The Software Development Studio is a unique teaching and learning environment at UTS, built to emulate a real software development practice, where student teams work on industry-initiated projects and industry leaders are volunteer mentors.

What does Software Development Studio involve?

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Transcript

[Text on screen: Software Development Studio Prototype Showcase]

I guess what surprised me the most about the studio was just how collaborative it was. We worked really, really well as a team and also with industry to create some really fantastic solutions for people out there.

What surprised me the most about the Software Studio learning experience was how close to industry we actually got to work. Basically, all the processes that we follow, the projects that we get to work on, and also the fact that we get to work with industry mentors and real clients was basically the icing on the cake.

What really surprised me about my learning experience as part of the Software Development Studio is that they actually allowed us to define our own process, our own tools and pipeline, so that it really became our project and our subject. A lot of the outcomes were just whatever we as a group decided on.

The experience working with UTS students was exhilarating. They were super engaged, super on the ball; they had a lot of excellent ideas. It really helped me as well, thinking outside the box, working with people that are, I guess, younger and have different perspectives on the possibilities of the project and what we could consider doing.

I guess I learnt about teamwork and how it can really work well if you have a fantastic team. The team I had behind me, we weren't friends at the start of the project but we became very close by the end of it and we worked really, really well together.

The most valuable skills I've learnt probably revolve around how to work in a software team to deliver products and also, most recently, how to actually lead software teams and interface with clients as well.

The most valuable skill that I learnt as part of the Software Studio was actually working in a team where we could define whatever processes and agile methodologies we actually wanted to work with.

The value of working with UTS students was their incredible ability to think outside the box and their tendency to put themselves in the customer or the client's shoes, to really think about what they would be delivering and how the person receiving that would be able to use it and what would benefit them.

The Software Development Studio is the School of Software’s Industry Studio Program offered as an elective to senior year students studying the Bachelor of Information Technology at UTS. It aims to teach the industrial design of software by replicating as closely as possible, the real life experience of software design through a structural process of teaching.

One brief, 12 weeks, teams of 4–6 students

Get involved

industrystudios@uts.edu.au

Working in multi-year teams and under the guidance of industry and faculty mentors and coaches, you’ll deliver solutions for problems posed by industry.

Teams are made up of four or five members who are not peers, but come from different years of study and also from both the Bachelor of Engineering and the Bachelor of Science in IT. You will also have half-a-dozen industry mentors who spend one to two hours weekly, face-to-face collaborating on your solution.

You will use industrial tools and work in development roles to create software as a design activity. Your team will use an Agile methodology; your group's software development is on a very short cycle so you can catch mistakes quickly. It is the perfect space to feel comfortable taking risks!

Combined with your practical experience in the software studio, you will receive theory and reflection tasks for your work practice.

What are some of the previous projects?

Teams have worked on industry-engaged projects that include assisting various mobile apps, research-based game development, start-ups with their software development, and extending a user interface development tool.

Meet the academic

Headshot Dr Yining Hu

Dr Yining Hu
Lecturer
School of Computer Science

Dr Yining Hu is a Lecturer in Software Engineering at the School of Computer Science, University of Technology Sydney. She is also a researcher and developer in Blockchain and Web3, IoT, and AI. She has worked on many industry and academic projects across various sectors including telecommunication, cryptocurrency, agriculture and supply chain management. Learn more about Yining