Call for Projects
You have a problem or an idea that requires developing a mobile application, a Web application or some other software tool? But you don't have developers to implement it? Great, now you do!
I coordinate a course at University of Tartu called "Software Project". In this course, our final-year IT students get together in teams to build an IT solution using the knowledge accumulated during their studies. And here comes the best part. The solution they build can be yours to keep. Over the past 10+ years, our students have developed hundreds of prototypes and production-level systems in a wide range of fields. Some recent examples include:
- The Android and iPhone clients of XLaw - a tool that is used by Estonian lawyers to conveniently navigate across legal texts.
- A first version of the Android mobile banking app of BigBank
- The initial version of MatchMySound's automated feedback tool for music learners
- The scripting engine for ESTCube-2's Satellite Mission Control System
The teams will execute your project between 4 September and 19 December. Each team will be composed of four highly motivated students who will collectively spend at least 600 person-hours on your project (usually more).
If you are interested in proposing a project to our students, all we need is a one-page description focusing on: what IT solution you want, and for which users you want to build it?. Your project description can be written in Estonian or English. You can find some sample project proposals from previous years here, here, and here.
Project proposals should be sent to Kuldar Taveter, e-mail: firstname.lastname at ut.ee by 29 August 2020.
Additional details
As this project is part of academic studies, we do have some constraints and / or things you should bear in mind when proposing your project:
- I will check your proposal and I will tell you if I find that the project you propose is too small or too large for this course. If it is too large, I will propose you some ideas to reduce the size and complexity.
- It may happen that none of the teams selects your project proposal. If this is the case, no problem: we can propose your project to students doing other courses.
- You are expected to meet with the students (physically or remotely) every week or every two weeks, in order to explain your requirements and to check if what the students are developing fulfills your requirements.
- If you want to own the software that the students will produce, you should sign an agreement with the students upfront. By default we expect students to publish their code under Simplified FreeBSD license.
- If you need to have exclusive rights to the work done and/or require students to sign NDA for example, you can ask the students to do so at the start of the project. If you wish to own the Intellectual Property (IP), the default template we recommend for IP assignment is this one
- The developers are IT students. This means that sometimes (in about 50% of cases) the product they deliver to you is a prototype. It may need to be refined and tested further before you can use it "in production". In the past, some of the customers of the completed projects have hired the students part-time after the completion of the project to make the product ready for real-life use.
Further information: Kuldar Taveter - e-mail: kuldar.taveter@ut.ee