In this challenge, third-year Bachelor Artificial Intelligence students from Radboud University work in teams on a real-world software project for your organisation. Over the course of a semester, they design and build a substantial software system using modern Agile/Scrum practices, and deliver a working product plus documentation.

Key features of the challenge

• Students per team: 7-8 students.
• No. of hours spent per team: 900 in total (100-120 hours per student)
• Course: Modern Software Development Techniques (MSDT)
• Program: BSc Artificial Intelligence
• Duration: ± 5 months, February 2 - July 3
• Supervision: Student teams will be assigned internal supervisors at the university to monitor their progress. The details and content of the project are mainly under the supervision of supervisors in the company.
• Deliverables: A working software system + System, user, and software-level documentation
• Company time investment: 10-16 hours (bi-weekly sprint review meetings + final feedback)
• Matching fee: €850,- (ex tax, charged by Master Challenge (NOT the university)).

Challenge Examples

Student teams can work on a wide variety of software projects, as long as there is a substantial software component and a clear goal. Examples of suitable projects:

• Web application or internal tool
  • Build a web-based tool (e.g. in Java, Python or JavaScript) that supports an internal process such as planning, reporting, or workflow management.
• Data management & dashboarding platform
  • Develop a backend and frontend to store, query, and visualise data (e.g. customer, sensor, or research data) for your organisation.
• Simulation or decision-support tool
  • Implement a configurable simulator or rule-based tool that helps employees explore scenarios and support decisions.
• Serious game or interactive application
  • Create a prototype in Unity or similar to support training, education, or awareness around a topic relevant to your organisation.
• Integration tool or middleware
  • Build software that connects different systems or APIs in your organisation and automates repetitive tasks.

As long as the project is technically challenging, has a clear user or business value, and can be executed with the available data/hardware, it will likely be a good fit.

Questions? Want to discuss your challenge before submitting one? Schedule a call here.

Company requirement

• Any company (startup/scale-up/corporate/incubator/NGO) with at least two founders/employees working full-time in the company.
• In business for at least 6 months.

Costs

To help facilitate this challenge a matching fee of €850,- (ex tax) per team applies (charged by Master Challenge and NOT the university).

❗️You will only be charged when matched to a team.

How to apply

You can submit the challenge directly through the website. Provide a title that summarises the challenge. Subsequently, briefly elaborate on your challenge. See link for a template you could use: https://link.masterchallenge.me/challenge-template or use the challenge generator: https://masterchallenge.me/challenge-generator

🗓 Planning

• January 23: Deadline to submit a challenge
• January 23 (or sooner): Receiving a message if your challenge is approved by the Course Coordinator
• February 2-5: Matching phase
  • January 31: Student teams rank the challenges
  • February 4: You rank the teams that want to work on your challenge(s)
• February 5: Our matching algorithm will create perfect matches
• February 9-13: Kick-off meeting with your team (hand over data to the team)
• February 16 - June  4: Bi-weekly meetings with the team
• June 22 - 26: Final presentation and project hand-in (offline/online)