Connecting undergraduate and postgraduate students with academics and research projects was a chore for The Faculty of Engineering and IT at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). They needed a custom digital solution to simplify and speed the process for all.

Problem

It was not a great experience for students, emailing multiple academics to find availability on projects. It was a very manual process and quite frustrating and time-consuming for both students and the academics who often found themselves receiving requests for supervision long after all places were taken.

Navigating the Unknown

reinteractive got to work on the app development in close coordination with the product owner, working to achieve all features required to ensure an efficient match between students and academics.

Because this was completely new territory and a new application, issues and unforeseen challenges came up wherein UTS and reinteractive needed to work together and be flexible.

“Often when you are doing something new you really don’t know what you don’t know or what you are coming up against. So you have to make instant decisions and realise that in order to achieve this, we need to do this other thing as well.

“We had to put the project on hold several times as there were things that our IT department had to deliver, things that were crucial and affected our systems in order for this platform to work. reinteractive were really flexible and worked with our schedule which we really appreciated.”

Taran Ahuja, Coordinator, Capstone and Project Subjects and Project Manager

What was once a manual and somewhat hit and miss process has been greatly simplified with a bespoke software solution that does exactly what the UTS Faculty of Engineering & IT requires.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students engage in projects with academics for the final year of their studies. This involves a complex matrix of industry, discipline, academics and other factors to ensure the students gain the necessary experience in their field.

UTS now has a customised portal to ensure best outcomes are achieved for their students. Staff can advertise undergraduate and postgraduate projects to their students. Students can review the list of projects on offer and apply for those they feel are the best fit. Once the applicants are in, academics filter and select the students to be part of the project, easily and rapidly. The software even allows students to propose their own projects and get backing for their ideas from the academics.

What used to be a frustrating and lengthy process is simple and fast.

The success in the Faculty of Engineering & IT means there is now a possibility the portal can be rolled out to other UTS faculties.