University today means more than just earning a degree. It’s also about getting ready for the world of employment that awaits you after graduation.
Amdaris is constantly investing in the next generation of tech talent through its internships and mentoring programs, knowledge-sharing culture and partnerships with local universities. In this blog we look at how our team are supporting the careers of future developers throughout university and their internships.
Engineers of the future
Over the past year our colleagues from Moldova, Ion Gandrabura and Vasile Păpăluță, have mentored students in their second and third years of study at the Technical University of Moldova (TUM), Faculty of Computers, Engineering and Microelectronics, specializing in Software Engineering, applying Problem-Based Learning (PBL) techniques. PBL is a student-centred methodology in which students learn by working in groups to solve open-ended problems.
During their first semester, students were asked to participate in internships where they had to work as a team to carry out a web project, with each team member assigned a different task.
In their third year of study, students developed a secure application under the guidance of our mentors. Team meetings were organised periodically to help the students establish the architecture of their project and decide its future functionalities and features. Finally, the students presented their project in the exam and obtained grades per project and individually.
“For me, it was a great experience. I’ve mentored students for a couple of years and each team has its own specifics, so I try to find the right way to communicate with every person involved to make sure that the material is clear and accessible to them. Depending on their skills, we can decide which tasks are suitable for them to do their best and for their project to succeed.” Ion Gandrabura (Technical Architect at Amdaris and Mentor)
“It’s not the first time I’ve mentored someone, however, it’s the first time I’ve mentored a team and a project that must be secured from different types of threads. Being a Data Scientist, it was a little challenging for me to guide the team in building a secured application. However, my previous experience as a Project Manager and Team Lead helped me overcome any obstacles and ambiguities.” Vasile Păpăluță (Data Scientist at Amdaris and Mentor).
Developing a web application with Mentor Ion Gandrabura – Software Engineering, year two
The team developed a Construction Services Information Platform, named Construx, which is a web application that can help a user search for the best construction company and add its services to their construction/renovation plan.
The user can browse through the construction/renovation services and filter these based on price, city and reviews. Clients can leave reviews on a company’s page. Users are even able to develop their own construction plan and keep track of its progress.
“The last semester at TUM for our ‘Basics of Application Development’ course we practiced at Amdaris with Ion Gandrabura as our mentor. As we’re second-year students, we didn’t have much knowledge in this field, so we spent a lot of time doing online research, watching tutorials and reading documentation. I enjoyed this course because I learned new things and because my teammates were learning alongside me, and we had a very experienced mentor. I used the knowledge I gained during my internship at Amdaris and helped my team members so that they didn’t feel lost during the process.” Viorel Noroc (TUM student and Associate Software Developer at Amdaris).
Viorel Noroc has since joined Amdaris as an Associate Software Developer following his internship and whilst he continues his studies.
People Management application with Mentor Vasile Păpăluță – Software Engineering, years two and three
The team developed an application for People Management with a focus on calculating HR metrics. HR or Admin can add employees, training, meetings, turnovers etc. Employees also have an option to log their working hours. The application automatically generates the following metrics based on the data entered by HR and the employee:
- Absenteeism
- Replacement Cost
- Training Cost
- Separation Cost
The third year of study Problem-Based Learning topic was Secure Application Development. During the course, the students studied security threads protection: SQL Injections, Cross-site Request Forgery, Cross-site scripting and DDoS Attack.
Among the students who attended the course were two of our colleagues, Daniela Mazur and Vladimir Chim, who were both students at TUM. They too joined us after successfully passing our internship program and are now Associate Software Developers at Amdaris.
“Having the opportunity to collaborate with Vasile was a great experience as he was always actively involved and taking care of the organisational process. He helped us to evaluate our strengths so that we could split and share the tasks accordingly and each learn as much as possible from this experience.” Daniela Mazur (TUM student and Associate Software Developer at Amdaris).
“This was a very useful course for me. I discovered new programming methods and gained experience that will help me to develop further. I hope to have the opportunity to participate in other courses from this wonderful mentor in the future.” Vladimir Chim (TUM student and Associate Software Developer at Amdaris).
Creating a secure real-time messaging tool with Mentor Ion Gandrabura- Software Engineering, year three
The team has developed a web app called Foxy Messenger, which provides a secure real-time messaging tool where users can chat with each other or create different rooms and add more users to conversations. All the chats and conversations are encrypted. The application was developed in the Go language using Web APIs.
“This project was really interesting to me because I studied security and was able to use this knowledge. I felt confident because we had great mentors, both from the university and from Amdaris. The experience I gained during my internship at Amdaris helped me to develop the project faster and to aid my colleagues whenever they were facing difficulties.” Eugeniu Chetrar (TUM student and Associate Software Developer at Amdaris)
Eugeniu Chetrar has also joined Amdaris as an Associate Software Developer following his internship and whilst he continues his studies.
Given the current demand for skilled software engineers is extremely high and still rising, this is a great time to continue learning. Our interns are the future, they will develop innovations and become the next leaders. This is why we invest in our interns with regular opportunities across our centres in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.
Get started while you’re still studying: Great internships with a wide range of tasks and opportunities await you at Amdaris.