Being an IT Professional

As far as I can remember the past, I never really thought of becoming an IT student. Since in early grade school, I am only thinking of becoming an astronaut (as every child would be dreaming to be). Then, later I realized I want to become someone that can identify a certain stone (that would be a geologist, I suppose) and descried its properties and etc. However, when I enter high school, my mind have become much open and overt where there are broad possibilities of what will I become, so many knowledge and interesting things that are adding in my befuddlement upon my decisive decision. Then, senior year came where the real confusion started. In this stage, I really don’t have any idea what course I will take up. Nursing? Education? Engineering? ….blah blah blah! And then, I made up my final decision (I was wishing it could be final). I will become a chemical engineer. Well, I am really good in chemistry (I just thought I am). But, when I heard my classmates talking about IT, I kind of like to change my decision. Yes, the Information Technology course. Almost quarter of the class decided upon IT, so I just followed the flow of peer pressure. If I will lost my luck with my direction, I have an option. Then, the series of what-so-called unfortunate events happened. It started when I took the USEPAT (University of Southeastern Philippines – Admission Test). The entrance test was quite fine. I got a rating of High Average. The following event – the interview. Hmmm? I am not quite prepared for the interview but fortunately I turned out good in answering the questions. I was very nervous that time because I really am not used in being interviewed. The questions were casual and I answered casually but I was anxious and my hands were trembling. Finally, I ended up enrolling in the BSIT (Bachelor of Science in Information technology) course. At first, the college approach was a bit confusing to me and it seems that I have been having difficulties in adjusting. But as time pass by, I am getting used with it.
Now, I am a 4th year student and getting ready to face the real but cruel world. As of my state of knowledge, it is rather in the most basic stage. Apparently, since I am just starting, I am still learning. I know that after I graduate, the true and surreal beginning of my journey will just start. Am I ready or not? Yes I am. But I still lack of something. Something important that if I will not acquire of such, I will be nothing. I guess it is for me – but just me – to find it out.
If I would become a successful and productive IT professional (daydreaming…!), I am obliged to contribute in technology and for the innovation of it. The contribution should be to meliorate the quality of man’s living. Eventually, I cannot tell that I could really accomplish such obligation. As for now, I really cannot think clearly what I could possibly do. I am not that kind of person that could easily finish a task easily and flawlessly (on the process and in the application). I need to reciprocate fairly in order in massively attest this factual conception onto my very own self as if it had been made as a habit for within the ego of me.
In today’s trend, there have been a large number of innovations on technology. Scientists and technologists are striving their very best in order to contribute and share their knowledge and learning upon each noesis and cognitions. In lots of field, there are innovations, These includes agriculture, motor cars and automobile, computer hardwares (printers, CPUs, monitors), computer accessories, softwares (application and operating system), computer services, gadets and PDAs, medicine and health, bioscience, robotics, aeronautics, defense and security, engineering and innovations, and energy and environment. In recent months, the concept of ‘cloud computing’ was all the buzz. European researchers think about another name, the World Wide Grid, which could run on top of the Internet. In an article to appear soon, ICT Results will report about the g-Eclipse project. As the scientists said, ‘the g-Eclipse project aims to build an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. The framework will be built on top of the reliable eco-system of the Eclipse community to enable a sustainable development. As I mentioned above, there are plenty of ‘computing clouds’ these days. Once you’re working with one like Amazon, it’s not easy to interoperate with another one such as Google. Even if these ‘clouds’ merely exist in 2006, this was this lack of interoperability which created the need for the g-Eclipsea project. The Firefly mission is the second project under the new U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CubeSat program. The goal of this program is to provide a low cost access to space research. Firefly will be launched in 2010 or 2011 and will try to ’solve the mystery of the most powerful natural particle accelerator in Earth’s atmosphere: TGFs, or terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. TGFs are short, powerful bursts of gamma rays emitted into space from Earth’s upper atmosphere. The gamma rays are thought to be emitted by electrons traveling at or near the speed of light when they are slowed down by interaction with atoms in the upper atmosphere. These events may occur much more often than realized and may be associated with a significant fraction of the roughly 60 lightning strokes per second that occur worldwide. They could have a large effect on the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space, scientists say. U.S. researchers have developed an integrated blood barcode chip which can identify what’s in your blood in less than 10 minutes. Instead of going to a lab, having a shot, and waiting for results for a day or two, this new chip will allow physicians to practice sophisticated exams in their offices by using a single drop of your blood. And these tests will be very cheap compared to existing procedures. If this chip becomes widely available, you might one day enter your physician’s office and learn a few minutes after that you have a cancer. Of course, such blood chips are a good thing, but they also are frightening. This blood chip has been developed by Caltech chemistry professor James Heath and his colleagues, and by Leroy Hood, the president and founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Hood is already known for his participation of the invention of the high-speed DNA sequencer that made the Human Genome Project possible. wireless experts estimate that our personal networks will include about a thousand devices in 2017, including dozens of sensors checking our health and our home. This is why European researchers have launched in 2006 a networking project called ‘MAGNET Beyond.’ The name is an acronym for ‘ My personal adaptive Global NET and beyond.’ The article suggests that the researchers have in fact built the Smart Personal Network, which integrates the concepts of Personal Networks (PNs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs). But first, where does this number of a thousand devices in a personal network come from? “In reality, it is hard to know what kind of devices or technology might be around for sure, but one thing is certain… there will be a lot of them. The first satellites were launched about 50 years ago as a way to conquer space. Now, satellites are essential for our civilian and military communications. But they remain large and expensive, some of them costing several hundreds of millions of dollars. This is why researchers from the University of Florida are building small satellites able to work as a team to take multiple and distributed measurements or observations of weather phenomena for example. These small satellites should cost only about $100,000 to produce. The first one should be launched next year by a NASA rocket and should not be larger than a softball. The goal is to mass-produce these satellites to even reduce their costs. The northern lights are beautiful when you see them from the ground. But they can be dangerous for your life if you’re in a plane crossing an area where they are active. This is because your plane can lose radio contact for a long time when flying above the northern polar region. This is why a Norwegian professor of physics is about to launch a rocket to discover the mysteries of the northern lights. The 9-meter long rocket should be launched between November 28 and December 7, 2008. It should reach an altitude of 350 kilometers and its flying time will be only 10 minutes. Let’s hope that the embarked sensors function correctly. Canadian scientists have recreated a famous painting from Vermeer on the microscale by using a new protein patterning technique. In fact, they’ve used a new laser method to draw protein pictures. And to illustrate the precision of their protein patterning technique, the research team reproduced ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ a masterwork of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The technology landscape may be going through a period of change at a pace not ever witnessed. The Internet’s expansion helped drive what we have called “a boom ! bust ! boom-let period for new-company creation and a boom-let ! bust ! boom period for wealth creation.” That said, the underlying trend of technology investment has remained relatively constant. The unrelenting stream of private investment may be one indisputable data point - not only has venture capital remained healthy throughout the past ten years, in the midst of the bubble bursting, technology actually increased as a total percentage of all venture capital investments and has remained above levels seen during the ncreased attention in the late 90’s. But the real goal of this work is to replicate the brain’s complex cellular environment. The research team said their new laser method is ‘a major discovery, since the new laser technology can encourage and guide the growth of finicky nerve cells.’ According to New Scientist, engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have modified an unmanned commercial civilian helicopter to fly fast and low while avoiding obstacles such as buildings, trees or power lines. The unmanned aerial vehicle from Yamaha has been adapted to integrate a sensing system able to see obstacles — and to avoid them. The article said that ‘the helicopter’s eye is a custom-built 3D laser scanner, which sweeps an oval path ahead of the 3.5-metre long craft. The scanner can detect objects as hard to see as power lines from 150 metres away.’ Imagine a nuclear reactor small enough to be carried by truck and buried in a garden… According to The Guardian, a U.S. company based in New Mexico, Hyperion Power Generation, has designed mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes. The company has already received firm orders and expects to deliver about 4,000 ‘individual’ plants between 2013 and 2023. It also said that it has a six-year waiting list. So if you want such a micro nuclear reactor, don’t expect to receive it by 2014. There are multiple other data points that suggest we are in the midst of a groundswell of technology innovation and growth. It is our intent to use these specific trends to identify some of the potential winners most impacted by these emerging trends.
My goal is to contribute but not to exploit. I will rather lose myself than exploiting each of these innovations. I merely cannot call myself worthy as an IT professional and should be suitable for it. It could be worse if my contribution turns out on endangering others. It is unforgivable. IT professional’s contribution should be for the better living of man’s course of life and not to hinder it.
But however, even though I can really achieved such goals and objectives, I am still fresh and preparing myself to face the true challenge in life. Still, it is an obligation as future IT professional, to contribute and introduce learning and knowledge for the betterment of tomorrow.