David Berman

Major: Computer Sciences

Certificate: Digital Studies

Graduation Date: May 2020

How did you end up working at General Motors?

I started at General Motors as a ‘New College Hire,’ which is an entry level software engineer position. After two years, I transitioned into a role as a mid-level XR (Extended Reality) engineer. I now work building Augmented Reality applications for manufacturing purposes.

What does a typical day in the office look like for you?

I spend my days working on software engineer tasks such as writing code, testing, and debugging. As a developer lead, I am responsible for writing requirements, working with users and stakeholders to define priorities, and gaining more adoption for our applications. Some days consist of coding new features while others can be spent in meetings with high-level discussions about how we can increase our business value.

How has Digital Studies influenced your career path?

As a software engineer, digital studies has been widely influential to my profession. While software is sometimes written to be run behind the scenes, I spend most of my time building tools for people. Not only is it crucial to understand how people will interact with your new tool/ piece of technology, but also to recognize if they currently use the tool differently than expected and adapt to achieve the desired outcome. I took a number of Com Arts courses which discussed the interaction users have with digital media, and those experiences have allowed me to use that same thinking for improving my applications and their user experience.

Simple concepts such as “Everything is a remix” help in my role, in this case allowing me to reuse common functionality from known applications in my own mobile app. One recent example would be designing a color picker to match the UX of the one found in Snapchat.

I also gained useful technical skills through the certificate courses I took. My first interaction with relational databases was in LIS 351: Intro to Digital Information. I use these types of databases daily and have seen dozens of entry level engineers with no experience struggle to use them. Additionally, as an XR engineer, I develop applications in 3-dimensional space. The importance of 3D modelling skills cannot be understated in my current role as I am constantly working with 3D files and software such as CAD and Blender.

Did you have a favorite Digital Studies class or professor when you were a student?

Com Arts 155: Intro to Digital Media Production with Professor Eric Hoyt. I really enjoyed being able to make different forms of media I wouldn’t have normally made. I was able to try new things and learned to use different software. I was even able to convince my friends to film a ridiculous video about the Annual Battle of Bascom snowball fight.

Do you have any advice for current students?

Go to every single football game, unless it’s cold. In that case, stay at the tailgate!

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career thus far?

Several 3D animations that I made were used by GM’s executives to showcase innovation in manufacturing to shareholders. I work on GM’s Digital Twin Platform, an integrated system of 3D simulations which correlate CAD data to physical robots and tools in manufacturing plants. I was given roughly a week to record a drone-esc flyover showing robot simulations and the end of line for the LYRIQ. Leadership was extremely happy with the results and I can only hope shareholders felt GM is moving in the correct direction!