Hashim Al Lawati

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Graduation date: Fall 2017

Hometown: Muscat, Oman

What kind of projects (or project) did you work on?

Third Wave Systems is a software company that sells machining-related FEA software packages. I was a part of the product quality team, and worked on a variety of projects during my time there. The projects included new feature testing, bug reporting, and FEA results verification. I also worked on automating some software testing and verification tasks that are currently being done manually.

What are some of your specific tasks that pertained to the project?

Different projects had different tasks associated with them. As an example, for the FEA results verification project, I was in charge of verifying the heat conduction calculations performed by the software. Similarly, for the new feature testing project, one of my roles was to find a way of quantifying the impact the new feature had on the time needed to run an FEA simulation.

What did you accomplish in your co-op?

Some of the automated software tests I implemented have been added to the release criteria, which means that any new release of the software will have to pass them before getting to the customers. Also, the verification calculations I worked on will be released to the customers to boost their trust and confidence in the results the software gives.

How did the co-op prepare you for your full time job of next step in your career?

I am still a student. However, the co-op helped me get an idea of the different tasks that engineers have to perform. This helped me choose my technical elective courses, and will help me in choosing a career path after graduation.

How did the writing assignments help you in your career?

The writing assignments helped me reflect on my experiences and look at them from a different perspective.

What are your future plans?

It is very likely that I will choose to work at the company that I did my co-op through.