Computer science students get hands-on

January 15, 2007

Computer science students at the University of New England have been making the most of their time at university by getting real job experience working on the university's computer systems.

Matthew Debus has just finished three years of computer science study at UNE. As part of his course he had the chance to work on a real-life project with the ITD Web team.

For Matthew, the chance to work on a project with ITD led not only to some valuable knowledge and terrific experience, but also to opportunities for further work in ITD.

"I came to ITD to work on a software engineering project. It was the first time I’d really worked as part of a team and on a real project that was going to be used by people," Matthew said. "I learnt so much about computing and how to work with others."

Daniel Gooch, head of the UNE Web project, said he was keen to give more students like Matthew the opportunity to gain much-needed real-world experience.

"It’s great to have students on the team," he said. "It’s a win-win situation. They are learning key skills and the university is benefiting from their training and enthusiasm."

Matthew will spend his holidays working with the Web team on the UNE Web upgrade. In 2007 he intends to build on this experience with an honors project based on his work experience at ITD.

Posted by Kate Nash at January 15, 2007 04:42 PM