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#Written by David Tam, 1994. #
#davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999#
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Shad Valley UBC 1994
Shad Valley Work Term Report
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I worked with Silicon Graphics Canada, Inc. (SGI) for five weeks, from
Monday August 2nd to Friday September 2nd. Office hours were from 8:30 am to
5:00 pm. Originally, I was supposed to be involved in a market research
project but I was assigned several presentation design projects instead. I
worked by myself on Silicon Graphics workstations. I was encouraged and given
time to explore the computer systems by myself, and I was fully functional
within the first two days. I had access to and used electronic equipment such
as colour scanners, fax machines, photocopiers, and laser/colour printers. The
Internet was a valuable resource as well. Supervision was minimal but my
tasks were accomplished quite easily. Technical questions and problems were
usually quickly solved by fellow employees. Because there was an employee in
the sales department who was away on a sabbatical, I was located in that area
for the first four weeks. Later, I moved to the systems support department
because the employee came back.
For the first project, I had to redesign a presentation that was to be
delivered using an SGI workstation, though I was not the presenter of the
material. Originally, the presentation was to be delivered with the aid of
colour overheads, but it was decided upon that the use of a computer would
create a much greater impact. I worked in collaboration with Ernst & Young on
the presentation called "Smart Toronto". Smart Toronto is an initiative to
prepare the greater Toronto area for the 21st century as an information center
that has superinformation highway facilities and is an attractive city for
businesses to locate. I was given a copy of the slides to redesign and I used
a program called "Showcase" to assemble the presentation on the SGI
workstations. Over the next 3 weeks I added backgrounds, 3D / computer
graphics, photographs, animations, demonstration applications, and sound
effects to the presentation. I telephoned several travel agents to acquire
pictures of the Toronto area, and I scanned these into the computer. At a
meeting with Ernst & Young, it was decided that the presentation had to be
more conservative, so many of the graphics and sound effects had to be taken
out. There was one other meeting with the presenters, Bill Hutchison (a senior
partner of Ernst & Young), and David Black (president of Silicon Graphics
Canada, Inc.), for a rehearsal.
A few days before the Smart Toronto presentation, I designed a fax
information sheet to be sent out to all those who were invited. It had
information about where the corporate tractor-trailer, with SGI workstations
demonstrating potential future applications, was to be located. The
presentation of Smart Toronto was held on the top floor of the Toronto Metro
Hall on the evening of Thursday August 25th. Many of the senior business
executives in Toronto were invited, such as Ted Rogers. Representatives from
the major banks, universities, telecommunication companies, hospitals, and
bio-technology companies were present. The night included a full dinner and I
was invited. I was involved in the setup and testing of our computer equipment
to insure that no problems would occur during the presentation.
Concurrently, I worked with Steve Allen of SGI to design a database
system explanation using "Showcase" as well. The purpose of the project was to
visually explain how database systems functioned and why the Oracle database
software ran the fastest on Silicon Graphics workstations. It was targetted
for all audiences and would have been helpful for sales personnel as well.
Steve had to depart for California for new employee training so that project
was placed on hold.
While talking to David Black, the president of SGI Canada, he suggested
that the company could lend several workstations to the Shad Valley campuses
for use during the program. I was assigned the task to write a business letter
to Ron Champion explaining the offer. That assignment was completely fairly
quickly. I assisted Tom Rowe, the national marketing manager, in assembling
papers that needed to be couriered to Innovitech, a computer consulting
company in Montreal. It was in preparation for an SGI seminar in Montreal. I
also had to make several telephone calls to Montreal in order to compile a
list of important university contacts for the seminar.
In the last week of the work term, I was involved in designing a
presentation for Oracle, a large database company. They wanted to have a
corporate report on an SGI workstation for demonstration purposes, such as in
a kiosk. I used "Showcase" again to assemble the presentation. I was faxed a
version of the slides to transfer onto the computer, but Oracle did not have
all of the information available to me so I was not able to complete their
corporate report before the work term concluded. At the same time, Alias
Research also required a presentation to be done on the SGI workstations, but
I was not available to work on that project because I was already busy with
Oracle's corporate report. To solve that dilemma, I believe that a university
student was given that task.
The projects that I was assigned were completed to the best of my
ability. The Smart Toronto presentation was a big success and I was credited
for the work I did on that project. The presentation went smoothly and a lot
of funds were raised on that night. By the end of the work term, I had built
up a reputation for designing "Showcase" presentations and I could have
continued on many more projects. These presentations that I designed helped
SGI to create a stronger bond with other technology companies. I learned a lot
about the revision process during those business meetings with Ernst & Young.
The first draft of the Smart Toronto presentation was very different from the
final version. Naturally, I learned a lot about the Silicon Graphics
workstations, the Unix operating system environment, and networking. The work
term provided me with insight into the corporate world and work environment.
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640/HighSchool) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)