The room is quiet until someone yells, "Hey, put on another song!" After
a brief pause, the raucous music starts again and so does the dancing. It's
a simple task to fill a room with music these days -- thanks, in part, to
software engineering.
"Students might not realize all of the applications that use software,"
says Bob Baber. He is a computer science professor. He points out that even
the music playing devices that we all use have software that
has been designed in them.
In the morning, you blindly plop a couple pieces of bread into the toaster.
You twist a few dials and in a minute, the toast comes out golden brown. Perfect
again. Do you ever pause to wonder how the bread is just right every single
time? If you've got a newer model, it could be a computer that's cooking your
bread to perfection.
"Computers show up in ovens, microwaves, dishwashers and even toasters,"
says Baber.
Each of these different computers needs to have software to operate. That's
where software engineers come in. In the future, Baber says there will be
more and more software engineers working on this type of technology.
"There will be less work in the classical types of applications, like banking
systems," he adds.
"Software is appearing in almost everything," agrees Ken Kyler. He is a
software engineer in Maryland. "Your car has more software in it than early
computers had."
"Even things like GPS devices have computers in them," says Baber.
Outside the home, computers are being used more and more to run manufacturing
and industrial processes. Companies like automobile manufacturers, tomato
sorters and boxers, toy makers and textile producers all use computers in
their automated machinery.
Each computer inside a manufacturing plant must have software designed
and customized for its use. As operations change within the plant, software
engineers must also help update the computer applications.
"On a larger scale, more and more industrial processes are controlled by
computers," says Baber.
The Internet is another area that is providing more employment for software
engineers. "Mainstream businesses are now forging ahead into the web," says
Kyler.
He just completed creating an online credit card system for a national
nonprofit website.
"This is a web-based application to accept donations as well as handle
online orders," he explains. "For another large nonprofit, I assisted in creating
an application that uses the U.S. Geological Survey's data to map levels in
rivers for fishermen and boaters. It was web-based as well."
Kyler does a great deal of work for nonprofits. He finds helping these
types of organizations rewarding. He also likes the engineering and problem
solving involved in his work.
"I enjoy the intellectual challenge of solving problems for people and
helping them use the web more effectively," he says.
He says the most challenging part of his work is explaining what he does
to his clients. "The most difficult thing is communicating my needs as a developer
to them. Most people don't understand what a software developer needs to know
and as a result, they tend to get frustrated by the amount of detail we need."
You may think a software engineer is holed away writing code and designing
programs. But the job often involves interacting with clients and other workers.
Communication skills are important because many of the jobs are too large
to be handled by one person.
"Software engineers have to be able to work together in teams," says Baber.
"Many of these applications are designed in a group."
Technology and computer languages change quickly. Software used to navigate
the Internet is always evolving and improving. Software engineers need to
keep up with demands from clients and with changes being made by other designers
in the field.
They have to keep up with progress. "I was working as a webmaster, then
a multimedia producer and then got a job as a software engineer," says Dawn
Skwersky. She is a software application engineer in Brookline, Massachusetts.
After recently being laid off at the software company, Skwersky moved on
to another company to continue her work in web development. "I think it was
a natural progression," she says.
Skwersky enjoys the rapid changes found in her area of work. "I enjoy the
challenges of learning new ways to develop each day," she says. Although Skwersky
is deaf, she says she has found no barriers in software engineering.
"To enjoy this work, you have to be quick and be a problem-solver, just
like any other type of engineer," adds Baber.