Group design projects

The Cambridge undergraduate programme in computer science includes a strong design theme influenced by Crucible research, including research into computer science project work by Sally Fincher and Marian Petre. Students in their second year undertake an intensive design project working for an external client. Professional clients are often recruited via the Computer Lab Ring and Industrial Supporters Club. Annual prizes are sponsored by IBM and Hardware and equipment has been loaned or donated by a wide range of companies, including a substantial number of Android handsets from Google.

A selection of these projects with explicit connection to interdisciplinary research concerns includes:

• African SMS Radio
• Energy market forecast
• Party Line Detection
• Critical Care for the World
• Scanning and feedback from chemical structures
• i-Professor
• Phone programming for children

Clients from companies affiliated with the Crucible network include:

• Dave Betts from CEDAR Audio
• Steve Basford from Grant Instruments
• Lee Smith, Matthew Gretton-Dann, Andrew Chapman, Bhaveet Shah, Bernard Ogden, Tejas Belagod from ARM
• Steven Gilham, Simon Frost, Feng Huang and Nick Wise from Citrix
• Diarmid Mackenzie. Oliver Nicolson from Data Connection
• John Piper from Kodak European Research
• Jonathan Boardman from Aveva
• Richard Jebb from PCF Ltd
• Steve Poole from IBM
• Robert Aish from Autodesk
• John Tucker from Metaswitch
• Amyas Phillips from AlertMe
• Laura James and Will Billingsley from CARET
• Simon Geard from CAD Schroer
• Mick Kellman from SolidWorks
• Clifford Dive from Qualcomm
• Michael Jennings from Google
• David Roberts from Symbian
• Michael Dales from CamVine
• Peter Cowley from ZedCam
• Hok-Him Poon from Bloomberg
• Matt Segall from Optibrium
• Alex France from FFEI
• Tariq Khokhar from Aptivate

Crucible Theme: Design education