Why Coding and Automation is important to use in STEM

This article is a short reflection on my studies as an Electrical and DevOps Engineer, to emphasize knowing how to code, script and automate processes is crucial in the STEM field to create efficient solutions that save time from doing repetitive tasks.

STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math, and this field of study is emphasized in education today. STEM is important since our current technology is a cumulation of breakthroughs in hardware and software, creating theories and testing experiments by applying Science, Engineering or Math principles. Two skills that will help when studying or working with technology would be using Coding and Automation.

When I went to Rutgers University, I studied Electrical Engineering and assembled circuits with many different electronic components. After creating many different circuits, some of these materials on the circuit can be connected to a computer. Connecting the components to a computer is necessary since many computer applications need to be downloaded to operate the connected components. I realized while it is always important to learn how to use new hardware to build new circuits, I also needed to learn how every piece on a circuit works together on a software level and how each piece also interacts with another piece. I enjoyed making many circuits, whether how simple or complex they were. Even assembling a simple circuit with an Arduino that is connected to a computer to turn on an LED light on a circuit command was quite fascinating to me. It was fascinating to me since the computer has the Arduino application to take in coding commands to control the circuit in real-time. From my studies, I realized software and coding can be used to automate and control hardware is a crucial skill everyone should master. My curiosity led me to study and work with DevOps Engineering automation principles and I enrolled in a non-profit Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps, and SRE boot camp called Kura Labs to further my knowledge of how I can automate processes. As a DevOps Engineer, I gained more insight that I used many different coding languages and created many scripts when working with different applications to create and automate different infrastructures.

Throughout my studies, I always question what am I working with? Why is this important? How does it impact the world? How does it operate? Why does it operate? These questions make me curious to continue learning more about new technologies and pay attention closely to the recent advancements in STEM. For anyone who works in the STEM field, I recommend learning how to code, script and automate processes will help towards finding solutions to many technological problems.