UniSA Capstone Professional Project: Working with university STEM students

If you are a business located in South Australia and are seeking to engage local university students in short research or project work, then the University of South Australia (UniSA) invites you to join their Capstone Professional Project.

The program connects students in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) degrees with local companies to undertake real-world projects in small groups of 2-6 students, part-time, on-campus, over a 13-week semester.  

The Capstone Professional Project is different to an internship or work experience. Unlike an internship or work experience, the students completing the Capstone Professional Project work on a project provided by the industry partner in small groups on-campus at UniSA, rather than at the site of your business for multiple days per week.

Whilst you still drive the project and provide the scope and expected outcomes, students also have an Academic Supervisor at UniSA that assists them with completing the project tasks. You still receive an outcome based on what you tasked the students with producing, and still have contact with students throughout the project.

Your project brief can be simple and not fully formed – this can be further identified and clarified with the course coordinator and the allocated group of students once the semester begins. The project provided does not need to be completed in its entirety, it can be a smaller part of a bigger project. Students can work on smaller sections of larger projects, in different semesters, with new groups of students to continually improve and further develop the outcome.

Students work in groups of ideally 4 students to complete the industry project, however, groups can be made up of 2 – 6 students. Depending on the project type, the group can be hybrid – made up of different IT disciplines, e.g. data analytics students + cyber security students. Students are graded on the development of their soft skills (e.g. collaboration, communication) as well as the project outcomes and client feedback.

The main contact points with students are Weeks 1-3 to clarify project scope and requirements, then in Weeks 6 and 14 where students present their progress.

All correspondence with students can be conducted via online meetings or email, but any further involvement you would like to have during the project is welcome.

Benefits for your company:

• No cost to host a student project,
• Build a pipeline of work-prepared graduates for your company,
• Bring new insights to existing/ future business and industry challenges,
• Investing in a new generation of STEM-skilled workers through knowledge sharing and mentorship,
• Building and strengthening your partnership with higher education providers, like UniSA.

Key Dates:

For Semester 2, commencing Monday 22 July, UniSA is still looking for projects in the following areas:

• Data Science: analysis and visualisation of rich data sources, spotting data trends, and generating data management strategies.
• IT (Enterprise Management): critical systems analysis, IT focussed business analytics, business case development, process analysis, management report, requirements engineering, software selection, IT business solution.

• IT (Cyber Security): develop cyber security standards, frameworks, and guidelines; testing of security operations and security architectures, creating awareness of cyber law and digital evidence. 

For Semester 1, 2025 beginning in February, UniSA is looking for projects in the above areas, as well as in:

• software/web/mobile development,
• games design, and
• data analytics.

Contact:

For further information on the Capstone Professional Project, or on how to get involved, please contact the UniSA Senior Industry Experience & Engagement Officer via email Emily.Donoghue@unisa.edu.au or phone 8302 5142.

Alternatively, you can contact the Manager Industry Experience & Engagement via email Margaret.Hunt@unisa.edu.au or phone 8302 9147.

Further Information:

If you would like further information on work activities with university students, Ai Group has developed this simple guide for employers to use. Download your copy here.

Ai Group members may also be interested in our Centre for Education and Training’s recent position paper on work-integrated learning: Connecting to maximise knowledge and skills: Companies and universities working together, and the accompanying webinar: Time to integrate work and learning in university qualifications, with special guests: Luke Sheehy, CEO, Universities Australia, Michael O'Connor, President, Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN), and Erika Hughes, Commercial Director, Integra Systems.