WIMTACH Student Profile: Subarna Bijaya Khadka

A recent graduate of the Software Engineering program at Centennial College, Subarna Bijaya Khadka fondly remembers his internship opportunity at WIMTACH and how the combined education from Centennial College and WIMTACH, was game changing for his development. “[From WIMTACH], I learned how teams work in the real industry, for hard skills we have assignments and classes but I was not aware of how things were … so I learned those industry skills,” he said.

Over the course of a year-long internship which began in early 2020, Subarna gained invaluable hard and soft skills from his Front-end development role as a Student Researcher. Among the many technical skills that he’s amassed he gained a better understanding about how to present in daily stand-ups, how to use different tools, gather requirements and also, convert those requirements into a finished application. “We do some reviews of our friends work so … I learned different best practices from my own friends,” he said.

WIMTACH enabled Subarna to get the satisfaction of contributing to several applied research projects for companies that would implement his code into professional business processes. He was involved in the development of a TNMG application, as well as an EMR project. With his involvement with each new project, Subarna was able to attain something different, varying from an additional understanding of a new programming tool or a new software development skill all together. In particular, his contribution towards a project collaboration between WIMTACH and Xello Inc., gave him the chance to learn from veteran software developers from the Xello Inc. team. “I had a chance to work with the real software engineers who are working in the software industry so from then I had an opportunity to upgrade my skills,” he said.

As a result of his involvement with the Xello Inc. project, Subarna concluded the project with a better understanding of the skills to transform user requirements into a software product, UI development skills, and a familiarity with working with the code from other developers. “When I first joined Xello in my co-op, I was quite reluctant to read other people’s code but now I’m comfortable. I think this is one of the biggest skills that every software engineer should have,” he said. “I value the experience in a unique way.”

More, for Subarna, another important and key feature of his WIMTACH internship was the space given to him and other Student Researchers to make mistakes and improve accordingly. He found that going through the process of trial and error boosted his confidence in ways that will make him resilient when faced with any software engineering challenge. “I had a chance to make a lot of mistakes during my experience at WIMTACH and now I know what are the areas that I might make a mistake and the ways that I can correct myself so I am pretty much ready for any software development job,” he said.

In fact, when Subarna first started at WIMTACH he was not aware of the industry’s best practices and framework. This led to some errors in his work but over the course of several months, and with guidance from his teammates, he was able to improve. “I remember doing lots of bad practices and lots of minor errors while I was working on my project. From my friends and from [WIMTACH research leads] and Asad, I had an opportunity to correct myself during my experience at WIMTACH,” he confessed. “Now I’m not going to do that in my industry and I think that will help me to be a step higher than those who aren’t doing co-op.”

Looking back at the collaborative environment at WIMTACH, Subarna appreciates the opportunity to learn amongst a team of students who were also at a similar juncture in their skill and knowledge level. Ultimately, he found that working in conjunction with other Centennial College students helped him to fast-track his learning. “It’s a very friendly working environment at WIMTACH,” he said. “Since we’re all students we have similar types of situations and we share our class experience as well as we transfer knowledge related to our projects also. It’s quite a friendly team.”

With the end of his studies at Centennial College and the completion of his tenure at WIMTACH, he is now looking towards his future. Upon reflection, he knows that he can handle any Front-end development role and he is eager to become a stronger developer. In five years, Subarna hopes to become a major contributor in any Software Engineering team. “Sooner or later I will get a good role in the industry,” he said. “I am confident about it.”

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