Computer Science News
Students Shine in Industry Elevator Pitch Event
On Friday 12 January 2018, UCL Computer Science students took part in the department’s annual student Elevator Pitch Event, where they were tasked with presenting their student-industry projects to an audience of specially invited clients and partners.
The Elevator Pitch event forms part of the assessment for the Systems Engineering module, which can be taken by second year students. The core objective of Systems Engineering is for students to put into practice their skills within the Computer Science Industry Exchange Programme (IXN) structure, to develop a cutting-edge solution to a challenging problem defined by the client. The students work in teams to deliver and pitch a working version of their application, along with a project video and website.
Course lead Dr Dean Mohamedally described the benefits of the module:
“The Elevator Pitches can only be a 2 minute overview of a project, which motivates students to be precise in their findings. The project gives students a taste of real-world work, as they must present their proof of concept to industry clients and integrate their feedback. It’s a great way for them to gain visibility and insights into prototyping, and how this is best explained to companies.”
25% of this year’s projects are in healthcare, with long-standing industry partners such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, Nuffield Health and NHS Digital represented. Start-ups and third sector organisations have also become involved for the first time this year.
The event was well received by industry professionals, who enjoyed the opportunity to hear more about the range of student projects. They were impressed by the use of innovative technologies, from smart glasses to chat-bots and speech enabled systems.
The Elevator Pitches are a precursor to the CS Student Showcase, which will take place on Tuesday 24 April 2018. We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us for this event, which will be open to industry partners, researchers, fellow students and staff, and the general public. More details will follow at a later date.
The project videos produced by students will soon be made available on the UCL Computer Science YouTube channel.
