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“Expect to learn everything that you need in practice…”
Suchira
Surendranath, Ceylon Tobacco Company, Sri Lanka
A public holiday in my home of Sri Lanka meant that on the
12th of April I was dusting spider
webs - a chore that hardly requires any of
my physics expertise.
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Who am I? Well, I'm an old boy from Royal (a boy's-only college
situated in the capital Colombo) who got the best results
on the island for Higher Mathematics with a ranking in physical
sciences.
I'm an ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
finalist and completed my Bachelor of Law (LLB) in addition
to the above and am reading for my MBA (Master of Business
Administration).
I also hold a degree in Engineering Physics and Information
Technology.
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I work as a systems administration manager at the Ceylon Tobacco
Company. My work area involves maintaining the company’s IT
infrastructure to support its island-wide operations and to
look after the IT security aspects of the company. If Information
Technology is classified under the physical sciences in Australia,
as it is over here, then I use my IT
knowledge in almost
everything I do.
The ‘physics’ of it all
I am not quite sure as to how much my physics knowledge helps
me in my work and to be quite frank I do
not quite recollect as to where
I gained a particular piece of knowledge
that I use! I have
followed subjects covering Mathematics and Statistics
(in all its forms! E.g.: pure, applied etc.), Electronics,
Computational
Physics, Instrumentational Physics etc. in
depth during my Physics degree in addition to areas such as
Quantum
Physics, Solid
State Physics, Semiconductors,
etc.
Now the first set of subjects has given me knowledge which
I use in practice all the time at work. I shall give you an
example and try to not be too technical. For instance, were
I at work on the 12th of April, I would have used my knowledge
on Statistics and Computational Physics to use the Probability
Theory to find out whether a certain service
agreement presented by one of our network service providers
is acceptable or not. For instance, when they say the availability
is 98%, what is the chance
that we would lose
network connectivity for
2 straight hours, within working hours,
during the peak holiday season?
I have used my knowledge on Instrumentational Physics in attending
to various internet provider devices in operation at the factory
floor. These devices vary from simple weighing scales to industrial
scanners. Knowledge and understanding of programming,
serial
and parallel
cable communication, etc. help immensely in designing, implementing
and troubleshooting these systems. Together with myknowledge
in IT, I was able to contribute towards integrating such devicesdirectly
with the network provider for the seamless operation of our
IT systems.
My degree in Engineering
Physics has undoubtedly sharpened my logical
reasoning and analytical
skills the most. These skills contributed
to the successful accomplishment of my goals in a dynamic
and challenging environment,
where you have to work with incomplete
data in ambiguous situations.
I do not use my knowledge of Quantum Physics and Nuclear
Physics during my day to day job. You can
not expect to practice everything
that you have learnt (unless
you are a lecturer). However, what you can
expect is to have learnt
everything that you
need in practice!
Written by Suchira Surendranath – Edited by Kavitha Arunagirinathan
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