Responding to a student’s inquiry this week about whether there exist formal channels or forums for connecting students to “clients” interested in working with them on their major project. The answer, in short, is no — students are expected to do their own legwork in seeking out viable project subjects — but there are some helpful options:
1) Occasionally, opportunities for client-student partnerships come to the school through word-of-mouth, and when they do they are often announced to the I School community via email d-lists. Meena and I will post these here as we learn about them.
2) Many alumni (and other external contacts) subscribe to the noise@ischool d-list, so students might consider casting their nets through that channel — but before you do, be prepared to describe what kind(s) of project you’re interested in. A generic message sent to a wide audience with little specificity
“Anyone out there have a project idea for us?”
is far less effective than one with a few details
“To fulfill a major project requirement for our i214 course, we’re offering free user research services to help make your Android or iOS app the best it can be. Our team comes with experience in the areas of health care, public policy, and finance, if that’s relevant to your company or organization.”
3) Odds are you already have 1st- or 2nd-degree connections to one or more non-profit organizations. Non-profits are wonderful candidates for student projects because it affords them services they likely couldn’t afford to pay for, and you’re helping them achieve their valuable mission. Win-win!
4) Finally, the University itself is a rich environment for opportunities. Many campus offices, departments, libraries, etc., would benefit enormously if a team were to help them improve one of their systems, apps, or websites.
Tap your networks. Post (meaningfully) to your d-lists. Poke around campus for interesting leads. And, of course, be friendly with your classmates, who may have leads and ideas to share, and may even become your major project colleagues before too long.
