Over the span of three months, Associate Professor Dr. ByoungYong Lee’s Software Engineering (CS-477) class worked with the car rental agency to design and implement an automated employee time-keeping system and a vehicle maintenance tracking system. They reached the pinnacle of their projects on Dec. 5, when they visited the car rental center to install the final software and demonstrate how to use it.

Real-world experience

The time card system the students developed will replace the company’s previous manual system. It tracks employee check-in and check-out times, calculates total hours worked, and calculates payroll automatically.  

For student software engineers Jacob Encio and Jonathan Collado, this project represented their first substantial experience developing software beyond classroom assignments, such as creating a tic-tac-toe computer game or simple calculators.

"I feel proud of myself — actually building something as a person that's been using computers a lot [and now] actually seeing my own app there. I just really feel proud of myself and our team,” Encio said.

The vehicle management system, another program developed by the students, helps the rental company track and manage vehicle maintenance, including oil changes and tire and battery replacements. This system notifies the company when maintenance is due on a vehicle, ensuring that their fleet remains in optimal condition.

The assignment created a valuable opportunity for the students to work directly with a client as they would in the workforce and to develop software that addresses a real need.

“The programs they developed are very helpful," said Kyung Wook (Sean) Sohn, president of Dream Rent A Car. “We used to manage time cards and vehicle maintenance manually, but these programs are automatically calculated, which saves us time.”

A challenging process 

Creating software from scratch, especially for a client, can be challenging, Lee said. It requires a combination of skills — from analyzing what functions and purpose the software will serve, to designing the system, coding, testing, and eventually deploying the software.

“Going through these steps to complete a software program requires a lot of effort, but it can provide a great sense of accomplishment for students,” he said.

Lee likened software engineering to an artistic process.  

“A pianist expresses their music through the piano, and a painter conveys their thoughts through paintings. Similarly, a computer engineer can create what they envision in the virtual world using programming languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript,” Lee said.

For students like Yuhang Zhang, who was working on a complete software project for the first time, the experience was both challenging and rewarding.

“I’m pretty proud because I’ve never done this before,” he said. He admitted it was harder than he expected. “When you develop different functions and try to combine them, it causes collisions and a lot of errors, and trying to solve these errors was the biggest challenge for me.”

Zhang and his classmates will continue their senior year next semester, gaining more experience through class projects and internships as they navigate the specific jobs they want to pursue in the field of computer science.

A win-win collaboration

This is the first time the class has worked on a project with a local company in Guam, Lee said.

“It is not easy for small local companies in Guam to develop the necessary software individually. Therefore, if students provide the required software through projects, it is beneficial for both the students, who gain experience, and local small companies, who receive the needed software,” he said.

With more than 200 cars and 30 employees, Dream Rent A Car now has two tools to operate more efficiently. At the same time, the next wave of software developers to enter Guam’s workforce have gained critical problem-solving skills and experience working directly with clients that will make them more employable upon entering the workforce next summer.