STUDENT INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE SCHEME ON COMPUTER

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION TO SIWES

The Student Industrial Work-Experience Scheme (SIWES) is a planned and supervised training intervention based on stated and specific learning and career objectives, and geared towards developing the occupational competencies of the participants. It is a programme required to be undertaken by all students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria pursuing courses in “specialized engineering, technical, business, applied sciences and applied arts” (ITF, 2004a).

Therefore, SIWES is generic, cutting across over 60 programmes in the universities, over 40 programmes in the polytechnics and about 10 programmes in the colleges of education. Thus, SIWES is not specific to any one course of study or discipline.

1.1       SIWES, A REAL EXPERIENCE

According to Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES).A practical approach a book written by K.W Ojesola, G.A. Adebisi and G.O. Oyeleke. Some challenges that could be faced during SIWES were disclosed. The challenges include:

• Changing of environment
• Production tension
• Limited finance
• Inability to operate tools or gadgets at a start of SIWES among others

All those challenges are those that can make us to gather more experience. challenges are synonymous to life. A life without challenges is not complete. Hence one can say that they are the “spice” of life. In any case, the fortitude to face it is what makes who you are, the more of such challenges you face, the more you become master of the situations. You know, we go to school to learn, but if we have learnt enough there is no further need to go to school, meanwhile, SIWES is also a school being a training ground where you learn more. So, the challenges have exposed me to learn more. So the challenges have exposed me to learn more about the field “Mass Communication” and life generally.

A big thanks to those that brought the idea of SIWES into the education system, for the benefits of student to know about the labour market before they finish their study. Indeed its an experience.

1.2       AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF SIWES

SIWES is a practical aspect of learning which is done in university and polytechnic in Nigeria and in some other countries. It was established for the purpose of bridging the gap between theories and the knowledge acquired by students in institutions of higher learning on one hand and the practical industrial work on the other. Its objectives are as follows:

• To give practical exposure to students on technological advancement in their various field of study.
• It provides an avenue for students in higher institutions of learning to acquire industrial skills and experience in their course of study.
• It prepared students for the industrial work situation they will meet after graduation.
• It exposes students to work methods and techniques in handling equipment and machinery that may not be available in their institutions.
• It provides students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge in real work situation to their training thereby bridging the gap between theory and practice.

1.3       IMPORTANCE OF SIWES

            Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme pay a crucial role in the society few of them are.

• It helps to develop more interest in the course of study
• It improve the students skill and knowledge
• It helps students to be more discipline and obedient
• It exposed students to Industrial culture

CHAPTER TWO

2.0       INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER

2.1       HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF COMPUTER

Computer is fast becoming the universal machine of the 21st century. Early computers were large in size and too expensive to be owned by individuals. Thus they were confined to the laboratories and few research institutes. They could only be programmed by computer engineers. The basic applications were confined to undertaking complex calculations in science and engineering. Today, computer is no longer confined the laboratory. Computers and indeed, computing have become embedded in almost every item we use. Computing is fast becoming ubiquitous. Its application transcends science, engineering, communication, space science, aviation, financial institutions, social sciences, humanities, the military, transportation, manufacturing, extractive industries to mention but a few. This unit presents the background information about computers.

2.2       A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

A complete history of computing would include a multitude of diverse devices such as the ancient Chinese abacus, the Jacquard loom (1805) and Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine” (1834). It would also include discussion of mechanical, analog and digital computing architectures. As late as the 1960s, mechanical devices, such as the Marchant calculator, still found widespread application in science and engineering. During the early days of electronic computing devices, there was much discussion about the relative merits of analog vs. digital computers. In fact, as late as the 1960s, analog computers were routinely used to solve systems of finite difference equations arising in oil reservoir modeling.

In the end, digital computing devices proved to have the power, economics and scalability necessary to deal with large scale computations. Digital computers now dominate the computing world in all areas ranging from the hand calculator to the supercomputer and are pervasive throughout society. Therefore, this brief sketch of the development of scientific computing is limited to the area of digital, electronic

computers. The evolution of digital computing is often divided into generations. Each generation is characterized by dramatic improvements over the previous generation in the technology used to build computers, the internal organization of computer systems, and programming languages.

First Generation Electronic Computers (1937 – 1953)

Three machines have been promoted at various times as the first electronic computers. These machines used electronic switches, in form of vacuum tubes, instead of electromechanical relays. In principle the electronic switches were more reliable, since they would have no moving parts that would wear out, but technology was still new at that time and the tubes were comparable to relays in reliability. Electronic components had one major benefit, however: they could “open” and “close” about 1,000 times faster than mechanical switches. The earliest attempt to build an electronic computer was by J. V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State, in 1937. Atanasoff set out to build a machine that would help his graduate students solve systems of partial differential equations.

Second Generation (1954 – 1962)

The second generation saw several important developments at all levels of computer system design, from the technology used to build the basic circuits to the programming languages used to write scientific applications. Electronic switches in this era were based on discrete diode and transistor technology with a switching time of approximately 0.3 microseconds. The first machines to be built with this technology include TRADIC at Bell Laboratories in 1954 and TX-0 at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Third Generation (1963 – 1972)

The third generation brought huge gains in computational power. Innovations in this era

include the use of integrated circuits, or ICs (semiconductor devices with several transistors built into one physical component), semiconductor memories starting to be used instead of magnetic cores, microprogramming as a technique for efficiently designing complex processors, the coming of age of pipelining and other forms of parallel processing , and the introduction of operating systems and time-sharing.

Fourth Generation (1972 – 1984)

The next generation of computer systems saw the use of large scale integration (LSI –

1000 devices per chip) and very large scale integration (VLSI – 100,000 devices per chip) in the construction of computing elements. At this scale entire processors will fit onto a single chip, and for simple systems the entire computer (processor, main memory, and I/O controllers) can fit on one chip. Gate delays dropped to about Ins per gate. Semiconductor memories replaced core memories as the main memory in most systems; until this time the use of semiconductor memory in most systems was limited to registers and cache. During this period, high speed vector processors, such as the CRAY 1, CRAY X-MP and CYBER 205 dominated the high performance computing scene.

Fifth Generation (1984 – 1990)

The development of the next generation of computer systems is characterized mainly by the acceptance of parallel processing. Until this time, parallelism was limited to pipelining and vector processing, or at most to a few processors sharing jobs. The fifth generation saw the introduction of machines with hundreds of processors that could all be working on different parts of a single program. The scale of integration in semiconductors continued at an incredible pace, by 1990 it was possible to build chips with a million components – and semiconductor memories became standard on all computers.

Sixth Generation (1990 to date )

Transitions between generations in computer technology are hard to define, especially as they are taking place. Some changes, such as the switch from vacuum tubes to transistors, are immediately apparent as fundamental changes, but others are clear only in retrospect. Many of the developments in computer systems since 1990 reflect gradual improvements over established systems, and thus it is hard to claim they represent a transition to a new “generation”, but other developments will prove to be significant changes.

2.3       COMPONENT OF THE COMPUTER SYSTEM

            The Component of the Computer System comprises Hardware and Software

Computer Hardware Component

1. Input devices: These are devices that is used to give command into a computer system e.g Keyboard, Scanner, Mouse, Joystick etc.
2. Output devices: These are devices that bring out the data input into a computer system e.g Monitor, Printer, Speaker
3. Storage devices: Storage devices are the kind of devices used to store data into computer system. It can also be refers to as Memory. It include RAM, CD ROM, Hard Disk, Floppy disk etc.
4. Central Processing Unit: This is the main brain, heart of the computer system

Computer Software

Computer software can be refers to as application packages which have being design for user to perform a specific task.

Types of Computer Software

1. Microsoft Word
2. Microsoft Excel
3. Microsoft PowerPoint
4. Microsoft Access
5. Corel Draw

Software Installation

The software is that part of computer system that brings out the power of machine. The machine is just a dead piece of electronics without the software. Care should, however, be taken to avoid pirated copies of soft wares as their fidelity cannot be guaranteed. The hardware requirements for every software must be noted, as it included the amount of RAM or memory size needed to run the program, the minimum hard disk space required to store the program files, and sometimes the minimum required monitor resolution. If the software would require audio output, then the sound system will be given. The software requirements for the program usually apply to applications and the operating system on which it will run usually specified.

Installing an operating system

It organizes the resumes of the machine and provides an environment for the          applications to run. The exemplified operating system here is widows 95 (which supports plug and-play). There are two ways in which Windows 95 can be installed.

The first way is to copy the windows files from the installation CD to a folder already on the hard disk. Therefore, installation to the hard disk can be carried out.

The advantage of this is in the event of missing installation CD, in which care the source files would be on the hard disk as back up. At the command prompt, the following commands are typed and “Enter,” pressed after each.

A:\> C:                        This changes to drive C:

C:\> md Win 95          This makes a Win 95 directory on C:

C:\>\ cd Win 95          This changes to the new Win 95 directory on C:

C:\Win 95\>d: This changes to drive D:

D:\> cd Win 95           This changes to the Win 95 directory on D:

D:\Win 95 \> copy *. * C:       This copies all files to C:\Win 95

D:\Win 95\> C:           This changes to drive C:

C:\Win 95\> Setup      This starts the installation procedure

The second technique is to install strength from the installation CD to the hard disk. It involves putting the installation disk in the CD-ROM drive and from the command prompt, switching to the source directory, typing “Setup” and pressing “Enter” as shown below.

A:\>d:  This changes to drive D:

D:\> Setup       This starts the installation procedure

D:\Win 95\> Setup      This also starts the installation procedure (for a ‘Mega’ CD).

During the setup process, the system first prepares the “install shield” which grinds user though the rest of the setup process. The next stage is the “license agreement”. Thereafter the system checks itself for installed components. It then request for the “CD key” and after user particulars. It then proceeds to check for necessary disk space, prompts the creation of a “Startup disk” and choice of installation option. It then copies windows fits and then restart.

On restating the system finalizes setting for the hardware, configure any plug-and-play (PnP) devices that are installed and signal “Welcome” to show completion of the installation.

Widows NT procedure

The widows NT installation on the new COMPAQ machine quite similar to the of Win 95 except that the widows NT environment creates are information security than Win 95. The installation starts by slotting the COMPAQ Restore CD into the CD_RAM drive wherefrom the system boots. Service Pack (version 6.0) and the operating system (Win NT) follows. Various drivers are installed: The GID drivers and all other configured hardware have their drivers installed.

2.4       TROUBLESHOOTING COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Troubleshooting is the act of isolating the fault(s) in a computer system as a pre-condition to repairs. In some quarters, the twin concepts of faultfinding and repairs are considered together as troubleshooting.            The general technique of troubleshooting involves careful observation of the problem with a view to isolating the section of the computer system where the problem most probably occurred. Alternatively, when one is in doubt as to the cause of the problem, the “last upgrade rule” is followed.

By the “last upgrade one” the engineer starts the troubleshooting from the last upgrade hardware. The principle is that the hardware that were added since the last time computer was fault-free are most likely cause of the problem. They may have been improperly connected making them non-functional. They may have caused resource conflicts by taking up the same IRQ of other hardware. If all connections and configurative are correct, the suspects may be the recent hardware that may be faulty.

The recommended step is to start the system with the minimum hardware required. This means expansion cards; disk drives and other hardware except memory and CPU are disconnected. At this stage, this system should boot properly and count the RAM. If successful the fault in not from the processor/memory subsystem. Otherwise, it cannot boot, either the memory or processor is the culprit. This may be confirmed through swapping with other memory chips and processor. The other devices are then connected one after the other step wisely.

CHAPTER THREE

3.0       INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRIC CURRENT

An electric current is a movement of charge. When two objects with different charges touch and redistribute their charges, an electric current flows from one object to the other until the charge is distributed according to the capacitances of the objects. If two objects are connected by a material that lets charge flow easily, such as a copper wire, then an electric current flows from one object to the other through the wire. Electric current can be demonstrated by connecting a small light bulb to an electric battery by two copper wires. When the connections are properly made, current flows through the wires and the bulb, causing the bulb to glow.

Current that flows in one direction only, such as the current in a battery-powered flashlight, is called direct current. Current that flows back and forth, reversing direction again and again, is called alternating current. Direct current, which is used in most battery-powered devices, is easier to understand than alternating current.

Conductors are materials that allow an electric current to flow through them easily. Most metals are good conductors. Substances that do not allow electric current to flow through them are called insulators, nonconductors, or dielectrics. Rubber, glass, and air are common insulators. Electricians wear rubber gloves so that electric current will not pass from electrical equipment to their bodies. However, if an object contains a sufficient amount of charge, the charge can arc, or jump, through an insulator to another object. For example, if you shuffle across a wool rug and then hold your finger very close to, but not in contact with, a metal doorknob or radiator, current will arc through the air from your finger to the doorknob or radiator, even though air is an insulator.

All electric currents consist of charges in motion. electric current is conducted differently in solids, gases, and liquids. When an electric current flows in a solid conductor, the flow is in one direction only, because the current is carried entirely by electrons. In liquids and gases, however, a two-directional flow is made possible by the process of ionization.

1. Conduction in Solid: The conduction of electric currents in solid substances is made possible by the presence of free electrons (electrons that are free to move about). Most of the electrons in a bar of copper, for example, are tightly bound to individual copper atoms. However, some are free to move from atom to atom, enabling current to flow.
2. Conduction in Gases:Gases normally contain few free electrons and are generally insulators. When a strong potential difference is applied between two points inside a container filled with a gas, the few free electrons are accelerated by the potential difference and collide with the atoms of the gas, knocking free more electrons. The gas atoms become positively charged ions and the gas is said to be ionized. The electrons move toward the high-potential (more positive) point, while the ions move toward the low-potential (more negative) point. An electric current in a gas is composed of these opposite flows of charges.
3. Conduction in liquid solution: Many substances become ionized when they dissolve in water or in some other liquid. An example is ordinary table salt, sodium chloride (NaCl). When sodium chloride dissolves in water, it separates into positive sodium ions, Na⁺, and negative chlorine ions, Cl^–. If two points in the solution are at different potentials, the negative ions drift toward the positive point, while the positive ions drift toward the negative point. As in gases, the electric current is composed of these flows of opposite charges. Thus, while water that is absolutely pure is an insulator, water that contains even a slight impurity of an ionized substance is a conductor.Since the positive and negative ions of a dissolved substance migrate to different points when an electric current flows, the substance is gradually separated into two parts. This separation is called electrolysis.

There are several different devices that can supply the voltage necessary to generate an electric current. The two most common sources are generators and electrolytic cells.

1. Electric Generator:Generators use mechanical energy, such as water pouring through a dam or the motion of a turbine driven by steam, to produce electricity. The electric outlets on the walls of homes and other buildings, from which electricity to operate lights and appliances is drawn, are connected to giant generators located in electric power stations. Each outlet contains two terminals. The voltage between the terminals drives an electric current through the appliance that is plugged into the outlet. See Electric Power Systems.
2. Electrolytic Cells:Electrolytic cells use chemical energy to produce electricity. Chemical reactions within an electrolytic cell produce a potential difference between the cell’s terminals. An electric battery consists of a cell or group of cells connected together.
3. Other Sources: There are many sources of electric current other than generators and electrolytic cells. Fuel cells, for example, produce electricity through chemical reactions. Unlike electrolytic cells, however, fuel cells do not store chemicals and therefore must be constantly refilled.

3.1       AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT

An electric circuit is an arrangement of electric current sources and conducting paths through which a current can continuously flow. In a simple circuit consisting of a small light bulb, a battery, and two pieces of wire, the electric current flows from the negative terminal of the battery, through one piece of connecting wire, through the bulb filament (also a type of wire), through the other piece of connecting wire, and back to the positive terminal of the battery. When the electric current flows through the filament, the filament heats up and the bulb lights.

A switch can be placed in one of the connecting wires. A flashlight is an example of such a circuit. When the switch is open, the connection is broken, electric current cannot flow through the circuit, and the bulb does not light. When the switch is closed, current flows and the bulb lights.

The bulb filament may burn out if too much electric current flows through it. To prevent this from happening, a fuse (circuit breaker) may be placed in the circuit. When too much current flows through the fuse, a wire in the fuse heats up and melts, thereby breaking the circuit and stopping the flow of current. The wire in the fuse is designed to melt before the filament would melt.

Fig. 1 Simple Electric Circuit

Electric Cables

Electric Cable, cable composed of one or more electric conductors, covered by insulation and sometimes a protective sheath, used for transmitting electric power or the impulses of an electric communications system.

For electric-power transmission, three-wire cables sheathed with lead and filled with oil under pressure are employed for high-voltage circuits; secondary distribution lines usually employ insulated single-conductor cables. In residential electric wiring, B-X cable is often used. This type of cable contains two insulated conductors, which are wound with additional layers of insulation and covered with a helically wound strip of metal for protection. The ignition cable used to carry high-voltage current to the spark plugs of an internal-combustion engine is a single-conductor cable; it is covered with cloth impregnated with shellac for insulation..

3.2       ALTERNATING CURRENT

An alternating current is an electric current that changes direction at regular intervals. When a conductor is moved back and forth in a magnetic field, the flow of current in the conductor will reverse direction as often as the physical motion of the conductor reverses direction. Most electric power stations supply electricity in the form of alternating currents. The current flows first in one direction, builds up to a maximum in that direction, and dies down to zero. It then immediately starts flowing in the opposite direction, builds up to a maximum in that direction, and again dies down to zero. Then it immediately starts in the first direction again. This surging back and forth can occur at a very rapid rate.

Two consecutive surges, one in each direction, are called a cycle. The number of cycles completed by an electric current in one second is called the frequency of the current. In the United States and Canada, most currents have a frequency of 60 cycles per second.

Although direct and alternating currents share some characteristics, some properties of alternating current are somewhat different from those of direct current. Alternating currents also produce phenomena that direct currents do not. Some of the unique traits of alternating current make it ideal for power generation, transmission, and use.

FIG. 2 Alternating Current

            Advantages of Alternating Current

Alternating current has several characteristics that make it more attractive than direct current as a source of electric power, both for industrial installations and in the home. The most important of these characteristics is that the voltage or the current may be changed to almost any value desired by means of a simple electromagnetic device called a transformer. When an alternating current surges back and forth through a coil of wire, the magnetic field about the coil expands and collapses and then expands in a field of opposite polarity and again collapses. In a transformer, a coil of wire is placed in the magnetic field of the first coil, but not in direct electric connection with it.

The movement of the magnetic field induces an alternating current in the second coil. If the second coil has more turns than the first, the voltage induced in the second coil will be larger than the voltage in the first, because the field is acting on a greater number of individual conductors. Conversely, if there are fewer turns in the second coil, the secondary, or induced, voltage will be smaller than the primary voltage.

The action of a transformer makes possible the economical transmission of electric power over long distances. If 200,000 watts of power is supplied to a power line, it may be equally well supplied by a potential of 200,000 volts and a current of 1 amp or by a potential of 2,000 volts and a current of 100 amp, because power is equal to the product of voltage and current. The power lost in the line through heating, however, is equal to the square of the current times the resistance. Thus, if the resistance of the line is 10 ohms, the loss on the 200,000-volt line will be 10 watts, whereas the loss on the 2,000-volt line will be 100,000 watts, or half the available power. Accordingly, power companies tend to favor high voltage lines for long distance transmission.

3.3       INTRODUCTION TO TRANSFORMER

Transformer, electrical device consisting of one coil of wire placed in close proximity to one or more other coils, used to couple two or more alternating-current (AC) circuits together by employing the induction between the coils (see Electricity). The coil connected to the power source is called the primary coil, and the other coils are known as secondaries. A transformer in which the secondary voltage is higher than the primary is called a step-up transformer; if the secondary voltage is less than the primary, the device is known as a step-down transformer. The product of current times voltage is constant in each set of coils, so that in a step-up transformer, the voltage increase in the secondary is accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the current.

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0       WORKING EXPERIENCE AND JOB UNDERTAKING

4.1       WORKING EXPERIENCE

Great deal of knowledge and tremendous skills related to Electrical and Electronics Job was imbibed in me during the few weeks of vigorous training I went through at OLUWAROTIMMY COMPUTER INSTITUTES KONIFEWO OTA OGUN STATE

I was made to understand the basic knowledge in Building Installation, Repairing of Electrical appliances, wiring of Computer, wiring of three phase meter board, Amplifier setting and connection, installation of insulator on the pole, digging and laying of cable wire, settings of cables across the roof, wiring of the switches, connection of power to building, Installation of three phase transformer connection

I think with all this I have gained a lot during the Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme.

4.2       JOB UNDERTAKING

Electric current is measured in units called amperes (amp). If 1 coulomb of charge flows past each point of a wire every second, the wire is carrying a current of 1 amp. If 2 coulombs flow past each point in a second, the current is 2 amp.

Galvanometers are the main instruments used to detect and measure current. They depend on the fact that force is generated by an electric current flowing in a magnetic field. The mechanism of the galvanometer is so arranged that a small permanent magnet or electromagnet sets up a magnetic field that generates a force when current flows in a wire coil adjacent to the magnet. Either the magnet or the adjacent coil may be movable. The force deflects the movable member by an amount proportional to the strength of the current. The movable member may have a pointer or some other device to enable the amount of deflection to be read on a calibrated scale. 

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0       CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1       CONCLUSION

From the evaluation so far, there seems to exist a wide margin in the reality and actualization of the objectives of the students industrial work experience scheme (SIWES). It is disheartening to note that lack of proper coordination and supervision of the exercise is a factor limiting the full actualization of the objectives of the SIWES, this however, implies that for the students to be fully equipped with skills/knowledge required for efficiency in the place of work all hands must be on deck. The federal government through the industrial training fund and other agencies involved in the SIWES programme should wake up and address the situation to ensure that the loopholes in the system are covered.

5.2       RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations were based on the findings of the study and as a solution to the identified problems.

1. PROPER COORDINATION AND SUPERVISION OF THE EXERCISE: The various bodies involved in the management of the SIWES exercise i.e. Federal Government, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), NUC, NBTE and NCCE should come together and fashion out a modality that will ensure smooth operation of the SIWES exercise. Efforts should be made to ensure that students attached to the organization are properly supervised to ensure that what they are doing is inline with the objectives of the SIWES exercise.
2. The various bodies involved in the management of the SIWES programmes should liaise with the various industries ahead of tune so as to minimize or reduce to the barest minimum the high level of refusal to accept students for their industrial training participation.

iii.        ISSUING OF LOG BOOKS/IT LETTERS ON TIME: The log books used by the student during the industrial training period and the IT letters should be issued to the students at the end of the first semester exam as against the end of second semester examination as this will afford the students enough time to search for place that are relevant to their field of study.

1. EMPLOYMENT OF EXPERTS: The various institutions should endeavour to employ experts in the areas of career development to manage the student’s industrial placement centres.