Clayton Dickemann – Professional Statement – Purdue University
School of Electrical and Comptuer Engineering – BSCmpE 2012
Throughout my years at Purdue University, I have undergone a transformation from a shy and nervous incoming freshman to a confident, intellectual engineer. Thanks to the education given to me by Purdue and also my unique experiences, I have made numerous improvements within myself during this time.
On the education side, I have gone through the difficult and in-depth computer engineering program here at Purdue. Rated one of the top engineering schools in the nation, it has imparted onto me many skills. One of the courses that has taught me the most was ASIC Design Laboratory. In this class, I underwent a team oriented design project in which we went through every part of the formal design process, from idea conception to design proposal to creating the design to presenting the design. This course helped bring me into a position of my own as a team leader and go through extensive debugging stages. This project brought an incredible sense of satisfaction at the end when we were able to present a working project. Next, I decided to take a computer security class which altered my view of the modern internet world. In this class, I delved into everything from the modulo that allowed modern encryption to work to the current DNS system of the internet and its flaws. These learnings ignited a passion about the workings of the internet and its security, which lead me to my internship the following summer as website developer intern for CIO Services, LLC.
As an intern in a small company (approximately 10 people) with only 3 people working on the website side of the company, I was immediately thrown into how they created and maintained websites for clients. I learned 4 languages (PHP, CSS, HTML, Javascript) and a content manager system (Drupal) in about 2 weeks when the lead programmer left the company. I was suddenly the only person at the company with any real ability to program the websites and service requests for existing websites. This sudden immersion into the real world without any knowledgeable person around them could have been a scary and unwelcome sight to many. To me, this was the opportunity to come into a place of my own and show people what I could do. I was able to pick up an existing website project and familiarize myself with it. Then, I began meeting with the clients and our project manager to finalize all details for the website. At this point, I spent a couple weeks writing the website by myself and was able to finish the catalog pages layouts and the most of the inner workings for the clients. They were extremely pleased and gave me some constructive criticism that I used to improve the site. Unfortunately, the summer ran out before I had time to finish the project completely, but the exhilarating process of having to figure everything out on my own is something I will never forget.
Throughout my time, I have learned a wide variety of skills using C, Python, MATLAB, Linux, PHP, Drupal, CSS, HTML, Javascript, OrCAD, Mentor Graphics ModelSim, MIPS/Freescale Assembly, and Microsoft Office. My mix of skills plus my communication abilities, as seen through my management minor, offer me a unique opportunity in today's work force as a computer engineer which I am looking forward to immensely.
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