Summer Academy 2020
Seven participants and one task: create a track-and-trace application for the shipment management system. Our annual Summer Academy has started.
Metapack Summer Academy
Let us remind you that our Academy is an annual initiative organized with IT students in mind. Anyone who has the status of a student and wants to prepare for a future job in an IT company can apply.
One of the goals of Summer Academy is to prepare students to work in a business environment. This means that we set them tasks that they can meet while working professionally. We also select for them a list of technologies, the mastery of which helps to achieve their goal. In the future, it may turn out to be an asset on the labor market.
We do this for students, but when organizing Summer Academy, we also have our own internal goal, which Wiktor from the HR department describes:
“The Academy is also an opportunity to meet new, young talents. As in any business, recruitment occurs, sometimes at the least expected moment and then we are always eager to establish contact with people with whom we have already worked and with whom we have worked well."
Wiktor Janus
Talent Acquisition Specialist
Therefore, students can not only learn the technology and verify their knowledge in practice. They can also get to know Metapack from the inside and work with us in the near or distant future.
Even more realistic
We always set a challenge for students, being aware of the time pressure that weighs on participants, who take part in our classes only for a month. However, the time is always a scarce commodity for any Software Engineer and this year we decided to put even more emphasis on the most realistic recreation of the business reality.
“We wanted it to be as realistic as possible. For this reason, we have created a standard backlog, students complete the tasks defined by us in Jira. We also define acceptance criteria there, i.e. elements that must be completed in order for the task to be considered complete. This includes the so-called 'change requests', that is, suddenly a Product Owner appears and says that something needs to be changed, because the customer doesn't like it."
Cezary Hensel
Software Engineer from the Dragons team
The race against time, customer comments, the need to master the tools are challenges that the participants of this year’s edition have already faced several times. Everyone has one goal in mind, which is to get the job done, and to do the best.
Application for tracking shipments
What exactly are the participants expected to do this year? The task is explained by Michał, a second-year student of Computer Science at the University of Zielona Góra:
“We have a track-and-trace application to write which, after entering the order number, shows the current status of the shipment. It should show what happened to the package that we will receive: when it was picked up by the courier, when it is delivered to us. Such a comprehensive application for package tracking."
Michał
a second-year student of Computer Science at the University of Zielona Góra
We asked the students about their impressions exactly two weeks after the start of work, that is when they were to present the first demo showing the application’s operation. What were their observations?
"Everyone managed to achieve the goals, there are some shortcomings due to time, because there is a limited amount of it, but it all looks well."
Michał
a second-year student of Computer Science at the University of Zielona Góra
“As it happens during work of a programmer, there are bugs that need to be eliminated, but I think it's a matter of time. The application itself is a really cool challenge for me and I think it turned out very well."
Dominik
4th year student of Computer Science
There is still some work ahead of the students, but as the mentors reveal – there is considerable potential in young people and there is no doubt that the participants will be able to achieve the objectives of the Academy.
And how did the students themselves rate their participation in the Summer Academy at the halfway point of the project?
“After two weeks, I have a very positive impression because we use technologies that I like and that I would like to use. This is definitely a big advantage - that these are new technologies and this is also the way the industry is heading."
Wiktor
4th year student of Computer Science
“I have already acquired significant knowledge during these two weeks. The Academy is focused on preparing us for work. All the information we receive is important and, in my case, very useful. I think they will also be important for me in my future work,"
Dominik
4th year student of Computer Science
About the effects of the work of students from the Faculty Information Technology, Electrical Engineering and Automation of the University of Zielona Góra we will inform you after the end of the Academy. Follow our Facebook profile Poznaj Metapack to make sure you don’t miss anything.
