Software students doing projects mentored by companies – an ideal learning environment for all

An annual software project course in computer science at Aalto University lets students choose a project presented by partner companies – and work on it for seven months. Twenty-eight projects from companies like KONE, Finnair, F-Secure, Tuxera and many others, were proposed to the 14 student teams.

By the end of the course, student groups have competed for the Accenture Quality Award, where Tuxera’s student group has been recognized as the winner of the competition. The company acted as a product owner of the Tuxera’s Management Console for Industrial IoT Platform project, creating a real-life work environment for the team.

'We are honoured to once again partner with Aalto University. It’s a great opportunity for us to mentor, guide, and collaborate with the student community. Not only can we build innovative solutions together, but we get new ideas on how to make and improve our existing products,'  says Esko Vähämäki, Software Developer at Tuxera and product owner for the student project.

Throughout the project timeline, Tuxera was actively mentoring and guiding the team. The company also provided all of the required hardware and electronics, such as laptops, server hardware, sensors and multiple software products. Additionally, students were offered working premises at Tuxera’s headquarters, allowing them to work closely with the company’s employees.

Acting as a product owner, Tuxera defined the required features and functionality for the end-product and has actively mentored the students throughout the whole project timeline. As a result, the team has created an innovative solution that fulfilled the project requirements and has passed all of the quality assurance tests. This is a second consecutive year that Tuxera’s team wins the award.

'It was truly a nice experience working with Tuxera. They supported our learning process and work dynamics in a great way. Everyone was very open to new ideas and communication. Together we managed to produce excellent results,' says Ata ul Jamil, student at Aalto University and Tuxera’s student project Scrum master.

'The student team did excellent work in fulfilling Tuxera’s ideas about the software features. The team also paid lots of attention to software quality, which is a topic that we want to emphasize to our students,' says Jari Vanhanen, University Lecturer at Aalto University. He continues, “Esko Vähämäki, as our previous student, knows well what is required from the Product Owner in this setting, and provided the team with all the necessary support regarding facilities, domain knowledge, and technologies. His support ensured good project results but also an optimal environment for learning.”