Final year UQ IT students delve into open data

The Queensland Government, through the Open Data portal, has provided over 200 students from The University of Queensland with a unique opportunity to perfect their software development skills by mentoring student groups while playing the role of ’real clients’ who need a software application written to specification.

The user

Studio 3 is a final year information technology capstone course at The University of Queensland. It aims to provide students with experience of the software development life cycle, with an emphasis on building working software systems that are accurate to specifications, delivered on time, tested and evaluated with users.

During 2016, over 200 students, divided into 34 teams, have worked together with industry clients to design and build a major information technology project. Ten of the projects were sponsored by a cross-section of Queensland Government departments using data from the Queensland Government’s Open Data Portal.

The scope of the projects ranged from visualising convict and immigration data to the calculation of bio-condition scores and mine rehabilitation report cards.

The course concludes with an exhibition held in October every year at The University of Queensland St Lucia campus.

The benefits

The students are working with real datasets and real clients that know their data. This relationship enables the students to develop the necessary skills to liaise with industry and to react to shifting client requirements in a professional way using the agile project development framework ‘scrum’.

Students emerge from the year-long experience knowing they can design and develop a mature software application that provides real value to industry or the community. The close collaboration also allows students to start forming their professional networks permitting an easy entry into their chosen profession.

Further information

For more information on the projects completed by the students contact opendata@qld.gov.au.

For more information about the UQ Studio 3 course and how to become a client for the students, contact the course coordinator Dr Alex Pudmenzky via email a.pudmenzky@uq.edu.au.

To access Queensland Government data, bookmark http://data.qld.gov.au.

View the 2016 Studio 3 projects.

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