Hey Anup! Can you come judge some student projects at UBC?

Teaching Assistant @ UBC

I was asked to come judge student projects at UBC, by my colleague who was a teaching assistant at the school.

I felt honoured to have been asked!

Alongside 2 other judges, I evaluated the project presentations against the following rubric:

1. Project demo is smooth, informative, succinct, and impressive.
2. Project is complete, well-rounded, and displays a strong grasp of the tech in a full-stack web app.
3. Group is able to intelligently answer questions about tech and design decisions.

It was great interacting with the students; they had put so much time into their projects.

Some of them were very impressive and had business potential for market fit and profitability; In other words, knowing how to make money from what they had built.

After the event I left the following feedback.

As a Lead Engineer, I look for personalities that promote healthy working relationships and I value that over skills.

I feel that coding standards can be learnt on the job and architecture/design can only really be learned through experience.

For me, a student that demonstrates an appetite for life long learning would usually be more valuable than say a student that knew a tech stack inside out (Unless that was the business requirement for the vacancy).

Usually though, a Co-op that has the flexibility to pivot from what they have learned to learning something new is the first break in process I have found in the past.

If they can make it through that without too much turbulence then we are usually in good standing to make a progressive future.

Anup Saund 2019

The teachers gave me the following feedback…

Anup, thank you so much for sharing your insight! I was wondering if I could share one of your paragraphs with the students. From “As a Lead Engineer,..” to “…make a progressive future.” I think it would be so inspiring for the students to hear that! Especially since this course has a huge focus on non-technical skills.

UBC teachers

Round up

Once upon a time, I had help and support from leaders in Industry helping me become a well rounded, collaborative, individual contributor in society.

I felt honoured to be in a position to pay back that kindness to the next generations. One day in the future these fine UBC students will be building systems for us and our own children! That has to be a worthwhile investment.

Thank you University of British Columbia and all the teachers and non faculty staff working hard each and every day to support our future.

Event: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/event/2019/08/web-design-project-showcase-ubc-cpsc-436i

Showcase: http://cpsc436i.herokuapp.com/

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash