Computer Science Internship Report

Computer Science Internship Report

In Fall 2009, I took an internship at Vinanvit Co. The company is located in Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam. The company is specialized on the production of nuts and bolts. In recent years, the company has started the introduction of new information technologies which helps to improve and automate the production process as well as to improve the control over the production. As a result, the company faced the problem of the introduction of new information technology and the maintenance of software and hardware. Hence, the company needed IT specialists capable to maintain its software and hardware and I took the position of an IT assistant in the IT department of the company. This job was very important for me because I had got an excellent opportunity to implement my professional knowledge in practice and improve my professional skills and abilities through the work at Vinanvit Co.

When I took the decision to start working at this company as an IT assistant, I expected to get large opportunities for the work as an IT specialist and, what is more, I counted for the career development to implement my ideas concerning the use of modern ITs in the production process.

The network of the company consisted of 57 desktops connected together. The workgroup was controlled by Windows Server 2008. The hierarchy of the network included five levels: administrators, mangers, accountants, sales, and technicians. My work was focused on the maintenance of hardware and software within the company. At the beginning of my working day, I had to gather information about problems with hardware and software. I received the reports about these problems and, in the course of the working day, I had to repair the broken machines. In this respect, I faced certain difficulties because it was necessary to keep the network and all the machines working, regardless of the technical problems related to either software or hardware. This means that I had to react on all the reports.

At first, I had to define whether the problem was caused by software or hardware. If I identified that the problem was caused by software, I would have to reinstall or update the software. Such a repair did not cause much trouble to me and to the functioning of the network and individual computers. However, when the problem was caused by hardware, when a part of computers was broken, I would have to replace the part immediately to keep the machine working. I was conscious of the fact that I could have taken a lot of time if I started to look for a replacement of a broken part only when I identified the problem.

In order to save time and, therefore, costs, I decided to store a surplus of hardware parts to replace broken ones fast and with minimal losses of time and money. When I replaced hardware, I had two options. If the hardware failure was fixable I would send it to a technician who repaired the part. Alternatively, if the hardware part was under warranty, I had to send the part to manufacturer to fix it or replace by a new one if it could not be fixed. As hardware was fixed, I received it and kept in surplus in a case a new replacement will be needed. In fact, I analyzed the cases of hardware failures to identify the most frequent failures. Respectively, to the most frequent failures I attempted to store hardware parts in surplus to replace them fast if necessary. In such a way, I have managed to minimize the time spent on the repair of computers.

However, the scope of my work as an IT assistant was not limited to the repair of software and hardware solely. As I grew more and more experience, I did the server check with administrators. In fact, it was a very important experience to me because it expanded my professional knowledge and helped me to develop new professional skills and abilities. This work along with administrators enlarged my knowledge of the functioning of the network and elevated my professional knowledge and skills to a new, qualitatively higher level. Therefore, I believe that such experience was very useful and I would readily participate in such work as much as possible.

Due to my work at Vinanvit Co. I have learned how to perform setting up a network with multiple levels of users. In this regard, my cooperation with administrators has proved to be particularly fruitful because I would definitely have faced significant difficulties why learning to perform setting up a network with multiple levels of users without the assistance from the part of a professional administrator. At the same time, the fact that I did this job myself was an essential condition of my successful learning. In fact, I had a theoretical framework to do this job but I could not set up a network with multiple levels of users if I did not have practical experience which I had acquired during my work at Vinanvit Co.

Furthermore, another lesson I have learned during my work at the company is that the administrator must take notes on the users of each department’s needs and report it to the manager. In such a way, employees will have every supported tool they needed. In fact, I have learned that the effectiveness of the communication between administrators and managers defines, to a significant extent, the overall organizational performance. Once, I have experienced the failure of this communication, when an administrator did not report in tome to the manager about the needs of a department. As a result, the entire department has slowed down its work because it could not perform at its normal level as long as its needs were not met because managers, being unaware of the tools needed to the department, did not supply them in time.

As I grew more and more experienced, I have started to get involved into a recent project the company has launched to improve its control system and its production process at large. This project involves the investment into new software and hardware for the company to manage products using the barcode. In actuality, the introduction of the barcode would improve the system of control consistently because the barcode could contain the information about the weight, size, color, and product type. As a result, to control the quality of the product, it would be enough to check the barcode. Consequently, the successful implementation of this project would accelerate the output and improve the effectiveness of the control system consistently. In addition, it will contribute to the automation of the control process and, what is more, it will minimize the risk of error which naturally increases when the control is conducted by employees without the use of such tools as the barcode.

In actuality, I am very concerned with the work on this project because it opens huge prospects for the company and for me in person. In fact, I expect that I could work on the project successfully not only because I am eager to get a promotion and expand my professional duties and functions but also because I am really eager to implement my ideas concerning this project. I was always interested in the introduction of effective control systems and my vision of an ideal control system is a fully automated control system with a minimal participation and control from the part of humans. Such systems will improve the quality and effectiveness of work. At the same time, by now, I have an extensive experience of work at Vinanvit Co. and I have expanded my professional knowledge and I have improved my professional skills and abilities. This is why I believe that, as a professional, I am ready to participate in the project. Naturally, I understand that this project will be a great challenge for me but, in the course of my internship at Vinanvit Co., I have learned how to work in a team. Therefore, I am certain in my professional skills, abilities and knowledge and my effective work in a team on the project.



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