SECP 1513-03 Technolgy and Information System's Reflection
TIS is by far my most favorite subject. Maybe it's because I like computer hardware more than the rest of the subjects. Dr. Johanna is also a great lecturer giving us almost no pressure when doing her assignments or quizzes. The class is not boring because this subject is my interest.
This talk was given by our graduated seniors and their topic was on Inspiring Work Experience and COVID-19 challenges. It was moderated by our TIS lecturer, Dr. Johanna Ahmad.
Tan Yong Keong told us that a beautiful resume and taking part in competitions would lead you to get a good job. During the study years in UTM, he participated in various types of competitions and these could be useful for us when writing a resume. It does not matter if we win or lose in those competitions, but the most important part is that we can learn something in the competitions.
From Zamarul, he said that soft skills are also key to job employment. People that have soft skills are more to being hired compared to those who have only hard skills. Though hard skills show off your experience and understanding of a measurable ability, soft skills often indicate your ability to work with other competitions because we will need to and grow within a company.
From Batrisyia, she told us that she was managed to get her job because she showed her passion and capability to the subject that she was assigned during her intern. Thus, her supervisor wants her to continue her works after she was graduated.
Zamarul also shared his tips which are to learn new technical skills. He advised us to learn other technical skills different from the fundamental things that we have learned in university. Having skills that others do not have is huge merit to secure a job.
Batrisyia shared her tips that we should not limit ourselves to learning new things. We should try our best to learn it and do not wait until people tell us what to do. Being a proactive person that always ask question will improve our images.
Besides, three of the speakers agree that enhancing soft skills is important. Soft skills are not only needed in a company to blend with our colleagues, but it is more important when we are facing our superiors. As we know, doing things alone is much slower and low efficiency Therefore, employers tend to investigate our soft skills rather than what we can do.
Good management in a company is the key for the company to succeed. In the previous industrial talk, it was about project management and what is the trend for that management to succeed in their projects. To me, the most important thing is to be on the same page. Once everyone has the same goal, things can be achieved easily because everyone can work together. Aside from that, that company must analyze the market demand. For a company to succeed in business, it must know what do the people wanted or what will the people want. Other than that, one company also needs to think about the risk of investing in one project if it would be worth it. A good example of an entrepreneur is the late Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. He launched the iPhone (1st gen), not many people wanted a touchscreen computer slash iPod that can dial numbers and surf the internet. After the launch, it gained fame and smartphones were beginning to take the market which superseded the older phones such as Nokia 3310. Lastly, to succeed, we also need to be brave enough to take the first step and try to think outside the box.
During the Industrial Talk, Mr. Redzuan Shah Yussoff, Director of Southern Strategic Economic Region at Telekom Malaysia talked about Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) and the technologies that come with it. Those technologies include autonomous robots, cloud computing, and Internet of Things (IoT).
Since the implementation of IR4.0, Malaysia has also improved its technology infrastructure. Sadly, the implementation of 5G network would not be available until the year 2022. Aside from that, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has also announced to stop giving permits to 3G devices and devices without 4G-LTE capabilities. With the upgrade of the network, people can enjoy a seamless internet experience and lower latency. With lower latency, technology such as a driverless car can perform faster and more accurately. This would also help the people in the inland areas to communicate with the outside world.
Other than that, job opportunities in the relevant field have also increased over the past few years. Technology companies in Malaysia have been demanding more and more professionals in technology to realize IR 4.0. The most demanding field is Internet of Things (IoT) with 73 companies looking for fresh graduates followed by cybersecurity. These are the opportunity for students in UTM especially us in computer science to find jobs more easily.
Finally, at the end of our Design Thinking project. During the past few weeks of this project, I had learned some new knowledge and has a better understanding of Technology and Information System. Also, through the interview with the experts, I had also gained new information about the technology around us. Aside from if the questions I asked for our group’s project, I had also asked one of the experts about their comments on underwater data centers are. The underwater data center is one experimental project of Microsoft. The expert reply is that if the underwater data center is being handled well, it is an optimum environment for data storage and transfer. As we all know, data centers generate a lot of heat and we need to get rid of the heat as fast as we can before it comes to overheating. Underwater datacenters can cool down the heat as it is deep down under the sea.
Aside from the knowledge I had gained, I also learned that designing a new project is not an easy job at all. First, I learned about the five basic steps of design thinking, that is, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Each step is very important as it all will contribute to the final product. Each step-less then it will not meet the requirements or have defects in it. To design a new product, we must first know what the market demand is and what the people want. We think about the questions related to it and asked the experts during the sessions with them. After getting the opinions, we will have a basic idea of how the product should work. After this we will be brainstorming for ideas such as the name, how it works, why it works, and how do other people think about the project to make. This then will come down to the prototype. Then we test it to see if it works and if it will produce the results that we intended.
Team-working is the most important lesson that I can learn from this project. It is not an easy job for an individual to carry out the whole project from scratch. Different people have different kinds of skills and that is why we need a group of people to complete a task. For example, I have a good Internet, so I have been assigned to record the whole interview with the experts. Other group members for example one with good at making the slide shows had been asked to help to complete that part of the task. The soft skill to be able to work as a team always is required by the employers so that if there is a big project, everyone will have the chance to be in a part of it and everyone can gain experience from the project.