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Monash and IBM engineer new talent

16 August 2006

Professor Heinz Schmidt (right) with IBM Senior IT Architect Mr Davyd Norris.

Final-year students in the Bachelor of Software Engineering (BSE) had both their skills and job prospects boosted last week when IBM conducted a series of workshops that reinforced the strong ties between Monash University and the company.

IBM has been investing in the BSE degree at Monash since 2002 under the direction of Dr Sita Ramakrishnan, Course Leader, BSE Program. IBM/Rational has provided training and hundreds of thousands of dollars in advanced software engineering tools.

Dr Ramakrishnan who organised this workshop with assistance from Ms Margo Robertson, IBM's Academic Initiative Program said the hands-on workshops marked a new phase in the relationship.

Professor Heinz Schmidt, from Monash's Centre for Distributed Systems and Software Engineering said the workshops focused specifically on advanced modelling, design technologies and methods that were being used in the software industry and were part and parcel of the skill-set that software engineers had to bring to the workforce.

They also aimed to help prepare Monash students for a professional certification exam that IBM would offer this year to fourth-year students for the first time.

IBM Senior IT Architect Mr Davyd Norris, who conducted the workshops, said the company's worldwide Academic Initiative Program supported universities such as Monash, which espoused modern engineering's best practice, including a team-based final-year industry project.

"Monash's syllabus is very progressive compared to many of the other universities out there, and it reflects the fact that industry is changing," he said. "You need a lot more modern software engineering practice, and you need to be efficient in it before you come out of university."

Professor Schmidt said the Monash--IBM liaison was dedicated to educating the brightest software engineers and architects who were highly sought after by industry, including IBM, which was always on the lookout for top talent, particularly those who were adept in the IBM toolset.

There was a growing demand in industry for qualified software architects, and software architecture was a "hot research area", producing a new generation of engineers who could work with complex systems that had many existing components that were already programmed, he said.

Mr Norris said Monash software engineering students were extremely valuable to the workplace because, as part of their course, they used industry-standard tools on real projects. The opportunity for them to be certified would further increase their value.

"We've had interest from our business partners, clients and internally for graduates who are certified and who have had some hard-core experience in real software development with real industry tools," he said.