Self reflection

Self reflection

    Last ppd session was very important for all of us. It was very interesting session because, there was a very interesting topic for the day. It was "Self Reflection".
    At first, Sarasi madam asked about the extra curricular activities that we are doing in the university, other than our academic things. But, most of us were very weak in extra curricular activities. Then she explained about the importance of doing extra curricular activities.
    The topic was the day was self reflection and she delivered the session on the topic of self reflection. And I got a lot of things to my life during the session.

    "Reflection" means thinking about something and "Self Reflection" means thinking of yourself and it is a very important term. Sarasi madam explained it very well. She told some examples as well that she got in her life. We can judge ourselves and be good character. WE can judge our own qualities. Self reflection is like looking into a mirror. The most important thing is our character in the society. If we have good qualities, the society will identify us as good persons.

    When we think about self reflection, there are some factors that we have to think about. The most important things are strengths and weaknesses. We must identify our strengths and weaknesses and we shouldn't afraid to the challenges that we meet. Every time we should be very strong and should take right decisions. Other than that we have to identify our skills and improve our own skills. Some times there can be hidden skills that we couldn't identify ever. We have to improve such skills.
    There can be lot of problems in our lives that we face. We should face those problems strongly and think about the solutions wisely. And we have to face lot of challenges as well. We should have a strong mind to face those problems and challenges. Always be yourself and be kindhearted. If you are a person that can get the pain of other peoples', you are a great character for the society. Be a man that lives forever in others' heart even after your death. People will hold your good qualities forever. Somehow I got a new lesson to my life through the session. At last, what I want to say is that "be yourself" and be a great character in the society.

Find the expert level & Thread and pen

Find the Expert Level

In last PPD session Miss.Sarasi has instructed the class to engage in a new activity which has been very interesting. Unfortunately I was unable to attend.

On that day Miss. Sarasi has divided the class in to 4 groups and has asked to pick 3 areas that the group members are specialized in. Then come up with an innovative product which can be implemented with those specialized 3 areas.

When we work it is really difficult to find people with same ideas, same talents etc. We should have the ability to manage the abilities according to the need. It is really essential when we become professionals and perform as a team.

Our teams have come up with many ideas and presented it.

Team 1
       Areas: Handmade things, Bike riding, Reading
       Product: Eye glass cover

Team 2
      Areas: Taekwondo, Painting, Gaming
      Product: Taekwondo video game

Team 3
      Areas: Gaming, Chess, Painting
      Product: Chess video game

Team 4
       Areas: Cricket, Painting, Gamimg
       Product: Cricket video game

This activity can guide us to practice think beyond the box and make new products.

The next game was Thread and Pen. It was also a different kind of game and we were seated in the same groups, that we separated earlier for Expert Game. Now what madam did was, she gave us a paper, pen, Thread and a Selotape. Now what we asked to do is we want to plan a strategy and wrote down the word "Viper" on the paper without touching the pen and the paper with the use of Thread and the Selotape. Luckily all the teams were managed to do that work correctly. From both of the games we learnt how to work as a team, how to manage given resources.
Thank You.

Visit to WSO2

Technical writing

On the 12th  of September us, the 2nd year batch of software engineering degree program visited WSO2 company which is one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. It is kind of a dream  that most of the software engineers has to work in WSO2. It was a good experience to start our new semester.

At the entrance we were given a very nice note book and a pen. What I first notice at there was they were well prepared and has organized every thing before hand. We went there at 8.30 am because we wanted to give them a good impression on Software Engineering students in Kelaniya University as it was our first workshop at WSO2.

In the first session they gave us an introduction about what the technical writing is. It is kind of a very interesting job. Though it calls as technical writing, a technical writer has do writing only about 5% from their total job. All other things deal with requirement gathering, study about the product etc. There are lots of job positions associated with the technical writing.

 A user manual should be in a very simple manner with clear and correct language which should help the user to understand the product and product functionalities. To attract a customer it is really important to have a good user manual. A technical writer has to think in user perspective and compose the document. A technical writer should posses a good writing skills with clean and clear language and with the ability to quickly learn and deals with new technologies. It is really challenging thing to learn about new technologies, new products etc.

 We learnt about some grammar parts in English which we ignore most of the times. It is really important use the correct words at correct places. A single full stop can change a meaning of a sentence upside down.

Most of the times workshops get boring with the time. But the technical writing crew at WSO2 did some games associated with the workshop which everyone actively and happily participated. The winners were given very attractive gifts like t-shirts and chocolates. And also they provided us with refreshments.

This workshop showed me some new areas which I should improve in myself. It is okay, we can write in English, can deals with subject verb object. But it it hard to become a professional in writing. We have to read a lot. We have to write a lot. Blogging will help us to improve our language.

As under graduates it is essential to learn about the industry. By having workshops in companies, industry visits it makes us to adapt to the professional background. Those places were really clean and all the works were done on time. The WSO2 crew was really friendly which showed the ares that we need to improve to become a professional.

Facing an interview

Facing an Interview

In our last ppd session we had a nice experience. In there, we all faced to a small interview which was conducted by our own friends.

We were asked to follow what we learnt from interview ppd sessions. We walked with confidence, kept a smile on our face, answered what our friends asked. At that moment we really thought about job positions about our strengths, weaknesses . So from that we realize what are the things that we want to improve as well as to do to show our strengths in an interview. In some occasions we forgot to keep eye contacts. Sometimes forgot to rearrange the chair when we got up. Forgot to say thank you.

Most of us made simple mistakes during our interviews. May be it is because we have very little experience. In some cases, that was the first time in an interview.
Experience gives us many things to learn and realize. So it is very much important to practice the procedure of an interview with a friend until you are confident.



                              Cakes....

Can You cut a cake in to 8 pieces only with three cuts.

Miss. Sarasi has grouped our friends and has given a small piece of cake. Then she has asked above task. Only 1 minute has been given to do that. All the groups have imaginary  tried it in different ways. But only one group has won the task.

The way that has to do it is vertically cut the cake into 4 pieces using 2 cuts and one horizontal cut.
 We should think before dong somethings. In some cases we can have a trial. But some occasions we have to try at once. We must think creatively.

How to face interview

HOW TO FACE INTERVIEW

How to face an Interview
On 22nd of June In our PPD session we learnt a very important thing.

That is "How to face an Interview". From the beginning i thought it is not that much important, but later i got to know it is the best session to learn. So i share something about interview which i have in my memory.

Before enter the interview


1. Search well about that company
2. Prepare to answer common Questions.
3. Prepare to ask two Questions
4. Practice with your friend
5. Understand why you are the most individual to select
6. Organize certificates
7. Dress Professionally
8. Arrive 10 minutes before


After Enter the Interview
1. Shake Hands Strongly
2. Don't share too much personal things
3.Thank the interviewer
4. Back the chair where was it


Finally our madam told us to ready to face skype interview also

Story Chain

 we did our 2nd second activity and it was a group activity.

This time we separated into three groups and we are the group number three.


Our Group Members:



Suthesana

Prasanth

Aashik

Chamod

Karshan




What happened was we all turn back and the purpose of it that we can't see the white board and also we were strictly ordered that we can't talk to each other. Then madam got three permanent marker and gave a marker for each of the group and started the game. Then the person who had the marker ran to the white board and wrote a word and back to the place and gave the marker to the next person of the group. Then that guy ran and write another word but the challenge was it must have the continuation.  So like wise all of us ran and wrote a word and the game was to write a simple story within the time and every members of the group got 4 rounds and we are the first group who finished first.


After all the groups finished, madam started to read the stories that we wrote and it was quite funny and none of the groups finished perfectly.



Mistake that we made:


We all hurry to finish the game first but we didn't carefully read words that wrote earlier. So in our story there were two words that didn't matched and it was the reason that our story missed the continuity.


Lesson from the session:


Without any conversations / less of conversation  with our neighbors, it's very difficult to do a work even a small work, and if  we managed to do it, then it should not be a perfect one. So the healthy and meaning full conversation is very important between us.

Paper plane

Paper Plane

Group Members

·     Suthesana
·     Sakuna
·     Yashiru
·     Sivakajan
·     Chamod
·     Sehara
·     Sithara
·     Suthesana



Paper plane is the first work that we did in our PPD session in this year. All the students of our class were separated into two groups. There were eight members in our group. First madam gave our team to 6 blue papers and others to 6 yellow papers. The task was, we were asked to do as many planes as possible by using those papers. She gave 3 minutes time to make a plan and balance time to make planes, however 20 minutes we had to do the first task.



We took a new same size white paper and tested it by making a sample plane to determine the size of the plane. We decided to make 6 planes in each paper. Finally we made although 36 planes in 6 papers. Our opponent team made only 29 planes in the timeout.


After the timeout two members of each group wants to throw the planes over the boundary line to get points. We selected the appropriate 2 persons there were Yashiru and Sivakajan.


Firstly our opponents started to through planes to over the line they made some bad through and also foul through too. Finally they made 18 planes to over the line and got 18 points. Now our turn and our teammates started to through the planes they also made some bad through and foul through too but it was less than our opponent made. Finally we made 24 planes to over the line and won this overall task.


Reason of our win




We selected right persons to through the planes to over the line. We had use well that 3 minutes she gave us to make plan.


Mistake that we made


Unfortunately we made some bad through and foul through.


Lessons

·         Time management.
·         Team Corporation is highly wanted skill.