Ashwin Saji
About Me
I am a final year software engineering student who is passionate about problem-solving and fascinated by the dynamic world of technology. Being able to blend creativity with logic enabling me to build the foundation to transforming ideas into impactful, functional realities is what motivates me to pursue this career path and make a difference.
Throughout university, I have had numerous opportunities where I had taken the role of a team leader, which has resulted in building my leadership skills as well as my people skills, in turn enabling me to effectively design and create various complex solutions within a team.
I have an insatiable curiosity for creating innovative solutions and a keen interest in shaping the digital landscape. I believe through software engineering, I will be able to do this and more.
PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY TO CREATE VIABLE SYSTEMS
Whilst completing the main project in software innovation studio, our team had to factor in sustainability within the project. The project that we had to decided to make was essentially an AI recipe generator. I had realised that as this was a software project, I would not need to worry about environmental sustainability or energy consumption due to the small scale of the project. The main principle we would have to account for would be social equity. This was very simple as we mainly needed to work on a user centric design. To do this we prioritised user experience and designed software interfaces that are intuitive, user-friendly, and accessible to a diverse range of users, considering inclusivity and social equity. Furthermore, it can be seen that following this could enable “social empowerment” (Doctor, 1991). Alongside this we had also considered implementing data privacy and security to further work on this.
Initially, I had felt worried as I had originally thought this would be difficult to implement being a software project but after realising that social equity was a major sustainability principle, I had felt relieved due to this being very compatible with the nature of the project.
I believe that social equity is an important aspect to consider as it greatly helps in making a project more acceptable and friendly to the public.
The main difficulty that I faced with this was trying to find a way to ensure that the other principles could be met but for the most part they did not apply to our project.
In accounting for social equity within this project, I had gained a better understanding on how even software projects would need to account for following the sustainability principles.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE WITHIN INTERCULTURAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS
During my time at Green Gate Consulting, I had attended various workshops alongside the OPTIK interns and one of them was about culture. In this workshop we had went over the diverse demographics of everyone present as well as how different cultures would have different standards and viewpoints such as some seeing small talk as a necessary part of meetings, while other cultures would prefer to get straight to the point and numerous other concepts. In one segment we had to talk to other interns about what our viewpoints may be on certain topics and discuss any similarities or differences. One of the interns I had talked to was an international student and had mentioned that in order to get ahead in his career within his country, most people there would resort to bribing and gift giving to achieve promotions.
Hearing this had left me feeling very surprised to find out that this was common in his country and was somehow acceptable.
Personally, I did not agree with this as it was an unfair way to advance in one’s career and would also potentially harm a company if a less qualified employee was selected for a promotion over a someone more capable. Additionally, employees who facilitate corruption on behalf of their organisation harm other companies for the advantage of their own organisation (Campbell & Goritz, 2014).
Through this experience I have realised that other cultures will have different types of mannerisms but more importantly may be more willing to facilitate corruption within professional practice.
REFERENCES
Campbell, JL., Göritz, A.S. Culture Corrupts! A Qualitative Study of Organizational Culture in Corrupt Organizations. J Bus Ethics 120, 291–311 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1665-7
Doctor, R.D. (1991), Information technologies and social equity: Confronting the revolution. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 42: 216-228. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199104)42:3<216::AID-ASI7>3.0.CO;2-Y
REFLECTIONS
Cover Letter
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to express my interest in the Software Engineering Industrus Engineering Graduate Program. As a recent graduate from UTS, I have completed a 12 week software engineering internship at Green Gate Consulting where I gained the experience of performing the main roles of an engineer. I believe that this has ensured that I am able to take full advantage of the program. Please find my address of the selection criteria below.
A commitment to ethical conduct and the highest standards of professional accountability
During my experience at Green Gate Consulting, I had to integrate security cameras with video AI. To adequately test the solution, I needed to use it in a public space, however, I knew could not gain permission within the project timeframe. In order to maintain ethical standards of the project, I had to ensure that everyone that would be filmed by the camera would give consent, so I had requested the supervisor to let us test this in a private room with only the team members present where we could simulate a public environment. As a result I managed to maintain the ethical standards of the project and also manage to adequately test the solution.
Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate both with other engineers and with stakeholders from different fields
During my internship, I had set up a meeting with the UTS security team where we were accompanied by my client so that we could gain a better understanding of how a security team would operate and potentially use our solution. In this meeting, I had performed stakeholder analysis techniques and asked questions, whilst I also got a rundown of all the various softwares that the security team were using. After this meeting, I was able to have a planning discussion with my team and my client where I had identified what features would be most useful for our solution.
The ability to engage with a creative, innovative and proactive environment
In my internship, I had to come up with an innovative solution that can improve the perception of safety for a district using video AI. Together with my team, I had brainstormed different ideas and solutions that would let us put our engineering knowledge to the test. We had considered various designs as well as their response to the public, impacts as well as unintended consequences. After completing this process, I had developed a creative solution with the help and approval of my team that met my client’s criteria.
Demonstrated ability to use and manage information
During my internship, I needed to create and send out a survey so that I could learn how people perceive levels of safety and what they would be comfortable/uncomfortable to see or experience so that I could identify aspects that my solution could focus on. I ensured that I created numerous questions where a fair portion of them were open ended allowing the responses to be more diverse. After distributing the survey and reviewing the responses, I was able to easily identify what ways my solution would be most beneficial.
The ability to manage your own performance in a professional environment
At the beginning of my internship, I had set goals so that I could further develop myself as a software engineer and manage my own performance to ensure that I was benefitting from the experience. Some of these goals I set were to develop my skills as a team leader, which involved team management and communication as well as developing other technical skills such as programming in a professional context. Throughout the internship, I would rate myself on these goals to see how far I have come as well as how I can further improve myself. In doing so, I can confidently say that by the end of the internship I have grown and greatly improved my skills as an engineer.
A demonstrated ability to work as part of a team and to show leadership when required
At the start of my internship, I was assigned the role of team leader within a team of 8 engineers of different disciplines. As a leader I had to effectively manage the team as well as assign tasks and perform performance reviews for each of my team members. To do this I needed to develop a good rapport with my team and understand their skills, strengths and weaknesses so that I could allocate tasks in the best way possible. For the performance reviews, I had set up individual meetings with each member, where I would go over their progress, identifying areas they were excelling at as well as suggestions on how they could improve in some areas. Additionally, I had gained insight on what goals they had and helped them to achieve them. This role had enabled me to develop my leadership skills as well as ensure that I can work effectively as part of a team.
If you would like to attend an interview, please contact me on shwin132@gmail.com or call me on 0410463446.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Ashwin Saji