Software Engineering Practicum Course Experience

The CMU Silicon Valley Software Engineering Practicum course is a curriculum capstone which provides the practicum student the opportunity to interact with an actual client. The client has a real problem and is in need of a software developed solution. Concurrently, it provides the opportunity for the student to demonstrate the acquired skills and knowledge derived from the software engineering curriculum. Student feedback has been very positive for this course because the students have a voice in their project selection, and they work on a real problem (not just a class assignment) with a real owner appreciating the student's efforts. A client benefits from working directly with a software engineering team (instead of a group of interns) in developing a meaningful solution to their specific problem within a one semester time window. Another success measure is the repetition of clients wishing to engage additional teams for more or continued projects.