Job Shadow Description
I have always been interested in software and game development, ever since I
played my first video game, which was Minecraft. I have always wondered how
the games work on the inside, where most people never see. I wanted to pursue
the field of game and software development, and I needed to do a job shadow
where I learn more about this subject.
Luckily for me, there was a perfect
place for such an experience. The Air Force Research Lab’s GRILL, which
stands for Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory, has been
dedicated to making games for educational and training purposes.
In my eyes,
if you can combine something fun, like gaming, with something that a lot of
people struggle with, then I think you can be a lot more efficient and the
students and/or trainees will be better of in the real world. I did my job
shadow at the GRILL, and during this experience I learned how people integrate
coding and programming with real life.
I also learned how to make a game, and
I made a game called AimTrain. AimTrain is a first-person shooter game about
shooting a block that pops up in a random location when you shoot it. The goal
of this software was to test reaction times and accuracy when under pressure,
which are key skills for other areas of life.
Overall, I think I had fun while
still learning a lot from this experience, and I can’t wait to do this all
again next year.
AimTrain
This is screenshot of the game I made in Unreal Engine 4 during my job shadow (details above).
Swag collected from College and Career Fair
Some booths at College and Career Fair have free swag from the company or school that runs the booth. I collected this pen; it's pretty cool.
