Department of Computer Engineering: Exemplary Co-op Education Experiences From The Spring Semester of 2016 - 2017

Mert Atamaner attended University of Rome Tor Vergata through Erasmus+

Notes on the Cooperative Education Experience:

• “The cooperative education semester helped my personal development on the academic front in particular. As I was able to get a clear picture of the process of publishing research, I was able to observe the foundations and idea development processes of academic studies. Coming up with ideas followed by the literature research on the topic I was to work on, the international teleconferences, weekly meetings, as well as the constructive debates I had during the coding stages to reveal the fruits of my idea, and finally the new pieces of software I got acquainted with helped me improve myself. My research culminated in an essay titled "Detecting Errors in Instructions with Bloom Filters", submitted to the Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI in Nanotechnology Systems (DFT 2017). Furthermore, as I had my cooperative education abroad, my foreign language proficiency on both the social and the academic fronts was advanced much more.
• The Cooperative Education program is a truly unique opportunity that sets TOBB ETÜ students apart from the rest. Providing each and every undergraduate student with the opportunity to make the most of an extended internship covering three and a half months is perhaps the most important factor ensuring that the students graduate with a high quality of education and skills required.
• I want to add the following for the students who will start with the Cooperative education program, or who are already enrolled in it: Armed with the awareness that the program is essentially about work experience to help you stand out within and outside the country, work hard and try your limits by learning the most. Even though the process may look difficult, don’t ever forget that what you gain will provide you with robust foundations for your personal development during the rest of your lives.”

Notes by the Supervisor:

• “The student gave a very positive contribution to the workplace. … He showed a very positive attitude and strong interest in the assigned tasks. … He took initiative and demonstrated good problem solving skills”

İlayda Şahiner, Havelsan A.Ş.

Notes on the Cooperative Education Experience:

• “This cooperative education semester gave me the opportunity to learn the ropes with SAP ERP, a software package I wanted to learn about for a long while, that is rapidly becoming popular in Turkey. In particular, my work on the BW module allowed me to put into practice numerous pieces of information I learned in the Data Mining and Database courses. Learning ABAP, the programming language of SAP, allowed me to add yet another to the list of programming languages I know. In doing so, the cooperative education semester gave me experience in two modules with which computer engineers play an active part. On a rather general perspective, on the other hand, the cooperative educations allowed me to understand the role and import of computer engineers in the ERP technology, as well as the policies HAVELSAN personnel applies for projects. Moreover, getting my cooperative education at a rather established corporation, I got a first-hand comparison of a corporation with solid institutions, and a small-scale company. During my cooperative education, I also got the chance to make observations about a government agency, as I took part in the Enterprise Resource Management project for Turkish State Railways. I thus experienced all three work environments, a chance not many students can have.
• TOBB ETÜ “Cooperative Education Model” serves as a bridge between the theoretical courses we take at the school, and the actual business life. This model allows us the students to make observations about the business life before completing our undergraduate education. Furthermore, this process gives us some clues about which fields to focus our future careers on. By doing so, we take robust steps in terms of career planning. Even though cooperative education is a long and arduous process, I believe it gave me most valuable experience for my future career, and will give me the edge on numerous grounds.”

Notes by the Supervisor:

• “She completed the tasks assigned on a timely manner. Her code is at the highest level of quality that can be achieved in a relatively short time frame. Her contributions are perfect! ... We would definitely want to work with her. ... She needed only a small adjustment period to reach to the level of our full-time experts involved in the project. That was an extraordinary achievement.”