How I became a computer engineer

 

Ege University Computer Engineering Department, July 2021

I enrolled in Ege University in 1995 and graduated from Computer Engineering Department in 2000 with bachelor's degree. During that period, my dear professors worked really hard to create a computer engineer from me :) 

I must salute Prof. Erden Başar, Prof. Mehmet Özel Ergen, Prof. Sinan Yılmaz (R.I.P.), Prof. Ahmet Kaşlı, Prof. Fikret İkiz, Prof. Halil Şengonca, Prof. Levent Toker, Prof. Oğuz Dikenelli, Prof. Yasemin Topaloğlu, Prof. Aylin Kantarcı, Prof. Mustafa Türksever, Prof. Ata Önal, Prof Şaban Eren, Prof. Serdar Korukoğlu; and of course the teaching assistants of that time: Osman Ünalır, Güzin Şeker, Cenk Erdur, Selçuk Kaptan, Muhammet Cinsdikici, Nur Zincir, Aziz Can Yücetürk, Aybars Uğur, Ahmet Koltuksuz, Özgür Gümüş and Tuğkan Tuğlular.

What a crew!

Thank you, thank all of you a thousand times!

Today's story is about Tuğkan Tuğlular. The course was Microcomputers. Fifth semestre. We were following the great textbook "Structured Computer Organization" by Andrew Tanenbaum. Thanks to Tuğkan's enthusiasm, every assignment of the course was forcing us to use x8086 Assembly programming language. To be honest, Tuğkan was always giving us the freedom of using any applicable programming language but somehow all of us were using Assembly :) Here is the famous assignment:


The task was clear. Connect 2 computers through serial port (nowadays there are no serial ports on computers) and let those computers simultanously send files, chat messages, mouse pointer locations to each other. During all those operations, current system state must be reflected on the screen online. Of course, it was said that "The program can be written in any programming language..." as the last sentence of the assignment :))

During my undergraduate education, I have submitted many computer programs that were designed to solve many different problems. Those were developed by using Pascal, Quick Basic, C, Parallel C, Visual Basic, Delphi, PL/1, Java, even GPSS and of course, Assembly. However, I was sensing that the assignment above was a bit harder than others. First of all, you must be programming the Intel 8251 chip in a perfect way to meet the criteria of simultaneous communication. Keeping the integrity of the transferred data was another challenge: Which bit is beloging to mouse position data, which one is carrying the information of the file transfer or chat data? Data packages must be encapsulated well. Data loss must be avoided so you need a robust communication protocol... 

Actually, in the Microcomputers course, it was an obligation for students to understand what is going on under the many layers of the abstractions of microcomputer systems. What bare metal is capable of. How it is possible to come up with unversal solutions given a very limited hardware capacity. By assigning such difficult term projects, Tuğkan was knowing that the classroom was developing a sort of computational mastery. His project management philosophy was also astonishing :) He was saying "Guys, if I give you 1 month, you'll deliver after 30 days; if I give you 1 week, you will deliver on 7th day; if I say 3 days, you will deliver on the 3rd day. So why should I wait?". It was valid :)) And it still is valid.

Anyways, challenge was accepted in 1998 and we built the project team of three: I, Yılmaz and Volkan. In the old days, only available microcomputers to us were in the department building. In the dormitories or homes there were no computers. Therefore, we had to design the software on paper firstly. Then, we should have reserved a computer in the microcomputers lab of the department, and complete coding/compiling etc. there, in that given time slot. 

We shared the tasks in a way that I and Yılmaz were to develop the communication module and Volkan was going to develop the graphical user interface. In the dormitory, we designed the Assembly program on paper. A sample piece of note is below:


After the designs had been completed, we got to the lab and coded the program by following our notes on papers. Then, the miracle happened. 
We compiled the code. 
No errors. 
Okay. 
We linked the program. 
No anomalies. 
We started the executable file. It just worked well! 

For a third year computer engineering student, in such a challenging project, and the given complexities of Assembly programming language, it was just a miracle. I am still remembering my feelings of satisfaction and how we celebrated the moment. A couple of pages of the program listing is as follows:



At the end, it was just another assignment. But the meaning of this assignment to me is tremendous. The time we ran this program in our first attempt with no errors was the time I evolved into a computer engineer.

After that moment, I have developed millions of lines of code in many years. Even today, I know that some of my programs are running on some servers, in a confident way. It just gives me a warm feeling. I loved computer engineering. I am still in love with my profession and all the underlying science. In the last years of my active software development, I was setting such challenges to myself: "Tester will never find a single bug after I deliver my program" or "The developer who will be examining my program after me will adore me and my level of engineering" :) Fun times...

I am a very lucky guy because even today, I am so privileged to be a colleague of Yılmaz and Volkan in Yapı Kredi. And again, thank you Tuğkan for transforming me from a student into a professional.

Respect!

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