MMU: The Professional Development Live Projects

On Tuesday June 25th, Dr Janice Whatley & John White from MMU School of Computing are visiting The Sharp Project and are looking to speak to tenants about the Professional Development Live Projects scheme they run. They will be on-site between 11am and 3pm.

The Professional Development Live Projects are an exciting opportunity for local organisations to have a team of undergraduate students working on a project. Any local organisation, including businesses, charities and community groups, can take on the role of a client and work with our students.

How can you get involved?

Clients are organisations that have a business problem, suitable for computer science students to investigate and where possible address.

The student team works under academic guidance, using knowledge they have gained in their programmes of study, to address the specific business problem. Students are taking Computer Science, Computing or Software Engineering degree programmes, so can tackle a range of technical and managerial projects.

Why should you be a client?

Clients provide a project, which whilst not mission critical, does have importance in their business context. Students from a range of computer science, digital technology or similar programmes use the project to practice using the skills they are learning, and to try to solve the problem presented. Clients provide an important link to the business world to enhance the employability prospects of the students.

Examples of projects:

• Develop a database, for example to manage stock
• Evaluation of possible solutions for monitoring customer queries
• Designing a software solution to solve a business problem
• Design a series of web pages to raise public awareness of an issue
• Developing a business web site for a start up company

What is expected of a client?

Clients provide a suitable project that requires a solution, within the capabilities of year 2 undergraduate students. Typical projects are not time critical, and are usually equivalent to between one and three months work of a professional.

The project runs for 5 months and provides a meaningful context for the students’ learning experience. Clients should provide a contact person to liaise with the student team.

Please email if you’d like to meet with them.