In
2002 the College of
Computing Sciences at NJIT introduced a completely new designed senior project
Capstone course, utilizing projects from industry, faculty and students as the basis for team-oriented projects. In these projects, student teams analyze, diagnose and model system requirements to produce well-engineered
and well-documented software products.
The regular 491 or 492 course is offered as a one semester and may be extended to two-semester program during the
Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. This course is intended to provide senior Computer Science, Information systems and information technology
majors real world experience in software engineering and interdisciplinary
problem solving prior to graduation. This course is team-based in which project mangers and team members are carefully and
collaboratively selected to suit the task at hand. Course director/instructor solicit a revised selection of industry and real world projects from a broad array of sponsors.
Students work in teams of four to six in their senior project semester (approximately 14 weeks) on the analysis, design,
implementation, testing and documentation of the software product or the solution they are to develop. Each student is expected
to spend approximately nine hours per week on the project on average.
The skills mastered and experience acquired in a real world project provide
effective use of education and add substantial value to a student’s job qualifications. Results are measurable and tangible.
It is also an opportunity for industry to evaluate potential hires; establish strong ties between industry and the university
and faculty that may result into research and consulting benefits to the sponsor in fields of interest. Students in the Capstone
project have also been involved in many training and collaborative workshops, We have started recently the entrepreneurship track and students are being well-trained in intellectual property standards
and business start-up strategies.
1-During the early part of the semester, students choose
one of the proposed projects to implement
2-Students form teams starting from project manager selection
by instructor to team members selection by project managers .
3-Teams devise a plan for solving the business case using
information technology
4-Teams work on task analysis, feasibility studies, cost-benefit
estimations and risk assessment .Secondly , they begin requirements
gathering , requirements writing and mapping . Thirdly, teamsarchitect
system design models,front-end design and back-end design. All these phases
are done in parallel with formal presentations of deliverables to the client/sponsor and class in an evolutionary fashion
using prototypes.
5-Subsequently, each team implements its plan, periodically
reporting to the client/sponsor and instructor to present the progress of their work and solicit advice on problems in implementation.
6-By the end of the semester teams deliver their final products and documentation to sponsor
and instructor alike
Capstone
Sponsors
In
the spring 2005 semester, more than 50 project requests were made from more than 40 companies. This is the largest number
of industry-sponsors in one single semester Example of projects sponsors include but not limited to: McKesson, Honey Well,
PSE&G, CIT, Saint Clair Health System, Johnson and Johnson,State of NJ governor’s
office,Newark public Library, Newark Housing authority , Rutgers university,National Guard, Buyers, NASA,NSF and
tens of other businesses and research institutions Clearly, sponsors
and projects diversity demonstrate the broad array of interest in our capstone program.Projects dealt with many kinds of business problems and application areas from entertainment to finance to health to
education to the public sector needs. The capstone program also offers strong support and training to students who wish to
become entrepreneurs.Additionally, our entrepreneurship well-supported track that evolved
over the time generated at least 4 outstanding success stories.
Some Statistics
Progress in the Capstone program has demonstrated its
value and expandability. In Fall2002, the program had a total of 22 groups carrying out 22 senior projects. By Spring2003, there were 34 teams in the core courses, 10 teams
in an advanced curriculum and 2 supportive research teams. Of the Fall2002 senior projects, 15 (or 68.2%) were externally sponsored.
In the Spring2003, 26 (or 76.5%) had external sponsors. Currently, 100% of capstone projects are sponsored (Internally and/or externally).
After
two years of the capstone experience, more than 200 teams have completed more than 122 full-scale projects and 200
semester-long projects in which many have multi-phases and some have involved multi-team structures. By the end of Fall 2004
, the capstone program was able to establish project-based relationships with more than 91 sponsors in which more than 82%
are external business or organizations to NJIT .Our sponsors list include 6Fortune
500 companies, 51 medium to small to largesize companies across the tri state area , 8 sponsors from New Jerseycolleges
and universities , 5 public services departments or agencies at the city , state or national levelsand 7 unique projects sponsored from NJIT faculty. We expect 35-40 teams (200 students) to be available
for new projects by Spring2005.