BAKER COLLEGE
1050 W. BRISTOL ROAD
FLINT, MICHIGAN
MARCH 12, 2003

INTRODUCTION
Baker College is a private, nonprofit institution of higher education. The college has been providing quality education since 1911. It has grown into numerous ground campus locations throughout the state of Michigan, and includes a highly successful online curriculum. The Technology Center at the Flint campus of Baker College is where I served as an intern. I worked with Dean Riddell, the head of engineering and computer information systems, and with lead intern Darren Coleman.
Baker College has approximately 3,000 PCs, about ¾ of which are used in classrooms. They have over 50 PC classrooms, averaging 24 machines per room. The intern program that Baker College has assembled serves as a technical support group for the Technology Center of the Flint campus. We work to maintain the functionality of the computer labs for courses offered at the Technology Center. Aside from providing hardware and software maintenance to the Technology Center, I was specifically assigned to a specially formed robotics design team. Our primary duty was to construct a robot to be used in competition against other colleges and universities.
The college fits into the local economy by providing skilled, educated workers to the local area. The University of Michigan, Kettering University, and Davenport are three competitors located in Flint. The University of Phoenix Online is Baker College's main competition for online enrollment on a national level. When the international economy declines, more workers come to Baker College to be retrained. This makes education a more recession proof industry than others.
JOB ANALYSIS
The primary responsibility of my internship was to write the computer program that would allow the finished robot to function properly. The robot must function independently for fifteen seconds during the competition. Programming the robot's actions for this autonomous mode was my responsibility. I was also required to complete two additional projects to partially fulfill the requirements of my work experience project. These other projects gave me the opportunity to create my own learning experiences.
I decided to create a web site to showcase the projects that I worked on during my internship. The address of this web site is: www.vrmlstudent.50megs.com (a free web hosting site). There you can see pictures of the robot, view the source code of the programs I wrote, and see the second and third projects. For the second project I elected to rebuild an old 200 MHz computer into a working machine. The third project involved the backup and recovery of a computer's hard drive contents.
Varied pieces of technology were used to perform the tasks to which I was assigned. Programming the robot required a piece of software known as the BASIC Stamp Editor. As the BASIC Stamp Editor is software, also needed was a computer to program the software with. To this end, I installed the Stamp Editor software on my own Toshiba laptop. I also installed the Windows XPâ„¢ operating system and the BASIC Stamp Editor on a computer in the robotics work area.
Darren provided me with a steady stream of computers that needed repairs. Most of the computers needed device drivers installed to support hardware that was present but not usable. Some of the computer repairs that I performed required the replacement of common computer components; sound cards, RAM sticks, drives, cables, etc. When a computer needed software installed such as an operating system or device driver, I often performed the installation. The second project, rebuilding a computer, required the use of the hardware components needed to make a properly functioning computer. My third project of backing up and recovering data from a hard drive's contents required a piece of software known as Norton Ghostâ„¢, a CD-burner, blank CDs, and the hard drives to be used in the data recovery process.
RELEVANT COURSES
There are several college courses that have been helpful during the past quarter as an intern. Designing the program for the robot required a previous knowledge about computer programming. There are twelve computer courses that I have completed, totaling 40 credits, that make up the bulk of my computer related knowledge. The programming courses that I have completed definitely came into use. The programming classes that I have taken thus far have been: COBOL, RPG IV, Advanced RPG IV, Visual BASIC, and Visual C++. Having this previous education helped lay a good foundation for working in the Technology Center.
The final course needed to complete my degree is Advanced C++ programming. This is another computer programming course and could have been useful in programming the robot. Another course in BASIC programming would have been useful as the robot was programmed using a programming language called PBASIC, a scaled down version of BASIC. A course in the basics of robotics would also have been extremely useful as I had a lot of material to read in order to grasp the concepts involved in robotics programming.
HUMAN RELATIONS
The robotics competition involved the volunteer efforts of high school students from the local area. This gave the students an opportunity to experience some of what Baker College has to offer. That experience may be a decisive factor for some of those students when they are choosing which college they will enroll in. The fact that the robot will be involved in a competition that involves other colleges and universities helps reinforce the concept that Baker College is a competitive rival with these other institutions. Essentially the robotics competition becomes a public relations forum whereas the school may recruit potential students from the high schools involved with the development of the robot, and the school may achieve recognition through competition.
Courses that a student takes are an educational experience where the outcome of the lessons is a student having a knowledge of the course material. Grading reflects the aptitude of the student to work with the material. Passing, or failing, indicate whether the student has successfully obtained enough of that knowledge to continue on. As an employee, success or failure have meaningful realized effects. The success of your project becomes more of a pass or fail effort. Employees are not failed, they are fired!
PERSONAL REACTION TO THE WORK EXPERIENCE
This work experience has helped my own personal growth toward a career by providing me with a viable career option, robotics programming. It also placed me four credits closer to graduation, provided me with an interesting line on my resume, and allowed me to make contacts that may prove useful in the future. I found the work to be interesting as it gave me a hands-on chance to work with computers and robotics. I enjoyed the opportunity to take broken computers and make them function properly. It is rewarding to see the results of your work as a tangible, functioning piece of machinery. The main project became easier to accomplish as the term progressed because I became more familiar with the principles of robotics. Reading the materials provided by the manufacturer of the robot's control unit provided me with the working knowledge that was necessary to program the robot.
The work experience that I gained from Baker College is highly relevant to my course of study. Robotics programming gives a solid example of an application of computer programming. Repairing computers allowed me to experiment with hardware and learn the practical applications of much of the studying that I have done at Baker College. Practicing data backup and recovery gave me a chance to apply knowledge that I knew only in theory and now have a first hand experience of performing. Working as a robotics intern definitely provided experience related to the study of computer science.
This experience has given me a new area of interest. Except for science fiction stories I had little prior knowledge of robotics. Helping with the creation of a robot has given me some understanding about the reality of the science behind robotics. Working with a robot has sparked a new interest in a potential hobby, I hope to someday build a functioning replica of R2-D2. I can now approach such a hobby with much more insight into the concepts of how a robot actually works.
In conclusion, I believe that working as the robotics intern at Baker College has provided me with an incredible learning experience. I will soon be able to pursue the field of robotics as not only a hobby, but also as a potential career. I am leaving the program with both a renewed confidence in my choice to study computer science, and a clearer understanding of how these studies will be applied toward a future career. I would like to thank Baker College and Dean Riddell for offering me such an opportunity.