Indeed. I should've also mentioned that this semes...

2009-10-30T20:39:19.063-04:00

Indeed. I should've also mentioned that this semester John Bowles is leading our first 490 class. The new 490 is a two-semester capstone project class which will completely replace the current one-semester 492 (this year is a transition year so we are offering both).

For 490 we are hoping to find people from industry who need projects developed and, more importantly, are willing to put in the long hours required to specify what it is they actually want.

Having two semesters will give the students time to create much more sophisticated applications, we hope.

Still, I think "creating something useful" is a dream only a few of us will ever achieve. Not because we can't write good software, but because the nature of the software business--zero costs of reproduction and network economics--means that there are only a few winners in each space. That is, there is only one Facebook, only one MS Excel, only one Gmail.

I think the hardest part in creating software that people will use is figuring out what the features are that will make people want to use it, instead of the competition.

I think that Joel's reference to the idea that cap...

2009-10-30T14:56:35.951-04:00

I think that Joel's reference to the idea that capstone projects "frequently fail to deliver anything useful" really hits home.

Looking back on my capstone project, most of the students had a severe case of senioritus; they just wanted to graduate at the end of the semester. This generally leads to doing the "bare minimum" and, like Joel guessed, none of our capstone projects that semester produced anything useful.

This idea of producing something "useful", however, is rather vague. To me, "useful" would be a project that endures in some form after the semester has finished.

My favorite part about Joel's post was learning that there are universities out there that are teaming up to create even larger capstone projects. Teams of up to 6 students from multiple universities! How awesome is that?

And to top it off, their projects are contributing to an existing open source project! This helps ensure that something useful will come out of it (if all goes according to plan, that is).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash the way we run our Capstone course. I learned a lot about project management and how to interact with team members. Learning to interact with people who think differently from you is one of the most valuable skills you can learn in college. I owe the majority of my experience in that area to my capstone project.

My only regret was that we did not create anything useful. I think contributing to an open source project is an awesome idea, and I bet that we could get sponsors from the OSS community to help the students get up and running on a project like this.

I have heard rumors that things like VIP and the old CSE dropbox came from capstone projects in our department. If this is true, why don't we do more of these? If it's not true, lets start doing it! Maybe some projects are just too big for a semester. Maybe they need to be split into two or three capstone projects. I know this is easier said that done, and these things might put more pressure on the faculty that sponsor it, but it would be absolutely worth it.

Regardless, if we could end every semester with a "Look what our capstone projects produced!" on the front page of the department site, I think it would greatly boost our image. It also gives the students something to talk to their future employer about at a job interview.

I have heard that the current capstone class has some cool projects going on. It sounds like some of the projects will definitely live on past the scope of the class. That is very exciting. I am eager to see what will be produced by the semesters end!

Comments on Jose M Vidal: Capstone Projects

Indeed. I should've also mentioned that this semes...

I think that Joel's reference to the idea that cap...