MSc project with industry

This page is for industrial partners. Students and supervisors should refer to internal pages on QM+.

MSc Projects with Industry were first introduced in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) MSc programs in 2013 and have been very successful. Such a program gives you an opportunity to work with enthusiastic MSc students on a project proposed by your company.

A project could be something your company is interested in pursuing but does not have the current resources to pursue. Our students can apply and further develop the skills and knowledge they have gained during their studies in your projects.

Our students specialise for their Masters (MSc)degrees in 3 areas:

• Computing and data science: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Games, Computer Science, Computer Science by Research, Computing and Information Systems, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (Conversion) and Digital and Technology Solutions (Apprenticeship).
• Electronics: Advanced Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering by Research and Internet of Things.
• Media Technology: Machine Learning for Visual Data Analytics and Sound and Music Computing.

See here for a full list of our MSc programmes.

 

Contacts

If your company is interested in participating, please contact the Industrial Project Coordinator, Stefan Poslad - stefan.poslad@qmul.ac.uk, or if you have any questions about the individual MSc programmes, please email the programme coordinators by clicking on the individual programme links above.

 

Benefits of the Programme

For industrial partners

• Opportunity to do new, small-scale, creative projects without commercial pressure
• Cost-effective way of getting a project done or an idea tested
• Creative, highly-skilled and fresh approach
• Ability to trial potential employees
• Access to academics involved in cutting-edge research

For students

• Exposure with industry
• Practice important employability skills: CV and application writing, and interviewing
• Work on a practical problem with real data

For faculty members

• Facilitate collaboration with industrial partners
• Open up new opportunities for partnerships

 

Key information

• We do not expect students to be paid for these projects.
• Projects can either be based at the School or on your company's site.
• Most projects are initially part-time for 5 months (January-May) and then full-time for the final 3 months (June-August).
• Each project will be co-supervised by an academic faculty member from the School and an industrial partner from your company.
• Academic co-supervisors ensure that projects meet academic requirements: appropriate intellectual challenge and novelty can be examinable by 3rd parties
• Intellectual Property: We offer flexible arrangements regarding any IP developed by the student participating in an industrial project.

 

Process

Overview of the process from the point of view of industrial partners:

• Industrial partners send project descriptions to coordinators.
• Each project is assigned an academic co-supervisor who is a faculty member at the School (EECS).
• Once a project description is confirmed and approved by the School, the project is advertised to students.
• Projects workshop: industrial partners are invited to meet students and talk about proposed projects.
• Prospective students can apply for projects.
• Students are advised to prepare a CV. Formal interviews can be organised if required by an industrial partner, especially if more than one student is interested in a project.
• Industrial partners in coordination with the academic co-supervisors select students.
• IP agreements finalized
• Students work on projects.

 

Timeline

• September - October: project descriptions are collected and advertised
• November - December: student selection for projects
• January - June: students work part-time on their project
• June - July: students work full-time on their projects
• August: students submit final reports and deliverables; university viva exams take place.

Exact dates vary slightly each year.

 

How to propose a project?

Projects can be proposed any time of the year and will be advertised to students at the earliest available opportunity. Industrial partners are asked to provide the following basic information:

• Project title.
• Project description.
• There is no fixed format. Project descriptions can take a variety of different forms such as a short-written description of the project or even a short video clip of someone talking about a project/problem.
• Essential/desirable skills, knowledge, and experience of an ideal candidate.
• Academic co-supervisor(s). Please let us know if you have a preference, from your previous contacts with faculty members or based on their research areas. If not, the coordinators will help find an academic co-supervisor for your project. Note that not all faculty members are available to supervise MSc projects each year.
• Company name.
• Company details, such as website, division, physical location of the team, if relevant.
• Industrial co-supervisor(s): name and email address. Please email this information to the Industrial Project Coordinator. Email stefan.poslad@qmul.ac.uk.

 

About Past Projects

Some feedback from academic co-supervisors "Working with [this industrial partner] has been absolutely great and very interactive and engaging and we would like to continue working with them in the future." "Following last year's two projects, [this industrial partner] seems interested in more projects this year; I am talking with them to specify what these might be." "The industrial partner I am collaborating with in my research has offered to construct some masters student projects for us, if we are interested." Some of the topics our students worked on

• Educational Gaming
• Encryption
• Network Virtualisation
• Antennas (multipath suppression techniques)
• Signal Processing and Music Technology
• Digital Publishing
• Semantic Analysis

Some of the organisations we have worked with: