Code is never finished.

Towards the second half of my internship, I extended my working hours. I knew that if I don’t, I’ll never be able to achieve anything in the end. Now the day had come that I have officially finished my internship. My code still have a lot of bugs and holes. My triumph had failed me.

AESTE is at the level that will not be fully understood by anyone. Many of my course-mates are skeptical on the future of AESTE. Before I even started in AESTE they said, what use is the fastest multi-threaded 32-bits when others have already multi-core 64-bits. Even after my internship, when I presented on my internship to my lecturer, who is also expert in this field, is shocked.

Why would my supervisor pay thousands, every month, to develop open source projects just to let others to download for free (and would not directly generate revenue from)? However, I believe in the master-mind behind this and am convinced that there are good reasons for this.

Being in AESTE is like being in a samurai dojo where you learn samurai arts from a grandmaster (sorry that I may have made my supervisor sounds so old here). The only differences are samurai training uses their physical strength and their wooden sword, while in AESTE, we use our mental power and a huge-screen Linux computer.

From the very first day, I was told to hit the ground running. I was so lost that I was “swimming” around at the same spot. I still remember clearly that my supervisor told me to use my brain, have a clear objective for everything that I do by reflecting multiple levels of why questions (although this may sound redundant for most people, but this is useful at least for my case, in dealing with something that is very new to me). 

During my final days in  AESTE, when I am struggling with my project, my supervisor gave me an important insight on my under-performance. He explained that the key ingredient for any endeavor to be fruitful is to integrate our own heart and soul into whatever that we are doing. Determination is important, but by itself is not enough. This is the first time I learn that hard work will not guarantee success, but laziness guarantees failure.

Besides, I have also learn a lot from other interns. They, in my opinion, are not anyone you can meet next door. Everyone of them has their own capability. I am inspired by their working attitude, their passion, their selflessness. Although they are new in programming, they demonstrated good enthusiasm in their project.

Computer is the centre of technology. Its use will become more and more important. The ability to have good use of computers is crucial in the field that I planned to venture into. Although I understand that I have a lot more to learn, but I am very grateful that AESTE exposed me to the essence of being good in computing, or is this only part of the great story?

In an email from my supervisor, he mentioned that code will never be finished. Although my official internship duration is over, but I will not treat that this is the end until I have produced a technical paper. Producing a technical paper now will not only be useful in my future endeavors, but it is something symbolic that I have contributed something to AESTE, and have not wasted my time here.

AESTE have exciting projects ahead!

Come join this world class engineering centre in AESTE!!