Delivering Business Value, Developing Leaders

Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) offers faculty-led student IT consulting teams as a resource to companies and non-profit organizations through the IST Consulting Solutions program. Participating organizations benefit by receiving assistance with IT-related projects while students gain real-world, client-focused work experience.

The IST Consulting Solutions Program is a corporately sponsored initiative designed to foster the integration of complex, real-world learning experiences into the new IT consulting track within the IST curriculum. The CSP works closely with corporate, government, and education organizations to explore and develop innovative, win-win, partnerships and projects involving the IT Consulting Track students.

IST has worked with numerous organizations to help develop IT projects that not only provide robust learning experiences for student teams but real value for partnering organizations. Past projects have involved a wide variety of technologies (see enclosed project descriptions) and have had durations ranging from fifteen weeks to two years. Deliverables may include fully developed systems, prototype systems, feasibility studies, design analysis, and reports.

Each project typically involves a team of four to five IST students over a fifteen-week semester, which translates to 300-400 hours of student effort per project. Projects requiring more than fifteen weeks may be divided into phases to meet client needs. Initial phases are completed in the first semester while subsequent phases may be conducted in future courses, by summer interns, under a virtual internship arrangement, or as a sponsored development project.

To ensure project success, IST requires the sponsoring organization to assign a motivated contact person to oversee and interact with the team during the project. This person is asked to commit one hour per week to “meet” with the team to discuss project issues and answer questions. These weekly meetings typically occur by phone or videoconference. Other client responsibilities include:

- Providing project-related information in a timely manner

- Reviewing project status reports and providing feedback

- Evaluating project outcomes and, in some instances, team performance

The initial project commitment fee is $2,000 per team. The cost of engaging a second team to work on the same project is $1,000. These funds support project expenses and are used to cover overhead and other operating expenses.

Company intellectual property is protected under the terms of a non-disclosure agreement with Penn State. This agreement is binding on both students and University personnel, but includes provision for release of appropriate reports, display posters, and Web pages with prior approval of the sponsoring organization.

Brian H. Cameron, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Enterprise Informatics & Integration Center (EII)
College of Information Sciences and Technology
The Pennsylvania State University
102-L Information Sciences and Technology Building
University Park, PA 16802-6822

E-mail: bcameron@ist.psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-8713
Fax: 814-865-7882

To submit a project for consideration, please complete the Student Consulting Project Form

All requests will be reviewed by IST faculty members in the Enterprise Informatics & Integration Center