On Tuesday, January 27th, third-year students in Department of Information Science Faculty of Science and Engineering, who are taking the course "Project Design Management," held their final presentation of their project results at the SCSK Kyushu Corporation headquarters (Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City).
This presentation was held as part of the "Project-Based Design Exercise," an industry-academia collaborative PBL (Project-Based Learning) program that SCSK Kyushu and our university have been working on since 2004. In this project, which has been ongoing for over 20 years, engineers from SCSK Kyushu work alongside students for approximately four months, guiding them through everything from specification review to development, review, and demonstration in a manner close to actual work.
This time, two teams (14 members) were selected from a total of seven teams (49 students) and invited. Each team gave a presentation to company employees about the system they developed based on a client order prepared for the class.
The embedded systems team "KYOSO" developed the "SanQ Santa" system. The system, themed around Christmas, features music that changes depending on the points the robot earns while running, and they conducted a demonstration using an ET Robocon robot. The students reflected that while they deepened their practical learning by experiencing the entire process from requirements definition to implementation and delivery, they also realized the difficulties of project management, such as schedule delays, budget overruns for personnel and transportation costs due to increased meetings, and a lack of information sharing.
Team leader Ryosuke Homori (Junshin High School) said, "While bringing this six-month project to a close, there were many challenges, such as conflicts of opinion, handling reviews, and giving instructions to team members, but I feel a great sense of accomplishment because of it."
The web development team, "Gourmet Investigation Team," created the restaurant search site "Jungle Me," and their UI design, which prioritizes user-friendliness and functionality for both users and restaurants, was highly praised.
Team leader Kyosei Inoue (Kudamatsu High School) reflected, "We struggled to equalize the workload, but we used the cloud to organize and consolidate the team's work. I realized how difficult it is to manage a team, but at the same time, I feel that I have grown as a person."
In his comments, Koji Kumagai, General Manager of the Kyushu Product & Service Division at SCSK Corporation, praised the participants, saying, "They have put their PBL learning into practice and have acquired a great deal of knowledge, communication, and presentation skills. We look forward to their further growth in the future." Finally, Kenichi Kobayashi, General Manager of the IT Service Division at SCSK Kyushu Corporation, shared his outlook, stating, "This initiative is evolving every year, and this year it has continued to develop with the addition of an AI course. This interactive project, which also leads to skill development for the companies involved, is a very meaningful initiative."
This PBL (Project-Based Learning) program was selected as one of the "30 Best Courses for Developing Basic Skills for Working Adults" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2013), and contributes to developing students' practical skills and producing talent for the local community. Our university will continue to enhance learning through industry-academia collaboration and promote educational activities that cultivate the skills students need to succeed in society.
[Department of Information Science]
