Student capstone program

The Deakin School of Information Technology Student Industry Capstone (DISC) program provides a unique, multidisciplinary environment where final-year students can experiment, innovate and develop industry-relevant IT products. Built on the principles of agile development, students work in teams to create cutting-edge products in fields like software development, IoT, cyber security, edTech, data science and AI.

Students gain first-hand experience in product development, learning what it takes to succeed in the industry and add value to the workplace. Our program is structured to ensure that students gain a deep understanding of the field, with units that incorporate long-term product development and mentorship.

Students work in agile sprints, receiving guidance and feedback from academic mentors and professional industry coaches. As they progress, students have the opportunity to pitch new product features and even create entirely new product lines, with some going on to be deployed and commercialised by Deakin or industry partners.

Join us at DISC and take the first step towards a successful career in the exciting world of IT product development.

The following are some examples of projects our students have completed that showcase the great collaboration between what we teach at Deakin and our industry connections.

DriveED for refugees and CALD individuals

Around 4000 refugees settle in Victoria each year, with another 10,000 arriving as asylum seekers (Vic Health, 2016). As they settle into their lives in Australia, there are many challenges that they face, including everyday challenges such as transporting themselves to a job interview, dropping off a child at school, or going to a doctor’s appointment.

DriveEd is a web and mobile app that allows users to toggle between English and Arabic to take practice VicRoads’ written driving tests. In DriveEd, users take the test via the feedback or practice mode. Feedback mode lets users know if their answers are right or wrong in real-time; immediately prompting the correct answer. Practice mode doesn't let the user know what their results are until the end of the test. The goal of DriveEd is to help individuals to pass their driver’s test and give them the confidence to get on the road.

The Serene Beach Calming Experience – in partnership with Luminal VR

Everyone encounters stressors in their professional and personal life. According to Healthline, stress hormones trigger your body’s 'flight or fight' responses and can put your health at serious risk.

The vision of the Serene Beach Calming Experience is to provide an easy, quick and effective way to reduce stress and establish general wellbeing for users. Short-term ways to alleviate stress include engaging in some type of entertainment or going for a walk, but many people don't have the time nor the mobility to leave their homes for these solutions.

The Serene Beach Calming Experience provides a five-minute guided experience where users are immersed in a calm and tranquil beach setting that engages their senses to help them relax. This experience is aimed to create increased mindfulness and ground users in the present.

Image Recognition application – in partnership with Oldowan

Our industry partner Oldowan focuses on environmental auditing HVAC (heating, ventilating, air-conditioning) of large organisations and their assets. They send teams to audit the number of air-conditioners, heating vents, lights, etc. in large buildings and centres. However, this process is tedious, time-consuming and labour-intensive.

The Image Recognition application developed by DISC students makes the process more efficient. The application’s back end is an image-storing database that feeds into a machine-learning algorithm to automatically detect energy-consuming devices captured within a digital image. The front end allows for manual annotation and identification of the devices within the captured images.