The father of the C++ programming language, Bjarne Stroustrup, once said, “Our civilisation runs on software”. Being a software engineer is a huge responsibility today, although much of their efforts are unheard and unseen.
Dr Soumya Sankar Basu, a senior lecturer of computer science and software engineering at the School of Computing and Digital Technologies has been fortunate to be an active part of the software development community for nearly three decades now. He has played different roles starting from a Java programmer to an academic staff through various transitions and transformations.
He always felt that to become an effective software engineer, along with technology, one needs to understand problem-solving using a structured method. In other words, one needs to become a developer rather than a programmer. After starting academic journey, he focussed on transition of students.
Dr Basu’s experience working with large enterprises and small and medium enterprises through various Knowledge Exchange programs helped him realising some gaps between what is taught and what is expected by the organisations. The understanding was confirmed by literature review as well.
An elective module “Contemporary Software Engineering” was designed as an attempt to address the gaps. The book “Software Engineering Methods A Design Thinking Based Approach” is an outcome of a humble effort based on teaching experience of the module for the past five years. The book aligns with SHU’s vision of being an applied university through research informed teaching.
