Students showcase IS expertise

THIRD and fourth year information systems students at UCT recently had the opportunity to showcase their expertise and professionalism at exhibitions held at the Kramer Law Building and Capricorn Park in Muizenburg.

The Information Systems' Project Expo 2002, hosted at Capricorn Park, featured 41 third year information systems student groups who presented projects that form part of their course work and make up a large part of their year mark.

“Students are extremely motivated and put lot of effort into these projects. This exhibition provided a forum for the IS department to show industry and prospective students what we can offer and what we do,” explains lecturer Elsje Scott, adding: “The course needs to be industry-related, so this was an opportunity to get new ideas from industry and possibly sponsorship for next year's projects.”

The projects on show were web-based management systems developed to fit the needs of specific businesses. Scott says that each group of five students had to go out into industry and find a sponsor on whose business specifications their final product could be based.

The fourth year exhibition, held at the Kramer Law Building, featured 16 web-based systems developed by student groups, followed by presentations by the top three groups.

These covered a wide range of applications, the three winning systems meeting the needs of businesses in agriculture, film screen-writing and financial portfolio management.

“They go to industry and find out what is needed. Their system has to improve the organisation's efficiency and effectiveness, and often students enable the business to operate differently or even create totally new business opportunities” says IS honours convenor, Professor Mike Hart.

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