Design Studio
In Design Studio, we integrate agile engineering processes, lean business development, and interdisciplinary design thinking into an iterative process for problem solving and product development - our unique brand of innovation. Our iterative development methodologies lead to the development of robust software products that address real problems and provide elegant solutions. Throughout the process, Design Studio teams are mentored by industry professionals from the community, helping teams more effectively communicate, overcome technical challenges, and drive innovation for their partners.
As the capstone program in the Raikes School, Design Studio integrates concepts from our unique computer science and business curriculum, reinforcing core concepts through 4 semesters of hands on learning. Students gain a head start in their careers by participating in product development teams, working with real clients to understand complex business requirements, and developing innovative solutions to wicked problems. The studio model ensures that, prior to graduation, each student in the Raikes School has gained the valuable experience of participating in the full software product development life cycle - from inception of the concept to deployment for the solution.
Design Studio Annual Report
Endless Opportunity for Students
Create innovative applications and business processes to solve real-world problems
Gain valuable experience working with industry leaders in self-organizing teams
Develop a greater understanding of how business and computer science are used in companies
Work on a real software development project to develop strong project management skills prior to graduating
Form key networking contacts with top local and national companies.
Earn college credit while working with cutting edge technology to complete real software projects
Industry Partnerships
Design Studio serves as a connection point between academia and industry, creating a unique opportunity for our partners to engage some of the brightest minds on campus and leverage the value of a Big 10 research institution. Each year Design Studio engages industry partners who provide complex problems for which our student teams develop software solutions using industry best practices in software engineering and business development. This year, teams in Design Studio are completing the following projects:
| Sponsor | Project |
|---|---|
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Fraud Identification and NotificationBuild a foundational fraud platform that will identify, track, and alert on abuse and fraudulent activities including potential theft, misrepresentations and abuse, whether intentional and malicious or passive and accidental. |
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Product Recommendation EngineDevelop a personalized product recommendation engine leveraging one or more bandit algorithms for use in new and existing omni-channel initiatives. |
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Simplifying Warehouse OrganizationBuild an intuitive mobile app that can handle all the pieces necessary for initial warehouse setup as well as gather data points that enable DMSi to provide a more directed approach to warehouse management. |
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Cross-Product PenetrationUse modern data science techniques and applications to study and predict cross-product penetration among existing customers to identify which customers are ripe for cross-selling activities. |
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Sheltered Harbor Account Restoration PlatformBuild a cloud based Sheltered Harbor environment for the restoration of a financial institution’s backup files to provide access to the account holder data and balances. |
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Lending Advice EngineDesign a lending advice engine tailored to each customer’s unique circumstances and purchase aspirations. |
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Heyday Mobile AppBuild the Heyday Mobile App, designed for college students, that plans and keeps track of money so students don't have to. |
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Training and Collaboration ToolsHelp coaches and athletes use Hudl to communicate, train, and improve, especially if they aren’t in the same physical location. |
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Advanced Welding AnalyticsTake the existing welding analytics prototype hardware board to the next level, redesigning it for cost efficiency and the next set of features, and turn both the existing and newly generated data into useable information. |
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The Kubernetes ProjectResearch and come up with an approach to migrate away from the Docker Enterprise Edition container orchestration to VMware’s Tanzu Kuberentes Grid (TKG). |
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Nebraska Transportation Information Portal Phase 4Continue development of the NTIP, a twice award-winning application, built by a collaborative team of Design Studio and NDOT staff over the past three years with a project focus this year on expanded use of heavy truck data, linkage to additional state datasets, and enhanced heat map functionality. |
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Developer PortalCreate an interactive, fully featured developer portal that leverages the Nelnet Velocity platform to host a wide range of content types, including auto-generated reference documentation, user guides, and marketing content. |
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Community InsightsBuild a Community Insights app enabling healthcare organizations to forge partnership with their consumers/patients in determining future strategies and processes. |
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Building Use Efficiency PlatformDevelop a system to study how buildings are currently used with the goal of providing quick, timely, and actionable information to reduce operating costs, increase usage efficiencies, provide highly marketable spaces, and only use the natural resources that we truly need. |
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Building a Freemium Cloud Support ProductDesign and build a self-service, low code, version of the OpsCompass cloud management SaaS service, with particular focus on cloud compliance management. |
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Product Repricing & AnalysisCreate a pricing recommendation and analysis system to help scale the frequency of product re-pricing. |
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Project NotifyEngineer the systems and design the interfaces required to notify users of events throughout the Spreetail system, including delivering re-useable software libraries and interfaces to enable current engineers to create, deliver, and react to notification events. |
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Back Office Transaction MonitoringBuild an intelligent monitoring system that identifies data anomalies across millions of transactions per day. |
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Mobile App RemakeDevelop a prototype for the next generation of the Tigerpaw mobile app, including offline capability, modern technologies, and an enhanced user experience and look/feel. |
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Irrigation IoT AnalyticsUtilize data from more than 100,000 connected devices related to irrigation management and center pivot monitoring and control to produce analytics including operation, application of water, and IoT device health. |
Industry Collaboration
Students in Design Studio learn not only from top practitioner faculty, but also from industry leading experts. Whether it is a local software executive who gives a guest lecture on enterprise architecture or a CEO who coaches a Design Studio team, students regularly interact with and learn from top industry professionals. Regular collaboration between faculty, students, and industry partners creates an ecosystem unique to Design Studio that drives innovation at all levels. Through that collaboration, students and their teams are making big things happen every day.
Students in Design Studio not only learn from industry leaders, they innovate with them. Every year our students are developing new concepts, sharing creative ideas, enriching our partner organizations, and becoming members of their team.