Project Lab and Project Work Issues and Experiences at the Eszterházy Károly College

1. Project LabandProject WorkIssues and Experiencesat the Eszterházy Károly College dr. Emőd Kovács, emod@aries.ektf.hu dr. Gergő Kovásznai, kovasz@aries.ektf.hu dr. Gábor Kusper, gkusper@aries.ektf.hu

2. Outline • Project Labs • Project Work • Project Seminar • Summary

3. Project Labs

4. Project Lab Course, the Austrian Example • Fachhochschule Hagenberg • All informatics BSc students have to learn this course, 2 semesters, 5-5 credits • Groups of 3-4 members with own project lab • They work on industrial projects. They develop software prototypes and work on feasibility studies. • Industrial partners usually ask them to develop the prototypes into market software, but this is done by a spin-off company owned by them.

5. Projekt Lab Course • In Computer Science BSc: • Not mandatory, it is open for talented students • The project are: • Preparation for Young Researcher Forum • Innovation projects founded by industrial partners • Web programmer higher educational vocational training: • 0 hours, 5 credits, in the 3. or 4. semester • Groups of 4-5 members with own project lab • Projects: • software prototypes and feasibility studies

6. Projekt Labs • Microsoft Lab (5 PCs, 5 MCP books) • Robotics Lab (2 PCs, 2 Lego robot kit) • Competition ”Gym” (4 PCs) • Software Test Lab (1 Sun server, 3 PCs) • Java Lab (8 thin clients)

7. Project Work Aim: deepening theoretical knowledge by using it in practice gain experience on team work earn reputation of our college

8. Project Work • The problem: • In computer science BSc students learn lot of useful knowledge and techniques, but their practical experience is not sufficient! • Possible solutions: • Practical semester (BSc is only 6 semester) • Cooperative study (only a few IT companyare around in Eger ) • Project Work 

9. Software Test Lab 1. • An office on 6m*6m • Hardware: • 1 blackboard, 6 tables + chairs, 1 bookself • 1 Sun server, 3 PCs • People-ware: • 6 students + 1 teacher

10. Software Test Lab 2. • Project: • Find deadlock in .NET byte code • Industrial partner: evoSoft Hungary Kft. • Resource: Innovational Tax • Success story: • 2. place on IBM 48 hours competition • 1. place on the local Young Researcher Forum • 1 conference talk (IF 2008) • 1 technical report

11. Experiences • Students gain new skills: • Teamwork • communication with the client • critical thinking: choice from many alternatives • Students learns techniques, which they know only in theory before: • Version management (subversion) • Graphics libraries (GraphViz, Glee)

12. Project seminar

13. Project seminar • The problem: • Bad results on the National Young Researcher Forum -> low ranking among universities • Unharmonized projects • Separated research activities • The solution, two folds: • Communication, Communication, Communication • Communication among • Teachers and Students • Teachers and Teachers • Applying for tenders like EU7

14. Teachers and Teachers • Mat. – Inf. Institution Seminar: • The faculty members introduce their research topics to the faculty. • Started in 2007 • Results: 11 joint publications with 2 or more faculty member. • Applying for EU7 tender with the title:“NURTURE: New European researcher generations: turning facilities accessible for IBLS across borders”.

15. Teachers and Students • Preparation for Young Researcher Forum (YRF) Course • Teachers introduce their research to students and try to attract them to join his or her research. • Students introduce their projects and teachers give them feedback how to proceed. • 8 courses, 1-2 lectures by each course. • Aim: 2-3 successful YRF applications.

16. Summary

17. Summary • Students like to be involved in project works. • The most successful projects are ordered by industrial partners. This project are software prototypes and feasibility studies. • Students can be motivated not only by money or credit points. • We need more communication!

18. Thank you for your attention!