In this blog, I, Fatima Farooq a final year Computer Engineering student at AURAK will be discussing my learning experiences, projects, tasks undertaken, challenges and suggestions of my 8-week internship at Suhail Smart Solutions.

I would like to begin this by a huge heartfelt gratitude towards my site supervisor Mr. Engr. Abdulrahman, a software engineer at Suhail Smart Solutions and AURAK who have given me a surreal opportunity to explore the practicality of the field of computer science and most importantly software like web development. Due to Mr. Abdulrahman's consistency in training and task assignment, I was able to acheive more than I would expect as discussed below. Moreover, his ability to listen to our problems and find solutions immediately is a key managerial trait along with daily feedback with constructive criticism where required.

The projects that I undertook included podcast shooting, which was a turning point for my confidence and all that AURAK has taught me. Again I am really grateful to CMC for providing me with an opportunity to voice my thoughts and raise awareness to a wider audience. The integration of Arabic subtitles allows a greater reach. I had clear messages to convey and I was able to explain even more. The sensation of being on camera knowing that one controversial statement of mine could land me in hot waters. Along with podcast shooting, I also took up editing it. I learnt the hard way that podcast editing places more emphasis on audio rather than the video itself. The audio must be enchanced in such a way that it is free from echo and background noise so that the user is able to feel the audio “calming” effect. For that I utilized Audacity, Auphonic and Adobe Podcast AI to normalize the loudness and equalize it. As for video editing, I used CapCut Pro to apply appropriate transitions between sereval tracks and synchronize them.

Another project I did was web development as a back-end developer. I am really happy to learn this highly sought after skill by employers in demand and thankful to Abdulrahman for trusting me with this task. We used PHP and MySQL in Laravel framework as a whole seperate course, additionally for which a certificate will be given – another achievement. I enjoyed applying validation rules and possible debugging errors. I also took up book content creation, for which I produced five chapters: namely chapter 16: IT Project Management, chapter 17: Ethics, Legal and Social Issues in IT, chapter 18: Emerging & Disruptive Technologies, chapter 19: IT Service Management & Best Practices, chapter 20: Future Trends & Research Directions.

Some of our everyday tasks included publishing articles on Salem Bookshop, attending workshops on sustainability, website analysis, CMC visits and lectures, giving presentations, producing everyday reports on LaTex and workshops on HTML, Python, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL.

Although the internship was as smooth as it was, one of the major challenges I faced was language barrier. The lectures and projects were mainly delivered in Arabic. However, that was compensated by the inclusion of graphics like images, textbook content and codes which assisted my understanding. Another challenge was the distribution of work across the weeks so that in the end we were struggling to cope up with the deadline due to inefficient planning.

I would suggest an integration of a web development and an app development course in the majors of CE,CS and AI at AURAK. These highly sought after skills are a boon to the graduates' resume. In addition, there could be a collaboration between AURAKxSuhail, where they could plan out the full 8-week course plan for interns to benefit at maximum.

I would like to conclude this blog, with a huge thank you to Mr. Engr. Abdulrahman, Suhail Smart Solutions, CMC and AURAK, for enabling me to acheive this opportunity at full potential and equipping me with relevant skills for future endeavors.