Sacramento State hosted the inaugural Quality Software Development Conference today for students to meet software developers, make contacts and see the software of the future.

Cici Mattiuzzi, director of career services for the College of Engineering and Computer Science said computer science engineers are in high demand. Half of all job offers for graduate students are for computer science engineers and starting pay can be as high as $80,000 a year.

Heather Giovanni, software engineering program manager for Hewlett-Packard, said Sac State engineering and computer science students are in high demand in the software development industry.

“The quality here is really good,” Giovanni said. “We have a lot of employees that come out of Sac State. There is a really good foundation here.”

The Sacramento Area Quality Association was on hand to meet with students. Jim Williams, president of SAQA, said the group focuses on solving software problems.

“We have been working with a few of the graduate students,” Williams said. “We offer them real-world opportunities to work on projects that are going on. It’s a win-win solution for both of us.”

Students had the opportunity to view some of the newest software technology emerging on the market.

Dave Ferguson, president of Mahalo Logic, said he hopes students will realize the relevance of their studies by seeing what is happening in the industry.

“It’s a chance to see what life might be like after graduation,” Ferguson said. “If they have a chance to see where they might be going, they have a better chance of getting there.”

Arun Pandian, computer science graduate student, said some of the technology discussed was something he had only heard about.

“I am learning about cloud computing,” Pandian said. “It is brand new and I am just starting to understand it.”

Cloud computing is an internet-based software development, allowing clients to get services custom-built without having to purchase and license the software. Google apps is an example of internet-based business software provided through cloud computing.

Rhoderick Medina, senior computer science and Japanese major, said the conference gave him insight on how and why Google has become successful.

“Google gives engineers one day a week to work on whatever they want,” Medina said. “I think that by giving them an outlet to be creative, a lot of successful ideas come out of Google. That level of valuing employees is hard to find in software companies.”

Mattiuzzi said the conference was created almost by accident.

“It was a result of faculty interest,” Mattiuzzi said. “I sent out some emails, expecting about 50 students, and 250 signed up.”

Derek Fleming can be reached at [email protected]