ERCIYES UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

INTERNSHIP APPLICATION PRINCIPLES

The Department of Software Engineering at Erciyes University has a mandatory internship application that consists of a total of 40 business days, conducted in two separate periods starting from the 2nd semester. The principles of the Software Engineering Department’s internship applications are based on the internship principles of the Faculty of Engineering. Announcements from the Faculty of Engineering related to the subject should be followed.

Before applying for an internship, the "Procedures to be Carried Out Before Internship" section in this document should be carefully reviewed.

1. PROCEDURES TO BE CARRIED OUT BEFORE INTERNSHIP

Internship applications are made through our university’s Student Information System (Obisis - https://obisis.erciyes.edu.tr). The following documents should be scanned and sent to ymstaj@erciyes.edu.tr at least 10 days before the internship start date for the application to be evaluated.

1) Internship application form printed from Obisis and signed by the student
(File name: name_surname_internship_application_form.pdf)

2)A current transcript showing that the student has taken courses related to "Occupational Health and Safety" (obtained from Obisis) (File name: name_surname_transcript.pdf)

3) Internship application control form filled out and signed by the student
(File name: name_surname_internship_control_form.pdf)

4) Face-to-face internship commitment petition filled out and signed by the student
(File name: name_surname_commitment_petition.pdf)

* If the student has not taken the occupational health and safety course, they should submit an original/approved copy of the document related to occupational health and safety. If there is no approved copy, the student should write and sign the following sentence in their own handwriting on the bottom/back of the photocopy of the document.

"The document I submitted is the same as the original. I undertake the accuracy of the statements." NAME/SURNAME, SIGNATURE.

* If the internship dates coincide with the academic term, the student should provide a current Obisis screen image showing the courses taken and the attendance requirements for that term.

After the application is approved by the commission, the internship registry form and SGK document will be available for the student to obtain from Obisis. The registry form obtained from Obisis should be delivered to the workplace supervisor at the beginning of the internship.

2. PROCEDURES TO BE CARRIED OUT DURING INTERNSHIP

The student should prepare an internship report describing a project they have worked on, in accordance with the criteria specified in the internship application principles.

1. The internship report, prepared in an appropriate format, should be bound, approved by the institution where the internship was conducted, and submitted to the secretary of the Software Engineering Department Chair.

2. The internship report should be written based on the project. It should not be in a daily format but should be a technical report explaining the project.

3. Since reporting the work done is an important goal of the internship, the internship reports should be prepared to reflect the work as well as possible. When preparing the internship report, narrative topics taken from textbooks or other sources should not be included. Descriptions of the project work, flow diagrams, and other relevant technical content should be included. Explanations that try to describe the project only through source codes without detailing the project work should be avoided. The internship report should emphasize the project conducted during the internship and briefly touch on the necessary theoretical information for understanding the project. An internship report filled with theoretical information without covering the practical work/projects/applications conducted during the internship will result in the internship not being accepted.

4. The internship report should demonstrate that the project conducted during the internship is suitable for the topic, duration, and expected project characteristics of the internship.

5. Each page of the internship report should be initialed or signed by the supervising engineer (the one who assigned and monitored the work).

6. Source codes and similar appendices related to the work conducted during the internship should be included as appendices at the end of the internship report.

7. The writing rules provided in section 11 of the internship application principles should be followed when preparing the internship report.

3. PROCEDURES TO BE CARRIED OUT AFTER INTERNSHIP

The internship registry form should be filled out and approved confidentially by the company at the end of the internship. This document, in a sealed and approved envelope, should be sent by the company by mail (registered) or delivered by the student to the Software Engineering Department Secretary on the announced dates. The internship reports, with the relevant parts approved, should also be submitted to the Software Engineering Department Secretary on the same dates.

4. PURPOSE OF INTERNSHIP

Various gains are aimed at having Software Engineering students complete internships. The purposes listed below provide students with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work environment before graduation, to be involved in the implementation process of real-life projects related to their profession, to set appropriate goals for themselves, and to take steps towards these goals.

1. Familiarizing the student with the work environment and preparing them for professional life.

2. Enabling the student to turn the theoretical knowledge acquired at the university into practice.

3. Observing, examining, and if possible, actively participating in the implementation stages of projects involving a Software Engineer.

4. Developing the student's ability to communicate and express themselves correctly in a work environment.

5. Enabling the student to correctly explain and report a technical project they have completed.

6. Allowing the student to improve themselves in different technology and work areas not covered in the courses given at the university.

For the internship to provide the intended benefits to the student, it is expected that the student finds an appropriate internship place that can contribute both technically and socially. The student should successfully complete a project they are working on at their internship place and record this project in the internship report in an appropriate manner and format.

5. SELECTION OF INTERNSHIP PLACE

Finding an internship place is the student's responsibility. However, the department may suggest an internship place to the student. If the student finds their internship place, the suitability of the place will be decided by the Commission.

The following important considerations should be taken into account when selecting an internship place.

1. The internship place should be operating in a field where a software engineer can work. Public institutions and organizations, private companies developing software and hardware projects, and information technology departments of large-scale companies can be considered as internship places.

2. The internship place should develop software and hardware-based projects that will contribute to the software engineer.

3. The internship place should have a perspective that allows the active participation of the intern in the projects or at least provides an environment suitable for the student to learn the technical infrastructure by following the development of the project.

4. It is essential that internships are done at different workplaces. Doing more than one internship at the same workplace is only possible with the approval of the Internship Commission. In this case, students should apply to the commission with a petition and internship application control form before applying for the internship through Obisis. If approved by the commission, the relevant petition and approval document should be included in the internship application documents and additionally presented in the relevant internship reports.

5. The internship place may be operating domestically and/or internationally. As stated in the Internship Principles of the Faculty of Engineering, the decision of the Faculty Board is required for internships to be conducted abroad.

6. There must be a Computer, Software, Electrical, Electronics, or Electronics and Communication engineer working at the place where the internship is conducted.

7. Students who are accepted into summer school programs that include training and workshops organized by leading firms in the sector may have these activities accepted as an internship with the approval of the Internship Commission.

8. The quotas for internships to be conducted in the Department of Software Engineering are determined by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Engineering. If a quota is opened, the student should get approval from the faculty member with whom they will be doing the internship and submit the document indicating that they can do the internship at the school to the internship commission.

6. DURATION AND PERIODS OF INTERNSHIPS

Students of the Faculty of Engineering are required to complete two internships, each consisting of 20 working days, during their education to graduate from the relevant engineering program. The principles of the Faculty of Engineering regarding the duration and periods of internships are specified in Article 9:

(1) It is essential that internships are done during the months coinciding with the semester or summer vacation. However, with the approval of the relevant Internship Commission, in cases where the following internships are not carried out in the months coinciding with the semester or summer vacation, education and training activities continue with the internship, but the internship cannot be done on the days when the student has a course or exam:

     a) if the conditions of the relevant department or business are not suitable, internships can be conducted outside these periods  without disrupting education and training.

     b) If the student has completed all their courses but has not yet completed their internship, they can do their internship  in any month.

(2) Students enrolled in the second education program can do their internships during the education period between the summer and term periods, provided that it does not conflict with their classes or exams, from 08:00 to 17:00.

(3) Internships cannot be conducted on Sundays and official holidays.

(4) The period after which internships can be started and whether the first and second internships can be done in the same period are determined by the Internship Application Principles of the Department.

Additionally, in our department:

1. Internships are conducted after the 2nd semester.

2. Doing two internships in the same period is only possible after the 6th semester.

3. Internships will be conducted within the dates determined by the Faculty of Engineering. These dates are announced by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Engineering.

4. Conducting internships during the education period is possible with the approval of the internship commission.

5. It is essential that internships are conducted without interruption. However, in compulsory cases, with the approval and decision of the Department Internship Commission, the internship periods can be divided into two, provided that they are not less than 10 working days.

6. Internships conducted during the term should not coincide with midterm or final exam periods, even if they fall on days when the student does not have an exam, and there should not be any courses with compulsory attendance before 17:00 in the student's schedule.

7. INTERNSHIP TOPICS

Students are expected to successfully complete a project that is appropriate to the field of activity of the workplace, the subject of the internship, and the duration of the internship. Internship topics are grouped as follows.

Internships should include practice-based projects that can be completed within the internship period. When preparing the internship reports, brief mentions should be made of topic narratives and the theories of existing technologies. The internship report should mainly contain details about the project and the work conducted.

Software Topics:

Y-1. Development, testing, maintenance of application software in various fields, and working on system programs.

Example Topics:

-Developing software for Windows, Linux, web, or mobile environments.

-Developing database applications.

-Programming using C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Assembly, Shell programming, API, or SDK.

Y-2. Designing and analyzing systems using package programs. The package programs to be worked on should be consulted with the internship commission.

Example Topics:

-Developing applications or projects using packages like Autocad, Altium, Solidworks, 3D Studio, Matlab, etc.

-Developing applications, scripts, or plugins within package programs like SAP, Oracle Developer, 3D Max, Photoshop, SolidWorks.

Y-3. Academic topics (Research, development, and application on topics given by the internship advisor who is an academician or project manager in academic units/centers or laboratories of universities or R&D units of other institutions)

Y-4. Mobile application development.

Example Topics:

Programming and developing application software on platforms like Android, iOS, Windows Phone.

Y-5. Developing all kinds of information systems (hospital, student, production/management systems software), participating in software support activities, and conducting improvement/development/updating activities related to these.

Y-6. Working on embedded systems, hardware structures, and computer systems.

Example Topics:

-Designing, implementing, and testing systems based on microprocessors, microcontrollers, or digital signal processors.

-Designing interface circuits for a computer system such as PCI-ex, PCI, ISA, USB, firewire.

-Designing, testing, and applying electronic elements using hardware description languages (HDL, Verilog), logic systems.

-Developing applications with development kits like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Arm Linux.

- Developing control applications with wireless communication modules.

- Internet of Things (IoT).

Y-7. Designing and implementing digital circuits used in various fields (electronics, robotics/mechatronics, biomedical, etc.).

Example Topics: Designing control circuits, mechatronic applications, robot programming, data collection device design, biomedical device design and control, SCADA systems, designing interfaces for various machines (HMI).

Y-8. Designing, configuring, managing, testing, and maintaining computer network hardware.

Example Topics:

-Designing networks and configuring network devices (switch, router, firewall).

-Analyzing existing network structures in the organization, conducting simulations for different scenarios (PacketTracer, Wireshark, etc. can be used). Simple network setups and/or analysis/simulations of small-scale local networks are considered insufficient for the internship.

- Router protocols.

-IPv6-based networks.

-LTE, 5G technologies.

-Network security.

Y-9. Performing system installation, configuration, and design.

Example Topics:

- Virtualization applications (Vmware, ESXi, Virtualbox, Hyper-V, CitrixXen, etc.).

- Software installation and configuration of servers (Windows Server, Linux servers, email, web, database, firewall, VPN, directory services, SSH, etc.). Note: Simple installations (desktop operating systems, small-scale web servers) are not accepted as internships. Detailed configurations/system maintenance/hardware resource analysis for server system installations based on business needs form the content of this item.

- Cloud computing, distributed systems, cluster structures, hardware applications in parallel programming.

Y-10. Other: Participating in or developing special projects and software related to the areas the company specializes in within the software engineering fields, with the approval of the department commission, is also considered an acceptable internship. In such a case, the relevant topic and project must be reported and approved by the commission at the beginning of the internship.

8. INTERNSHIP EXEMPTION

Internship equivalence can be granted for a total of up to 20 working days.

8.a. Students who have transferred horizontally/vertically or re-registered through ÖSYM exams:

Students who have transferred horizontally/vertically or re-registered through ÖSYM exams can request equivalence for internships accepted in their previous program. These students' previous internships are evaluated as a whole and accepted for a maximum of 20 working days. The suitability of the internship topic and content is essential in the evaluation. Students should complete the following documents for acceptance procedures

- Completed and signed internship application control form.

- Internship acceptance certificate obtained from the previous school.

- A letter indicating the internship content obtained from the workplace where the internship was conducted, if not specified in the internship acceptance certificate, and/or the relevant internship notebook/report.

Note: All submitted documents must have wet signatures. Applications without wet signatures will be rejected.

These documents, attached to the petitions, should be submitted to the department secretary during the internship report submission period.

8.b. Students who have worked or are working in a software engineering-related job

Students who have worked continuously for at least 6 months in the same job related to software engineering can apply for the recognition of prior learning within the scope of the internship application by documenting their work periods and titles. These students' previous work is evaluated as a whole and accepted for a maximum of 20 working days. Students should apply with the following documents for acceptance procedures

- Completed and signed internship application control form.

- Documents showing the student's work period and title, along with the SGK statement if available.

- An internship notebook/report prepared in accordance with the criteria specified in the Department Internship Principles and approved by the workplace for the specified work periods.

Note 1: Students who want to apply for exemption based on their work experience at the company where they completed their internship must send a wet-signed petition explaining this situation to ymstaj@erciyes.edu.tr and obtain approval before applying.

Note 2: All submitted documents must have wet signatures. Applications without wet signatures will be rejected.

These documents, attached to the petitions, should be submitted to the department secretary during the internship report submission period.

9. STATUS OF STUDENTS DOING DOUBLE MAJOR, MINOR

The procedures for internships of students doing double major and minor are carried out as specified in the SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT DOUBLE MAJOR, MINOR EDUCATION PLAN.

10. EVALUATION OF INTERNSHIPS

The internship commission decides on the acceptance, rejection of half (10 working days), or all (20 working days) of the internship based on the information in the internship report, documents, and necessary inspections and interviews. The evaluation is carried out according to the table given in the Faculty internship principles. This table is provided below.

a. The commission may visit the workplace or contact by phone to check the student's attendance.

b. The format of the internship report covers the format of the report, the inclusion of a project to be presented in the report, compliance with writing rules, length-shortness, etc. For example, not placing the appendices (such as the source codes of the project) at the end but within the text will result in a deduction of 10 points, and non-compliance with writing rules will result in a deduction of 5 points.

c. The internship report must be original and prepared originally. An internship report that resembles a textbook, is prepared by copying and pasting from other sources, only provides source codes, does not include the project/applications conducted during the internship, or resembles another internship report will result in a deduction of up to 50 points.

d. The content should be as processed in section 7 of the internship application principles. If a project is available, the sub-evaluation criteria determined for criterion 4 will be considered, and if there is no project, a deduction of 70 points will be made directly.

e. In our department, internship evaluations are conducted based on internship reports, and if necessary, the student is called for an interview, and the interview is included in the evaluation.

f. The absence of signatures in the internship notebook will result in the internship report not being evaluated, as stated in the Faculty internship principles.

* Internship evaluation results are announced by the Department Chair. Students whose internship is rejected can appeal to the relevant department chair within one week from the announcement of the internship results.

* Appeals to internship results are reviewed by the relevant internship commission and decided within 15 days at the latest. Changes in status are finalized by the decision of the relevant Faculty Board.

11. WRITING RULES FOR INTERNSHIP REPORTS

11.a. Basic Sections of the Internship Report and Their Scopes

 The internship report should be organized in terms of format according to the following order. Explanatory information and examples for each section are provided below:

Cover Page: The cover of the internship reports is standard. The cover page of the internship report should be arranged as shown in the (SAMPLE COVER) link. The cover background color will be white, and the writings will be black.

First Page: This page, containing information about the internship place and the student, is standard for all internship reports. The information on the first page should be arranged as shown in the (SAMPLE FIRST PAGE) link.

Second Page: The second page of the internship reports shows the distribution of the work done during the internship according to the internship days, the total working days, and hours of the internship. It also includes the signature and stamp of the workplace supervisor. The second page should be prepared in accordance with this format, downloaded from the (SAMPLE SECOND PAGE) link.

Third Page: The third page of the internship reports should contain information about the engineer responsible for the student's internship process at the workplace and the internship evaluation form. The third page should be prepared in accordance with this format, downloaded from the (SAMPLE THIRD PAGE) link.

Internship Reports: The pages of the internship report should contain the subject of the work, date, and internship day information. The report format of the internship should be prepared in accordance with this format, downloaded from the (SAMPLE REPORT) link.

11.b. Information on the Internship Report

ABBREVIATIONS: Explanations of abbreviations and symbols used in the internship report should be given at the first use.

FIGURES AND TABLES: The table number and title should be centered above the table, and the figure number and title should be centered below the figure. Tables and figures should be centered on the page (EXAMPLE).

REFERENCES: All sources (articles, books, websites, etc.) mentioned in the internship report and used during the work should be numbered in the order they are referred to in the text [1] and added to the end of the internship reports. The display format of the sources should be as per their types (EXAMPLE).

APPENDICES: Tables, figures, source codes of the developed application, archive documents, surveys, etc., used or obtained during the internship work and cannot be included in the text part, should be prepared separately under the heading of APPENDICES, numbered as Appendix-1, Appendix-2, etc.

The completed and signed internship application control form should be included in the appendices section of the internship report.

11.c. Other Features Related to the Writing of the Internship Report

Paper Features: The internship report should be written on white paper with a weight of at least 80 and at most 100 grams. The paper used should be in A4 format, and the internship report, after binding, should not be smaller than 20.0 x 28.5 cm.

Writing Features: Internship reports are written on a computer. The text is written on only one side of the paper. The text of the internship report should be in Times Roman font, 12 points. The text should be written with 1.5 line spacing. There should be one character space after each punctuation mark.

Page Layout: The pages of the internship reports should have a margin of 3.5 cm at the top, 3 cm at the bottom, and 2 cm at the left and right edges. The titles should not exceed this margin. The text should be placed according to the block system (without paragraph indentation). (EXAMPLE).

Numbering of Pages: The page number should be written on the vertical centerline of the text block, leaving a 2 cm margin from the top edge.

12. IMPORTANT DATES RELATED TO THE INTERNSHIP

Pre-internship procedures: Application documents should be submitted at least 10 days before the internship start date.

Internship periods and start dates: The dates when the internship can start will be announced by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Engineering.

Submission of internship reports: Internship reports should be submitted to the Department Chair’s secretary during the first announced report collection period after the internship. Dates announced by the department should be followed for this. For summer internships, the report collection period will be within the first month following the fall semester registration week.