DATA3740 IT-innovation and Entrepreneurship Project Course description

Students will carry out an IT project in collaboration with a start-up company, individually or in groups of maximum five students. Completion of the course requires a placement in an IT start-up company corresponding to two days a week over a 12-week period. (Alternatively the Frontrunner programme, see below.

OsloMet will help individual or groups of students to get in touch with a start-up company that has a suitable project. The company must provide an approved IT entrepreneurship project and a competent supervisor. Furthermore, OsloMet will provide an internal supervisor at OsloMet. The students will develop a prototype for a product that is relevant for the start-up company, or develop and implement new functionality in the technology of the start-up company.

In addition to the projects on offer, students can find their own projects within a relevant company, public organization or nonprofit. In this case, it is the student's responsibility to find a supervisor for the project within the external organization. All student-initiated projects must be approved by the course coordinator before the start of the project.

In the autumn 2026 semester, students will have the opportunity to participate in the Young Entrepreneurship Frontrunner program as an alternative to a project with a start-up company. In the Frontrunner process, students are presented with a multi-complex problem from the working world (also called "Wicked problems"). Over the course of two weeks, students, in close collaboration with private and public working life, authorities and professional communities, will come up with a scaled-down, attackable problem with suggestions for how to attack the problem together with relevant and necessary actors. This year, this process will take place in weeks 41 and 42. Students are required to be present during the entire program (9 am-3:15 pm every weekday) during these two weeks. This program is run exclusively in Norwegian. For more information about the Frontrunner alternative, please refer to the DATA3740 course description in Norwegian.

The course will only run if there is a sufficient number of students registered. Projects are subject to availability; students who have DATA3710-90 as a mandatory course on their study plan will be prioritised in the event of limited projects.

Language of Instruction: Norwegian

The course builds on computer science courses from the first year of the programme.

No requirements over and above the admission requirements.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student:

• is familiar with key issues relating to innovation and entrepreneurship
• understands business processes and organisational structures
• acquired insight into innovation processes and technological development from idea to prototype
• understanding of the need for knowledge and insight to tackle complex issues
• understand the role and importance of the sustainability development of technological solutions.

Skills

The student is capable of:

• developing a product or service from the idea, design and development stages through to a prototype
• independently completing an IT project within the framework of a start-up company and mastering basic issues that characterise entrepreneurship processes
• communicating, in written and oral form, the technical and business-related issues of relevance to the theme of the project, including the project plan, project activities and results, to an audience that may or may not be technologically proficient
• developing solutions that explicitly address one or several of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals

General competence

The student is capable of:

• working in interdiciplinary teams and build relationships across different domains
• using a variety of methods, tools and technical principles to work systematically on complex issues relevant for industry
• defining a problem and proposing possible innovative solutions

Supervision sessions with an external and/or internal supervisor. The students will work alone or in groups of two to five students on an IT project in a start-up company.

Projects are selected/distributed at the start of the semester.

Optional alternative: Frontrunner-programme (with mandatory attendance)

The Frontrunner process starts with a collaboration partner presenting a multi-complex problem. Students from different universities and colleges will collaborate in multidisciplinary groups, set by the Frontrunner-team, through four phases. Students will present a scoped down and manageable problem description at the end of the two weeks. Currently, this process will be weeks 41 and 42, in Oslo (outside OsloMet campus). In the concluding phase, students will make individual reflexion, documenting learning and relevance for the subject overall, their own education, and learning goals.

The following coursework is compulsory and must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• A project outline that describes how the group will organise their work on the project.
• A standard learning agreement must be entered into between the start-up company and the student(s), and this must be approved by the internal supervisor before the project can begin.
• Three meeting minutes from supervisory meetings during the project period.
• An oral mid-term presentation, individual or in groups (max 5 students), 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A.

The deadlines for submitting the project outline and minutes of the meetings will be presented in the teaching plan, which is made available at the beginning of the semester.

For those who participate in the Frontrunner programme, the following activities and assignments are obligatory and must be approved before the student can sit the exam:

• Minimum 80% attendance during core hours throughout weekdays (09:00-15:15) weeks 41 & 42
• Pre-phase: Group contract
• Phase 1: Start-smart contract and insight
• Phase 2: Part-report 2 (system description and problem definition)
• Phase 3: Part-report 3 (strategy/ development plan)
• Phase 4: Presentation and dialogue meeting
• Concluding phase (after week 42): Individual reflection

Written project report submitted at the end of the semester. Individually or in a group (max. 5 students), 4000 words (+/-10%).

In group work, the students' individual contributions should be reflected in the report. Normally, everyone in the group receives the same grade, but in exceptional cases, individual grades may be awarded based on the assessment of the project supervisor(s) and the head of the programme.

The exam result can be appealed.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F.

One internal examiner. External examiners are used regularly.