For Engineers Week 2022 we wanted to show #WhatEngineersDo by chatting with some real engineers with Martin County ties. Today we hear from James Viesselman, who is a Backend Software Engineer with Altarum Institute.
Q: What do you do at your job?
I am a backend software engineer who creates public health applications for Altarum Institute. I program and design how our software processes medical data such as lab reports and disease data. I mainly write code in Java using many software development tools and technologies to develop the part of the application that integrates the user interface and the database together. This often requires me to collaborate with other software engineers of different areas of specialization and business analysts to build out the entire application.
Q: Where did you get your training/go to school?
At Fairmont High School, I learned the basics of programming in both the robotics extracurricular program and its associated class. It gave me my first experience of programming to solve real world problems.
My degree was in Computer Science at the University of Minnesota. Virtually all of my courses contributed to software engineering experience in some way.
My internship was through Packet Power LLC. where I had my first job related to software development. I gained first hand experience of how to develop business grade software which is quite different from the more academic related programming experience I had previously.
Q: Are there any classes you wish you would have taken or are glad that you took?
The classes that provided me with the best experience for my career were ones where you could see how programming can be used to design practical applications. For example, the class Program Design and Development, gave me a lot of insight into how larger scale software projects are structured. We created an application called "Paintshop" that was similar to Microsoft Paint and Photoshop using criteria created by an imaginary client. Over the course of the semester, we had to continuously build upon our application with new features in a way that felt realistic to what I do in my career currently.