Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry

Everyone experiences the shift when they start their first full time software development job. Suddenly you have to learn new processes and procedures because things are done a little differently in industry. The skills taught in a university are still the framework that will be used working in software projects, but what is just as valuable is understanding how to learn what will be needed in each new job. Working with legacy software that has been developed for decades, ensuring your changes do not break software being actively worked on by dozens or hundreds of other developers, the level of rigor required for a simple web applications vs software that is protecting hundreds of passengers on board an aircraft, a university education can tell you what is coming when you enter industry, but it is hard to really understand the differences until you actually experience working in industry for yourself.

At Array of Engineers we are interested in helping prepare the next generation to succeed in the high tech industry. This includes guiding students at the grade school and university level to the skills that emerging industries need, as well as trying to expose students to what we experience every day working in industry. Dr. Marouane Kessentini and Dr. Mostafa El-Said with Grand Valley State University’s College of Computing have been generous in taking time to talk with us to better understand how the university can give students the skills that modern industry needs, as well as considering how we can help the university in this endeavor. As part of this, Array of Engineers employees were invited to give guest lectures to classes during the previous winter semester. 

Real-World Engineering in the Classroom

Array of Engineers visited Grand Valley State University to share industry experience with students.

The guest lectures started with Dr. Eric Fredericks’ inviting Marcel Meijer to present at his Pervasive Computing class. Marcel discussed our Internet of Things project used to monitor food storage environmental control. The presentation discussed the tools and hardware used for this system, as well as an evaluation of how the project has worked over the years and what we have learned. Marcel provides an excellent and thoughtful approach to development to help students understand not just moving onto the newest technologies, but how to apply what we have experienced as we move forward.

Leadership and Soft Skills

Olivia Mulder presented on leadership, trust, and the value of soft skills in a technical environment.

The experiences expanded beyond the College of Computing where Olivia Mulder, PHR presented to a Business 101 class on business leadership. She was approached by Adjunct Professor Maureen Walsh, a former colleague and employee herself at GVSU. Olivia discussed how building trust and fostering an open culture lead to a cohesive team that wants to work together every day. Olivia also clearly emphasizes the value of soft skills in a technical environment, providing invaluable viewpoints beyond the next line of code.

Safety-Critical Development and Testing

Dr. Michael Lingg spoke with GVSU students about safety-critical software development, industry testing practices, and the many roles beyond coding that help ensure reliable software.

Next Dr. Byron DeVries reached out, asking for lectures on industry experience in safety-critical development and how testing improves software. Dr. Michael Lingg presented first for the Introduction to Software Engineering students how safety-critical software industries such as aviation and automotive provide a significant support framework around the basic software engineering lifecycle in order to make sure the software provides the correct solution and works reliably the first time and every time it is used. The presentation also looked into all of the jobs beyond writing code that provide independent assessment and review of the software so that the responsibility of the software working does not rest on the shoulders of a single developer. Michael produced a second presentation for Dr. DeVries’ graduate level Software Testing course, looking into how industry actually uses software testing. The testing presentation considered the tradeoffs between cost and rigor of testing and investigated AoE’s own Hardware in the Loop automated test product (https://www.arrayofengineers.com/products) and what we learned while developing the system. Finally Dr Fredericks invited Michael to present a second guest lecture to his Pervasive Computing class, emphasizing the broad range of career opportunities in safety-critical software development beyond coding.

Modernizing Legacy Systems

Sachin Kushwaha led an interactive discussion on lessons learned from legacy systems modernization.

After the success of the initial guest lectures, we asked the professors to get the word out that we are happy to provide more guest lectures. Dr Jiaxin Du reached out asking for a discussion on lessons learned from legacy systems modernization for his Information Management and Science class. Sachin Kushwaha drew on his deep experience in certifying and modernizing aircraft systems to provide a very interactive discussion on how we do not want to reinvent the light switch when it continues to do the job, but also when to use new technologies where they benefit the modernization of a system. Sachin provided his deep understanding of systems development and modelling to students on a topic that is in high demand in industry, but are skills that often have to be learned on the job.

LLMs in Software Development

Raihan Hakim discussed how industry is using LLMs in software development.

Our lectures were wrapped up by a presentation from Raihan Hakim to Dr. Rahat Rafiq’s Machine Learning Operations class looking at how industry is using LLMs in software development. Raihan is a recent graduate from GVSU’s applied computing graduate program and has been working at AoE to research this specific topic on how we can best apply LLMs and machine learning tools to our own programs. Raihan is excellently placed to help students see what is working with the use of LLMs in software development, what limitations they may have and what the future may hold.

GVSU Capstone Project

In a related direction I also wanted to mention our capstone project with GVSU’s College of Computing. We had a great time working with Noah Strasler, Redzic Bilal, Kamali Shah and Raimbekov Shamurat for developing a tool used to evaluate multiple LLMs capability to accurately generate tests and code from requirements. Our original plans for the tool shifted throughout the semester as these students performed research and valuable insights on what they uncovered with the current LLM state of the art. This project became less of us telling them what to develop, and a collaborative effort to develop something we had not initially considered.

Looking Ahead

These guest lectures received a lot of positive feedback from students and professors, as well as started some very interesting discussions. The lectures provided both a deep dive into topics that are more often learned on the job, rather than in university, and interactive opportunities for students to better understand their path into the work we do every day in industry. Array of Engineers looks forward to building on what we have started and are excited to see what more we might do in partnership with GVSU next fall.

And we would love to try to grow this further! For any other universities that are interested in participating in similar guest lectures, please reach out to us as we would be happy to provide our industry perspective to more students. For any local companies that likewise are interested in what we have been doing, we would love to talk to you about being involved. AoE does not have a monopoly on valuable industry experience that can be provided to students.

Again, thanks to Grand Valley State University and everyone who worked with us to better bridge the gap between academia and industry!