Postgraduate industry experience projects

A postgraduate industry experience project with Monash IT is a capstone unit for your postgraduate studies. It’s your chance to apply the skills and knowledge you’ve gained throughout your degree in an industry-focused setting.

Research, develop, apply – all in a real-world setting

The Monash IT industry experience (IE) project is an experiential project. That means you get the opportunity to research contemporary approaches to system development, develop new skills, and then apply these skills and the knowledge gained throughout your course in the development of an IT system.  And  all  within  an  industry-focused  setting.  Of course, you’ll also experience firsthand the ambiguity and complexity of developing and delivering IT solutions.

At every stage, you’ll continue to have the support of the university environment, with academic supervisors mentoring and overseeing your progress throughout.

Grow with your team, develop your skills

Students work together in IT multidisciplinary, self-managed teams. Each team examines available 'big data', identifies a problem or opportunity associated with the data, and then uses an agile development approach to create an IT artefact – such as an app or website – to address the problem  or  harness  the  opportunity.

Together, you’ll acquire and draw on the full range of tasks required to develop a system, from ideation right through to implementation. Not only will you enhance your technical skills, you’ll also develop the essential 'soft skills' that are so highly regarded by employers:

  • communication
  • time management
  • developing project documentation to a professional standard
  • the ability to present work to academics and other stakeholders
  • the ability to work as part of a team
  • a capacity to deal ethically and competently with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Learn from industry and faculty mentors

Throughout the process, you and your team will be supported by industry mentors. These mentors play a key role – coaching, questioning and providing feedback throughout development on system functionality, as well as project and team management. Industry mentoring is provided both at Monash and  at  our  industry  partner  organisations,  where  students get to experience the workplace in action.

Sir John Monash

“Initially we were unsure what value we could add, but it has been fascinating to see students develop throughout the journey, and the difference we have made.

“We’ve had to mentor teams in different ways, according to their needs. Sometimes that mentoring has included teaching the students very basic skills, like how to shake hands, at other times it has included more involved topics such as risk mitigation in project planning. It has been important  for  the students to learn that it is okay to disagree in a team, that it is an important part of working together.

“Our mentoring has also gone beyond the classroom; for example we’ve helped students with their résumés, and encouraged them to develop their networking skills to help with employability.

“At times when the work was overwhelming we have encouraged them to persevere, to get out of their comfort zone. It was also rewarding to help the international students with the cultural norms of the country – How do you engage with stakeholders? How do you request help? This can be quite  different  in different countries, and getting it right is important for success.

“From our perspective as an organisation it is good to be involved with a program that is well organised, with staff deeply committed to their students. We’ve found the staff running this program at Monash are really engaged, and invested in the students doing well.”

- Luan Tran, Cyara