Overcoming limited resources: An academia-government partnership on software engineering and capstone projects

Partnerships can be effective tools for engaging universities with their communities. In this paper we present an academia-government partnership between the Software Engineering, Graphics, and Visualization research group established in the Department of Computer Science at Rowan University and the Federal Aviation Administration's Simulation and Analysis Group at William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This partnership was established with the primary goal of increasing Rowan University's Computer Science undergraduate students exposure to real-world projects in software engineering and other upper-level courses, while allowing the FAA to receive quality professional software products by spending only limited resources. As a result, students acquire skills necessary to enter professional science and engineering occupations immediately after graduation. We present the major outcomes of this partnership, which include quality software products and publications in national conferences, and discuss the set up which allowed us to overcome both academia and government difficulties.