A two-staged capstone project to foster university-business dialogue

The paper discusses how the University of Padova went around the challenge of designing its BSc curriculum in Computer Science in 2002, and critically assesses its outcome to date. The capstone was organized as two -staged progression (a) the first leg being a preparatory, learning-for-work collaborative laboratory aimed at the acquisition of soft skills, and exposure to technology innovation challenges and (b) the second leg promoting a learning-though-work individual internship. Evaluation of field data from 14 cohorts of graduates, from 07/2004 to 12/2017, shows that the BSc curriculum has met with the appreciation of students and employers, and it has served well the purpose of boosting the university-business dialogue.