GLOBAL is committed to provide not only excellent academic education but also to bridge the gap between industry and academia. Therefore, it strongly believes that its graduates must not only have a solid body of knowledge of the basic principles of each science (either computer science, business or psychology) but also develop many skills, which are usually developed in an industrial setting. In response to this demand, GLOBAL has initiated the institution of the “Industrial Project”.

What is an Industrial Project?

It is a project provided/set by an industrial company and assigned to a team of students. Students have to go through all the phases of ideation, research, analysis and feasibility study, design and development of a final report or software (if it is related to software engineering).

The benefits for the companies

Companies have the opportunity to:

• participate and gain experience in projects, which use state of the art methodologies and techniques for the solution of problems. For example: object-oriented analysis and design (e.g. using UML) and development process models that go beyond the traditional life cycle model (e.g. the rational unified process, extreme programming, etc).
• experiment with high-risk projects (for which the company risk for failure is high and the benefit is unclear).
• contact/hire tomorrow’s professionals.

Companies can also provide industrial domain know-how, depending on their specialization. Students work on the projects and create deliverables (reports, software, etc) which may be considered as first releases to the problems addressed.

The benefits for the students

The participation in the Industrial Project contributes greatly to the profile of a graduate, in terms of skills and knowledge. Students have the chance to work in a real environment, follow a disciplined process and deal with the problems that arise. They also become familiar with the common practice followed in the industry. Skills developed within the process of the Industrial Project are:

• effective communication,
• working in teams and distributing tasks between team-members,
• ability to manage real-world problems,
• managing time-pressure and working under deadlines,
• managing risk.