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Design Briefs for Cambridge University Computer Laboratory Group Design Projects 2025

This page currently lists design briefs under development. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome, to group-project@cl.cam.ac.uk

All content on this site has draft status, subject to confirmation by both group project coordinators and project clients. There is no guarantee that these projects will be offered to students, either in the form described here, or at all.

Intellectual property

Notes on Intellectual property

Client briefing

Information on Logistics for Clients

Information for students, and course history: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects

Information for Directors of Studies

Information for the Coordinators

Management timetable for 2023

Master timetable for the course: https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/part-ib/group-projects/important-dates

Work in progress - design briefs for 2025

Notes on: What makes a good project?

In 2025, we expect there will be 124 students, so 21 project teams (19 teams of 6 and 2 teams of 5). We aim to advertise at least 23 design briefs, to allow for necessary cancellations.

Confirmed design briefs for 2025

Final 2025 list

Projects under discussion

Design briefs suggested to several potential clients

Design briefs considered in 2024 that might be developed

Potential clients for 2025

Alder Hey Children's Hospital
Frontier
Embecosm
SEAT
Anthony Harris
Rivos Systems
AMD
Raspberry Pi Foundation
Katy Jordan, EdTech Hub
Adham Ashton-Butt, British Trust for Ornithology
Adam Devenish, RSPB
Maximilian Ge
Matthew Postgate

Future preparation - design briefs for 2026

Incubator and network contacts

Centre for Global Equality
Barn4
Ideaspace
Emma Salgard Cunha - humanities at Cambridge Enterprise
Nicola Buckley - policy fellows at CSaP

Other client discussions (last updated 2023)

Development notes carried forward from 2021

Frontier - second project
NIAB - second project
Informetis - topic discussed
Giving Voice to Digital Democracies - topic suggested, no response
ARM - contact identified, but no topic

Other clients from 2021

MathWorks

Boeing
TechWolf
DX Analytics
Umbrella Analytics
Lyzeum Ltd
Broadcom - all contact emails now bounce

Previous ideas that have not been used

Calendar Dialogue - Amazon
Auto-Emoji
Archaeological databases
The Headless Bicycle
Emo Face
Character Locomotion Middleware - Frontier
Automatic accessibility assessor - Frontier
City generation - Frontier

Potential clients that did not proceed, but could be considered in future

2022: Autodesk
2021: FetoLife, Oodle, NHS Digital, Jump Trading, Microsoft Africa Research Institute
2020: Argon Design, Gearset, Thales, Sainsbury Laboratory
2019: Smart Cambridge, Mindi, Fauna and Flora International, Fusepump, Investre,
2018: Sparx, Cambridge Consultants, Capita, Nominet Trust, University Information Services, Sport England
2017: BT, Palantir, Elm Partners, Lucid / Cycorp, Microsoft Research
2016: Care Quality Commission, King Digital Entertainment, The Fusion Works
2015: Thales, Steve Wade, Cambridge Humanitarian Centre
2014: Broadcom, last.fm, Rangespan, John McMillan, Atheon, OpenMarket, Google, Repindex
2013: Neul.com, Steve Smith, CU Management Information Systems Division, Palantir Technologies, Privacy International

Archived records of previous years

2024 list of design briefs and playlist of video presentations (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeCRJYL3suw&list=PLstyePOvf2d3jOfc6j8cG7CmmVD6LyMe_
2023 list of design briefs and playlist of video presentations (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcITCNXbEzM&list=PLstyePOvf2d2ZvC92BQkpR6WiaiROytev
2022 list of design briefs, 2022 - final list of clients and playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xs5f6csNiQ&list=PLstyePOvf2d3oPJOBgNoeA-aPA7lhUIGS
2021 list of design briefs, 2021 - final list of clients and playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf7zOcZCRTo&list=PLstyePOvf2d2o9O_K3GEY3wAtbqkkYjPm
2020 list of design briefs, 2020 - final list of clients (presentations disrupted by Covid-19 - no video). Student briefing booklet 2020: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1920.pdf
2019 list of design briefs, 2019 - final list of clients, briefing booklet http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1819.pdf, playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstyePOvf2d39LYQ3YBcdWUdREimYF8e4&si=RHH_jzctWiQchuH8

Student briefing booklet 2018: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1718.pdf
Playlist of video presentations (YouTube): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstyePOvf2d0H15TwI6kEZb38ucaUDshQ&si=fS8uf8Db3PjqguBf
2018 list of design briefs
2018 - final list of clients

Student briefing booklet 2017: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1617.pdf
Playlist of video presentations (YouTube): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstyePOvf2d0fbeximiXyWR2gB5KjjjE6&si=dQHg-NFFqSafdtek
2017 list of design briefs
2017 - final list of clients

Student briefing booklet 2016: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1516.pdf
Video of presentations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxcEQE4FigU&list=PLstyePOvf2d2QbiVFI4naska1n4G0fhSW
2016 list of design briefs
2016 - final list of clients

Student briefing booklet 2015: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1415.pdf
Video of presentations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstyePOvf2d0cPplAB3DxHoaJC6hTYomP
2015 list of design briefs
2015 - final list of clients

Student briefing booklet 2014: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1314.pdf
Video of presentations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstyePOvf2d2A3vWW4DkEGIAUIm4T0fg6
2014 - final list of design briefs
2014 - final list of clients

Student briefing booklet 2013: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/group-projects/StudentBriefing_1213.pdf
Video of presentations: http://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/collection/1435486
2013 - final list of design briefs
2013 - final list of clients

Selected design briefs from earlier years

Projects that have been offered, but not assigned to groups

The usual reason for cancelling a project is that the topic has not attracted sufficient interest from students. It's worth keeping an eye on these, as some topics, or ways of phrasing them, seem less attractive. But fashions change!