Over time we gain some experiences from previous projects and feedback from graduated students and employers in industry. In this section we present some discussions based on these experiences. Please feel free to contribute/comment.

Requirements from industry

The (EEE499) graduation project, provides the student with an opportunity to develop skills that are vital for successful employment in industry.

Self motivation
You will find that your progress during the project will depend mainly on your motivation. Self motivation will allow you to focus and enjoy working long hours on your subject. You will find this works the same for projects in industry. Try to motivate yourself - avoid distractions.

Team work
You are probably working with at least one other person on your project. This is always the case in industry as significant tasks can only be performed within a team of people with various skills. While working in a group has obvious advantages (e.g. greater productivity, more skills and experience) it does however require you to develop team-work skills (communication, sharing ideas, allocating load fairly/effectively, making compromises, dealing fairly and effectively with disputes). Think carefully about team-work, develop your skills; you should find your experience a useful start for working in industry.

Sourcing information
Most of your graduation project will involve learning new information and skills. Your supervisor may provide only a fraction of what you need. For the remaining you will need to read papers/books/Internet, have discussions with experts and so on. Performing independent searches for information is a vital process in both your graduation project and in industry.

English
The Engineering community extends world wide and uses English as a common language. Most of your knowledge will be taken from this world-wide community, and in industry you would be hoping to sell your products to that community. In industry you may be collaborating with engineers from other countries, you may be required to write reports/manuals (in English), and so on. During your graduation project please take advantage of the requirements to write a report and presentations in English, the experience will be valuable to you. Your supervisor has many years experience in writing and presenting in English so please seek and take note of her advice at every opportunity especailly during the drafting of your report.

Embedded software
As an electrical/electronic engineer in industry, it will be common for you to be working with embedded software (even if it is not your main duty). You need to be at least familiar with the basic concepts. Many graduation projects incorporate PIC and require some embedded programming. Please use this opportunity to learn about embedded programming as much as you can, it will not only help you in your project but also provide you with a good start on the learning curve in industry.

Practical skills
Industry is looking for potential employees with good practical skills. While the department does provide you with such skills via laboratory courses etc, you need to take this experience much further. The graduation project provides you with an opportunity to focus on a specific practical problem which will be more challenging than a typical laboratory task. Please use this opportunity to develop your practical skills - remember that you will most likely be referring to your project work in your CV and interview with an employer so make the best of this opportunity.

Design
To reach your potential as an engineer, you would ideally be involved in tasks that require you to design electric/electronic/software systems. If you look back over your undergraduate courses you should see that the department has been preparing you for such tasks. All graduation projects have a strong design component to them and so provide you with an opportunity to prove that you can apply what you have learned. Design is an important skill your employer will be looking for, so please make the best of this opportunity to improve your design skills.