Esk

In about a month’s time I will graduate as Claire Q, MEng Software Engineering. Up until this point, I have felt that title to be mostly inappropriate. The parts of Computer Science which I have found most interesting have always been the more theoretical, conceptual or scientific bits, to the extent that I had assumed I was no good at the actual engineering and presumed I was simply so able at examinations that I had passed the relevant modules on that strength alone.

However, I currently have 2 jobs that are highly software engineering involved. Both are in academic departments, but in both cases I have been brought in as the “coding familiar” party to a more research-based set of colleagues. Finally, I have found use for all those modules that didn’t interest me much at the time.

As it turns out, I’m actually good at this. I know how to avoid security holes, how network layer interaction happens, how to properly specify, design, implement, test and maintain software, how client-server architecture works, how to design a database, how to implement many software design and architecture patterns, how to use a programming reference book, how to plan a project and use an established development process… And what’s better, is that I have actually applied this knowledge to real-world, used systems.

What’s worse is that I’m starting to find engineering interesting for its own sake. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always considered it useful, and certainly more important than science in the short-to-medium term, it’s just that I never really wanted to do it myself, until now.

My dissertation was very research heavy, and that has taught me a lot about how my PhD “understanding the beauty of music through machine learning computation” is going to be. I really do enjoy research and I expect it will be interesting and fulfilling. It’s just that lately, just sometimes, fully controllable, you understand, I have this urge to create a really well designed and documented program that will be truly useful to actual people in my lifetime. I know, I know. I try to keep these wrong thoughts at bay, and strive for the purity and safety of theoretical discovery. It seems, though, that despite my best efforts to ignore them, the principles and practices of software engineering have imprinted themselves in my brain. I can delude myself no longer.

Since high school I have considered myself a scientist. Today I am proud to say I am also an engineer.