Whole Foods, the engineer must company’s financial systems. Building on that, the engineer know how the company manages finances, personnel, product must create an understanding for the literary world as well, such placement, product pricing, product scheduling (what times as the information that the copyright page contains, the products are in season), up-to-date product forcasting by handling of ancient texts and manuscripts (if needed to product experts, UI design, workflow of online grocery scan/transcribe into the bookstore database), and even the shopping, how self-serve kiosks work, data management with modern marketing procedures of books – some books have an personal customer information, online coupon management, advertisement for the next installment of the series at the end of and communication efficiency management: the list goes on. the book. All of this is necessary for just the creation and This module could be applied to all businesses that operated maintance of the e-Book tablet. with at least some form of technology: engineers need to have Software is not just found in stores like Barnes and Noble or some experience in what they are building in order to create a e-Book tablets that these stores carry. The once formidable print product that is as efficient as possible for the client. If that newspaper industry has effectively crumbled under the weight means learning just as much if not more than the average of the popularity of the internet, but that does not mean that the employee (it is assumed that the average Whole Foods newspaper industry is gone forever. BBC News, The Guardian, employee does not receive training about product forcasting, for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston example) and results in a higher quality product, then the Herald, The Huffington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX news engineer should learn all they can about the product. all have an enormous internet following. All in all, the engineer must learn two separate but related disiplines in the newspaper 4.2 The Literary World industry: the in-print newspapers and the websites that host It seems like the software and literature world should not online articles. overlap, although it does in almost every aspect. As the world In the in-print industry, managers could use software that becomes more technologically focused, the literature world’s calculates newspaper deliverer’s routes to people’s houses, demand would seem to be inversely proportional. That, keeps track of the number of words in an article, number of however, is not the case. articles in a paper, number of papers sold versus number of The literature world has integrated itself into the widespread papers returned, and even keep a digital archive of each article. technological industry by selling books online, creating ways All of this data could be used to estimate a paper’s performance for people to rent online textbooks, the invention of the e-book in the field. Online articles could be written on the website the and related tablets, educational databases, online library article is hosted on, much like a blog post, but meets the needs catalogs. of the article (i.e if it needs pictures, a video, a hyperlink, etc.) to convey the author’s message. Editors can also make sure it 4.2.1 Software, Literature, and the Communications Industry meets the standards of the company. Software engineers, in order to develop and maintain a The first thing visible when walking into a Barnes and Noble product that achieves those goals, are expected to know about store, a popular book-selling chain, is the nook. It is a tablet that the in-print and online newspaper industry to create a product allows the user to download books and read it on their device that meets the needs of their client. for less than the print version of the book. It is more accessable, more convient, and takes the guesswork out of if the user can 4.2.2 Software and Publishing Companies find a certain physical book at a certain Barnes and Noble. The The examples in section 4.2.1 can not under any circumstance sleek design is easy to hold, allows for internet access, and even come to any frutition without the software engineer’s lets you bookmark, skip to, and provides helpful features to find understanding of copyrights, copyright law, publishiers, and certain words or phrases within the e-book. publishing contracts. If an engineer were to implement an e- Many Barnes and Noble booksellers have a browsing system book into an online book-hosting service that was currently where you can look up where a certain book is within the store. copyrighted, the company that he worked for would fall into After the user searches the book, it shows on a monitor more legal trouble. If articles in an online newspaper article were to information about where the book is, who wrote it, and the be displayed incorrectly, anybody could plagarize the author’s summary to give users a better idea of what they are searching work and sell it as their own with no leagal reprecussions. for. Publishing companies would suffer as well: without a secure Barnes and Noble is also a huge online bookseller as well, understanding of the publishing process mishaps included but offering an enourmous selection of books from countless genres not limited to plagarizing, copyright claims on works originally to be delivered to your front door, which is impossible without yours, and decreased efficiency in the publishing process could AUTHOR: TITLE 5 occur. This is because engineers incorrect virtual advice given by systems are common critical errors that many engineers do not realize until it is too late. need to know what each person needs in the process: authors Then comes the argument of the lack of awareness in safety need a space to write their work, editors need software to edit critical systems, “…in the origins of health informatics, which (and suggest edits) to the author, and the company needs to arose at a time in which a major question was whether it was create a way to track their various revenues and shortfalls to possible that IT could contribute usefully to healthcare,” [10]. better estimate and suggest to the editors and authors how better As the software industry evolved, safety critical systems were to write their books, but also to protect their works through more and more common in the healthcare industry: but copyright claims. garunteeing the correct information given to the user at any given time was discovered to be incredibly difficult. 4.3 Mathematics and the Sciences During the planning of a safety critical system, the safety Mathematics: the language of the sciences. With mathematics, policies should be defined, along with the communication of one can describe the velocity and acceleration of an object, safety critical messages, definitions for the responsibility of the describe the probability of complex situations, and describe the application and how messages clearly displayed for the user to nature of computing. Because computing so heavily relies on read among other things [10]. mathematics, it is no surprise that computation is also related to This is the most important stage in developing a safety the sciences. critical application for the developer: the engineer must know all aspects of the ailments that the application might record and 4.3.1 Mathematics translate that into information that doctors and nurses might Mathematics describes everything a computer can do. From need to know. If the engineer does not understand these startup to running processes, computers are doing math many requirements, what the application is doing overall, or the hundred times per second. Most software engineers, when they nature of the information, then the development will be useless code, heavily rely on an algebraic background to create their and the product will undoubtably create misleading information algorithms. The programs can rely on simple math to create that is incredibly dangerous and impossible to use on people in complex outcomes for the user as well. There are, however, need of care. more complex applications of mathematics that yield a wider This does not mean that the engineer needs to create just a range of answers. For example, statistics and data science are comprehsive software risk analysis in relation to the respective closely related. Statistics and advanced calculus are also closely product. The software engineer must understand what they are related to the mathematical modeling of equations. creating just as much if not more than the risk analysis, to 4.3.2 Biology correctly manage the data and make their safety critical system as safe as possible In the Biology career path, there are incredible amounts of applications to software, which can be brought forth in three 4.3.5 Video Games and Physics main groups: biomedical, biosimulation, and biovisualization It can be argued that physics is the language of the natural software. world. We have equations that describe momentum, electric One remarkable piece of software, called 3DSlicer, is fields, particle acceleration, velocity, position, and so much revolutionizing the biomedical and biovisualization industry, more. An engineer must know physics to create the optimal and encompasses each of the three main biological groups. simulation for a specified product. Video games are the perfect 3DSlicer allows for the user to visualize medical images with example. different layers of imagery, by using modern graphic rendering. In order to create video games, there is a lot that engineers The images allow bioscientists to peel away layers of these need to know. Software engineers would find it helpful to know rendered images to learn more about them [11]. about the video game process, including how to create a video As a software engineerdeveloping an application like game scene, 3D models, an understanding of scripting 3DSlicer, it is important to know all about bioimagery to languages (to make objects move around and provide user achieve the best image for bioscientists. It is also important to interaction), and how data is stored between logins or save know proper user interface design, the proper way to allow an files. optimized image to be rendered, important points that It must be said, every scene must have some sort of physics bioscientists need to study (when prioritizing features the aspect. This means that scenes must have some sort of collision important points should be known so that objects in the scene can interact with one another. Usually, levels also have some sort of gravity aspect to allow so that feature in the application is definetly delivered players a sense of normalcy with the real world. The gravity correctly), and much more. can be modeled with a mathematical equation and subsequently applied to all other objects in the world (or not! Like an inflated 4.3.4 Medicine and the Healthcare Industry balloon, or an object on another planet that has a different gravitational pull, or a simulation in space). The healthcare industry is one of the most brought up examples These video games could have an educational aspect, as in the education of a software engineer when talking about well, such as the products being made at IP Keys, in Eatontown, safety critical systems: just because of the fact that the client is New Jersey. They are creating educational video games for the relying on software that can easily result in life-or-death United States Armed Forces, allowing soldiers to train with decisions for the client’s patient. dangerous situations in a safe environment. In their simulation, Missing laboratory information, false test results, and 6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, VOL. #, NO. #, MMMMMMMM 1996 physics is incredibly important: they have to make things as Washington, D.C. The company is aimed to help lawmakers to realistic as possible for the soldiers to be immersed enough to “revive representation” and allow them to respond to individual train with. If something were to move unrealistically and break people so the everyday person’s governmental needs are met. the immersion, the training wouldn’t be as effective. Everything The company provides tools to communicate with the must be as realistic as possible, and the evidence of complex lawmaker’s voters in order for the lawmakers to make the physics, just like the real world, is crucial to IP Keys and thus to decisions that best represent the people that they are in turn the software engineer. representing [12]. In an email correspondence with their CEO, Joseph Nelson, and the author, the company is in an integral 4.4 Politics and Globalization part in creating a unique two-sided platform dedicated to The modern world is becoming more interconnected on a daily constitutent-lawmaker relationships [13]. basis. It’s important for the engineer to know the laws relating If the reader steps back for a moment, we must analyze what to what data goes in or out of which country, and what potential Joseph needs to do to make Represently a success: his team conflicts releasing a piece of software, or storing data and the must first analyze how lawmakers decide how to represent their potential conflicts related to it. people – in other words, how they currently get information to This is where the software engineer’s training in history make their decisions on. Next, they must analyze how everyday comes into play. The engineer’s expertise in this area will allow people try to get in contact with their representatives, and him to rely on their expert reading of various sources to integrate new solutions to make citizens contacting their elected carefully analyze current events to avoid for example, officials easier. Then, Represently must both compress that international restrictions and national law relating to information into an easy to use interface for the representative international companies. to digest and store that information that is being brought fourth in the application for later reference if needed. The idea could 4.4.1 Internationalization and the Chinese change the way that politicians contact their constitutents, and If an engineer were to create a piece of software in the vice versa, but to do this, the team at Represently must carefully United States of America and tried to release it in China, it analyze the current communication situation in Washington would be near impossible without major modifications. This is because China has strict laws restricting the data that comes 4.5 Conclusion on the Spectrum of Software into and out of the country. If that piece of software were Engineering malicious and were to leak Chinese information to the world, Examples of the software world influencing the world around we would have a major international incident on the United us can be thought of endlessly and a conclusion can be made: in States’ hands. the modern world, the software industry touches everything. It It is suggested to the engineer not to fight Chinese law on is important to learn about each and every process relating to the matter of software restrictions, but rather, to work with what the software is about, too, just because if a piece of them. If internationalization to the country where there are software is going to directly benefit the customer, it better restrictions planned to take place, basing development servers address and help resolve the exact goals of the customer in within China, so the engineer would be working with the order to be a successful product. restrictions from the beginning. This harkens back to the fact that engineers, software engineers in particular, are required to have the most advanced 4.4.2 Software and Different Languages education in the world: an education that applies to all subjects It is important to realize that as software spreads across the in depth, allows them to create exceptional and reliable world, it must meet the cultural requirements needed to spread products, and allows them to actually understand these subjects across the world. The most obvious of all these requirements platonically. Since the technology industry is constantly would be software in different languages. changing, many engineering educators do not realize that the It may be clear that creating a piece of software that can be field of software engineering encompasses a greater swath of read in multiple languages is suggested for ultilization in other society than previously thought. countries, but allowing software companies to create products in other countries is a challenge. English is normally used for reserve words (for languages developed in primarily english- 5 AN OPEN LETTER TO ENGINEERING EDUCATORS speaking countries), but other code is usually written in the There are countless professions that only need a handful of language the programmer speaks. skills to do their job well. For example, history teachers need to Learning different languages gives the programmer the know much about history. Electricians need only to learn how availability to write and analyze code from foreign companies. to work with electricial currents, circuits, and fields. The learning of a different language makes the engineer a Accountants need to learn how to balance the finances of valuable asset to their company. Being a translator for companies throughout the world. Engineers, software engineers international teams allows for increased communication, particularly, are different on a fundamental level. increased efficiency between those teams, and allows for As software engineers become more prevelant throughtout software markets for different cultures to be opened to the the modern workforce, it is clear that the training of software company. engineers can and should include as many different subjects as possible. This is because today, software reaches every facet of life imaginable. 4.4.3 Represently, INC. It must be realized that in order to be the most effective, a Represently, INC. is a revolutionary company that is based in AUTHOR: TITLE 7 software engineer’s education should encompass all facets of way to garuntee the reduction of depersonalization and work- society. However, it is obviously important to have a rigorous academic related stress would be to simply garuntee students courseload of software-engineering-based classes, but the time to do what they please without the sense of dread that prevelance of just software engineering, computer science, and comes with due dates, exams, and complicated homework. mathematics classes is overwhelming. Although immediately Garunteeing students the ability to do what they like will allow practical, just this classload does not pay dividends in the them to explore their passions, open new doors in their fields, software engineer’s career. and the opportunity to increase their network. As explained in section 4, a software engineer must learn For example, if a student were to be assigned a two complex about a countless number of subjects based on the job required, research papers each due in a week, the student would not have and valuable time and money could potentially be lost because time to research what they are interested in, persue business of a lack of a varied background. opportunities, increase their network, or just let their lessons ferment in their minds and allow them to ponder on what they 5.1 The Importance of a Balanced Classload have learned. Just as in section 2.3, an integrated approach is preferred over a As the reader can see, free time in the field of academics strict hands-on or strict theory-based approach. vital to the engineering student. This does not mean, however, that the student is subject to less or more challenging coursework. It means that the student 5.3 The Importance of Networking is suggested to have both (in the example of a software The reason that all students go to college is to persue a higher engineer) a software-engineering-based courseload but paying, more secure job in their field of choice. Most students integrated with multiple elements of history, science, literature, are not putting themselves through 4+ years of optional and the arts. Not only does it let the student gather a beginning education just because they can or want to learn a new topic. experience in each of the subjects they will inevitably use in A common phrase relating to the workforce is, “It is not their career, but it allows them to combat “burn out,” the what you know, it is who you know.” This can not be more true. general term for psychological stress related to an extended For example, someone may be a great manager, but an owner’s period of a signifigantly increased workload. Although the best friend’s son who is an average manager will have the same effect of burn-out is found to be decreased in people with more opportunities as the skilled manager. A student may apply to experience, the effects of depersonalization is evident companies and get a job at the respective company, but it will throughout both the working and the academic population. be much more difficult than someone that has connections to Nursing students in particular show the effects of the company already. depersonalization much more [14]. It is important to let students have the time and opportunities Teachers also suffer from burn-out: On the topic, teachers to network in their field of study. Many educators do not realize are found to have, “…irritability, and they are found to be that networking is a lot more work than it seems: many students responsible for student apathy. Teachers are known to continue dress nicely and research the potential companies before hand, working in spite of burn-out symptoms or reduced classroom come up with questions to ask, and even create demonstrations, management skills,” [15]. If we were to assume that this resumes, or cover letters to show networking contacts in an happened to all teachers when they were burned-out, then what attempt to get their name out there. In the jobs market, the fact is the difference for a student’s burn out? The answer is that so many people are out there vying for student’s jobs nothing: students, when not given a break or encouragement suggests to educators to give them the time and opportunities to will produce average or below average grade work. The truth of forge these bonds with the companies of the area. Educators the matter is, without scheduled breaks in a student’s have an obligation to give students the opportunities to succeed, courseload from work, their effectiveness could be and students have the responsibility to take these opportunities compromised. and turn it into success. By using the term “breaks,” it must be understood that there are multiple meanings. First, there are physical breaks in school 5.4 The Importance of Experience work, which will be explained in section 5.2. Second, a student In this highly competitive professional world, nothing is more must have a break between all theory based education and important than job experience. To come into a profession with a hands on education to achieve the maximum efficiency. Third, feel of the workflow, what needs to be done, how to achieve students must receive an integrated courseload with the arts and goals set by superiors, etc, is extremely beneficial. Although with core curriculum (see section 2.3). individual experiences at individual companies are obviously All in all, there are six factors at play that combat burn out. different, the basis of a profession is imbued in the professional, already making the integration of the professional into the 5.2 The Importance of Free Time company that much easier and overall allows them to be that Vitruvious, in his writings, mused on the various applications much more efficient. an engineer should come to learn to become a great engineer. Why is it that the education of the student generally devoid What Vitruvious did not point out, surprisingly, are that the of experience? Sure, many majors at postsecondary institutions forces working behind these subjects take a great deal out of the require internships or student teaching, but sometimes that is student. As described in section 5.1, in order to digest and not enough. process the information needed, free time is needed as well. What the author proposes is a more rigorous movement Without time to relax and recouperate, students will burn out towards experience based education, including more industry- and not preform to their optimum efficiency [14][15]. A surefire based projects, and earlier internships (or related work). In the 8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, VOL. #, NO. #, MMMMMMMM 1996 author’s experience, he has not yet had the opportunity for that he structured it so loosely that the students are not required experienced based education because of an unbalanced to take tests, his stance being, “I think tests are a measure of courseload and lack of free time. It is hard to realize the how well you can take a test. Good answers require more time importance of one’s training in the education system if the than applicable on a test.” student has no way of applying it to their field of study. As the conversation went on, Dr. Tepfenhart spoke about how this classroom structure compared to previous classroom 5.5 The Importance of Faliure structures, saying that he saw much better design interaction Although Vitruvious suggested that the engineering student than he’s seen in previous classes, particularly when students must be both, “naturally gifted and amicable to instruction,” utilized whiteboards to show their ideas. “This is exactly what failure through trial and error is the most effective way to learn [the students] are going to do in the real world. [The first group [1]. design pattern] was a disaster that the students need to make, In the author’s experience, many students, software because trial and error is a better way to learn. I don’t get up engineering students in particular, are extremely headstrong and and lecture the class - I could tell you what to do and what not like to figure out things for themselves: whether through to do – but I teach it more like an art class. Software design is a optimizing code, figuring out the best way to manage people, process that the student has to figure out for themselves.” the best way to gather requirements, or test a piece of code. It is Dr. Richard Bastian, a statistics professor at Monmouth when these students fail at optimizing their processes or reach University, grades his assigned homeworks on the amount they their goals that the students look back and reanalyze their work understood and answers questions relating to that homework at to make their thoughts become a reality. the beginning of the following class. In an interview with In the case of failure in the school system, the author is not Professor Bastian, he explained about his policies in the suggesting that it is okay to fail out of classes or it is okay not classroom. to understand – these cases are counterproductive and When asked about why he grades his homeworks like this, detrimental to the well being of the student (with examples such he explained that there were two reasons. “The first is a little as lower morale and the tendancy to block out subjects that are selfish, but I grade it this way because it’s a little easier on me. particularly hard to understand, with the student usually saying, I used to grade my assigned work for correctness, but it was too “This subject is too hard, I have the inability to understand it,” much. The second reason is to give credit to people who also seen by the author). What the author is suggesting is that actually tried, but got the wrong answer.” the absence of numerical grades looming over the student, the As he explained more about his policies, he emphasized the student is now free to create without bounds, free to take risks, importance of failure in the classroom. “On the first day of and ultimately free of a numerical failure. The focus is now on class I take time aside to explain that it’s encouraged to ask two things: the building of trust that the educator will steer the questions, no matter if you have the wrong answer or not. It lets student in the correct direction and the building of knowledge me know that you’re involved.” His homeworks are not, about the respective subject. however, gradeable on their own. In his remarks, he explained Take, for example, Dr. William Tepfenhart of Monmouth that to achieve an accurate understanding of a student’s University. In his course labeled “Software Design and progression through the class he needs to assign exams Architecture,” his students are graded on the amount of effort periodically, arguing that homeworks can be done in groups and and understanding they have. In the spring of 2017, the design if projects are assigned, there is always the person that does not and architecture class is required to explore different designs of pull their weight in the group. code to make it as easy to create, maintain, add, and subtract Allowing students to be explorative through failure in the code from in future projects. The students work in pairs and are classroom is vital to the student’s overall academic well being. given a task with poorly defined requirements by Dr. Although daunting to some students to fail in the classroom, it’s Tepfenhart. It is up to the teams to create design iterations important to let the student know that it is okay to fail in the based on these requirements that are easy to maintain, add, and classroom because it is a part of learning, as Dr. Tepfenhart and subtract code from. On other days of class, students are Dr. Bastian argued. required to read from a design textbook and answer questions related to the text in class to help everybody understand what they have read. 6 CONCLUSION In an interview with Dr. Tepfenhart, he explains why trial The profession of software engineering touches all facets of the and error is so important in the education of his students: “This modern world. It is because of that the training of the software is the time when [the students] can make errors. When looking engineer is so vital to society itself. While it is important to the at your design portfolio that students make, you can see what to software engineer to learn various skills to help them solve do and what not to do in each separate iteration. If you learn problems in the real world, in order to mitigate potential about this in the field for the first time, the consequencies can efficiency problems in learning the engineering educators be terrible.” He goes on to explain why he does not provide should instill in the engineer important principals such as very structured grading, saying, “This is the first time I’m networking, free time, and exploratory failure. teaching the design class like I am. The portfolio is a way to It is painfully evident from an analysis of past generations measure design iterations – that you’re picking up things across that technology, and thus software, is the way of the future. the way…I’d rather have people ready for the homework than Technology has exploded into the homes of everyday people: to people to fail the homework, and of course, the homework the point where much of one’s life can be controlled and summarizes the portfolio exercises.” He goes on, explaining planned in a handheld device. Just as in the past, technology is AUTHOR: TITLE 9 the way of the future. https://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/24/business/wh The ever-growing technological hunger that society craves ole-foods-looks-tech-help-bottom-line. for needs to be powered by the engineer – and the engineer [10] “ ” Safeware”: Safety-Critical Computing and Health needs to understand the importance of their situation. There is Care Information Technology”, Advances in Patient no career field in the world that potentially has as much long Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches, vol. term effects as the software engineer, just because of this 4, p. 1, 2017. societal crave for software engineers. [11] “ 3DSlicer”, Wikipedia, 2017. [Online]. Available: Everything is becoming automated or technology based. It is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DSlicer. up to the software engineer to create reliable, safe, innovative, [12] “ Represently: Reviving Representation”, efficient, mobile, and morally correct software that meets the Represently.com, 2017. [Online]. Available: goals of the client and of the world. To achieve such a lofty http://www.represently.com/. expectation, the software engineer must have the best education [13] J. Nelson, “March 11 French Embassy Hackathon”, possible. 2017. [14] Stress, Coping, And Burn-Out In Nursing Students. 1st ACKNOWLEDGMENT ed. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2017. The author would like to thank Dr. Richard Bastian and Dr. [15] Evers, Will J. G., and Welko Tomic. Students’ William Tepfenhart for giving their time in their interviews with Perception Of The Incidence Of Burn-Out Among Their the author. Their comments on the educative process were Teachers. 1st ed. Heerlen, Netherlands: EBSCO comprehensive and insightful, and allowed for a detailed Publishing, 2003. Web. 18 Mar. 2017. analysis of the trial-and-error technique used for engineering students. Without them, this paper would not be possible.</p><p>REFERENCES [1] Careers in Focus: Computers, 5th Edition ed. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2008. [2] T. Ahmed and R. Chattopadhyay. Return to general education and vocational training & training in indian context: Policy implications. International Journal of Educational Management 30(3), pp. 370-385. 2016. [3] J.L. Kincheloe, “Schools Where Ronnie and Brandon Would Have Excelled: A Curriculum Theory of Academic and Vocational Integration,” in Counterpoints, Vol. 70, Contemporary Curriculum Discourses: Twenty Years of JCT, Vol. 70 ed. Peter Lang AG, 1999, pp. 346-363. [4] Burton, Judith, Robert horowitz, and Hal Abeles. Learning In and Through The Arts. 1st ed. New York, New York: Center for Arts Education Research, Teachers College, Colombia University, 1999. Web. 17 Mar. 2017. [5] “ Vitruvius,” in Brittanica Academic, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Vitru vius/75580#. Accessed: Feb. 27, 2017. [6] Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, 1st ed. Harvard University Press, 1914, pp. 4-13. [7] “Company Info”, Whole Foods Market, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info. [8] D. du Preez, "Whole Foods is replacing up to 90% of its systems - strong focus on cloud and data", diginomica, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://diginomica.com/2016/06/24/whole-foods-is- replacing-up-to-90-of-its-systems-strong-focus-on- cloud-and-data/. [Accessed: 10- Apr- 2017]. [9] A. Milne-Tyte, “Whole Foods looks to tech to help with the bottom line,” Marketplace, 2017. [Online]. Available: 10 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, VOL. #, NO. #, MMMMMMMM 1996</p><p>Matthew J. Drew is a 19-year-old Software Engineering Undergraduate at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, class of 2019.</p>