Perhaps the most spectacular part of a mentoring program cycle is the finale, when students present the projects they’ve developed for nearly a year at the Transylvanian Scientific Conference (ETDK) hosted in Cluj-Napoca for the 29th time. This year, our mentees and a young colleague of ours took all three places on the podium—and they did so in an extremely fierce competition.
Since 2011, supporting young people in their professional development has been a priority for the SOFTECH|Codespring team. The Codespring Mentoring Program welcomes, from their first year, IT students from Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureș who wish to complement their university studies with extracurricular activities, specialized courses, and professional networking to advance their studies and careers.
The Practical Benefits of a Mentoring Program
The most active part of the mentoring program is the summer internship, when students put what they’ve learned into practice by working in small groups to develop a project from concept to completion. They can, of course, present these projects at their final exams, and at academic conferences like ETDK, giving them a wide range of advantages.
Why is it worthwhile attending a student research conference like ETDK?
- These days, software development is not a solitary task. In parallel with coding and debugging, regular planning, discussion of ideas, daily meetings, project presentations, and pitching are essential parts of a developer’s job. Therefore, in addition to technical training, developing communication and presentation skills has also become crucial in this field.
- Teamwork – from the concept stage through organizing and assigning tasks – is a skill expected not only in IT projects but also in numerous other industries. This skill can be developed early on during student years and later supplemented with the skills needed in team leadership.
- Most of the projects developed during the summer internship are also presented at the final exam. However, a few weeks before the final presentation, ETDK provides students a great opportunity to do a test run. This is where IT students can present their projects to a professional jury without taking any risks and receive valuable feedback that they can incorporate into their theses before the final exam.
- Presenting your work in a professional circle, in front of teachers and company executives, and expanding your professional network right before entering the job market is an extremely useful and forward-thinking step. A strong performance could even serve as a letter of recommendation in the future.
During this cycle of the mentoring program, with the support of SOFTECH’s dedicated software developers, 13 students presented 8 projects in the first and second sections of ETDK’s “Innovative Information Technology Products and Applications” competition in the real sciences category. In addition, one of our young colleagues presented an outstanding project in the mathematics section.
Dominating the Podium
They achieved the following results at the student research conference:
- Mathematics Section: L. Miklós József – 2nd Prize + Qualification for OTDK
- Computer Science: Innovative Information Technology Products and Applications – Sections 1–2:
- 1st Prize + Qualification for OTDK: V. Áron, K. Kinga (professional coordinators: S. Csaba, B. Nándor, Ph.D. candidate, and software developer N. Kristóf-Bálint): Holistic Event Management System for the student organization “The Other Side of the Cube”
- 2nd Prize + Qualification for OTDK: A. Szilamér, P. Norbert (professional coordinators: S. Károly, software developers B. Levente and Sz. Tas): Beeper beekeeping management application
- 3rd prize + Qualification for OTDK: M. Tamás, K. Mátyás (professional coordinators: S. Csaba, B. Nándor, Ph.D. candidate, and software developers P. Kinga and K. Krisztián): PicPermit: Digital image licensing management system
- 3rd prize: Cz. Norbert-Levente, V. Norbert (professional coordinators: S. Károly, software developers B. Szabolcs and H. Hunor): Interactive healthcare journal and treatment tracking mobile application.
We are very proud of every participant in the ETDK, regardless of their ranking – as, according to jury members S. Csaba and S. Károly, this year’s field proved to be exceptionally strong. One of the contestants focused on cybersecurity, others wrote a web application to assist with PC assembly, while someone else built a microprogrammed processor or programmed a solution for smart home or intelligent parking. In a competition where the originality and market potential of an idea are considered just as much as the quality of the execution itself, it is positive feedback for our company that the panel of judges has declared the mentored “products” to be good and viable.
Expertise Behind the Mentoring
However, SOFTECH’s team doesn’t just help students in theory. Through their daily work, our colleagues have gained hands-on experience in using the latest technologies and programming solutions, and they continuously update their knowledge through ongoing training to meet today’s demands. This is how they themselves propose effective solutions to real-world problems. And although most of the work is ultimately the students’ own achievement, our colleagues – their mentors – are also responsible for them through constant supervision and professional guidance.
A particular benefit of the mentoring program is that a strong professional relationship develops between students and their mentors that extends beyond the summer internship. They continue to follow each other’s paths, and if a professional collaboration arises with the mentee, they can join forces as teammates – and later as mentors – to continue the collaboration.