Course projects

Calls for projects can be found here

What are course projects?

Think of course projects as particularly extensive pieces of homework that students must undertake in certain courses. Course projects provide students with opportunities to put their knowledge to practical use and gather precious experience in teamwork and project-based work. In addition to this, one cannot downplay the simple fact that it is endlessly gratifying to build something from scratch with nothing but your own initiative. Especially so if what you’re building is of great necessity to someone else and it promises to create actual value to others!

And herein lies crux why it’s necessary to speak about course projects: we are very much looking forward to project ideas from outside the university so that our students could then tackle these in the form of course projects!

Who can submit course projects?

The short answer to that question would be: anyone can! This includes you – whether you’re an entrepreneur, employee or a volunteer from either the industry, public sector or the civil society!

If one or more of the following statements apply, you should consider checking out whether your project could qualify as a course projects for a specific course:

• Your (development) budget is too small or wholly nonexistent and you cannot jump-start the project on your own.
• You’re missing people with the required qualification, be it software development, data science, business analytics or something else related to IT.
• You want to try and cooperate with universities and/or research institutions but dare not to invest too much on the first go.
• You want to involve people who would see your problem with a fresh perspective and could think outside the box.

Considering all this, one must bear in mind that the courses being taught are very different both in terms of content and form and the same applies to the course projects. This is why you must first ensure that your project conforms to a specific call and its requirements.

What you get in return, will – first and foremost – depend on the specific course and the approach that course projects follow in that specific course. Be as it may, certain things are out of control for both you and the course’s instructor: your project might not resonate with students and they might not choose it as their assignment; it may happen that a student from the team burns out and quits the course; your project might turn out to be more intricate than initially anticipated and team morale tanks, etc. However, there is one universal piece of truth: your willingness to work closely with the students is in correlation with the fruitfulness of the final outcome!