The company continues to actively engage with the student community by mentoring for an award-winning software project for Industrial IoT
Helsinki, Finland – May 9, 2018 – Tuxera, the world leading storage software and networking technology company continues its proactive partnership with Aalto University. For the sixth consecutive year, the company has collaborated with one of the leading universities in Northern Europe to provide a hands-on business case for a software development project. According to Tuxera, the company has worked closely with the team throughout the project timeline, mentoring and guiding the team. By the end of the course, student groups have competed for the Accenture Quality Award, where Tuxera’s student group has been recognized as the winner of the competition.
“We are honored to once again partner with Aalto University. It’s a great opportunity for us to mentor, guide, and collaborate with the student community. Not only can we build innovative solutions together, but we get new ideas on how to make and improve our existing products.” – says Esko Vähämäki, Software Developer at Tuxera; Product Owner for the student project.
About the project
The student course is held once every year, starting at the beginning of the autumn semester and lasts for seven months of the study period. Students are able to form their own groups and have the freedom to select one of the projects presented by the companies. Twenty-eight projects from companies like KONE, Finnair, F-Secure, Tuxera and many others, were proposed to the 14 teams. Tuxera’s Management Console for Industrial IoT Platform was selected for development by one of the student groups. The company acted as a product owner of the project, creating a real-life work environment for the team.
Working with the students
Throughout the project timeline, Tuxera was actively mentoring and guiding the team. The company also provided all of the required hardware and electronics, such as laptops, server hardware, sensors, and multiple software products. Additionally, students were offered working premises at Tuxera’s Headquarters, allowing them to work closely with the company’s employees. Acting as a product owner, Tuxera defined the required features and functionality for the end-product and has actively mentored the students throughout the whole project timeline. As a result, the team has created an innovative solution that fulfilled the project requirements, has passed all of the quality assurance tests, and was selected as a winner of the Accenture Quality Award. This is a second consecutive year that Tuxera’s team wins the award.
“It was truly a nice experience working with Tuxera, they supported our learning process and work dynamics in a great way. Everyone was very open to new ideas, communication and together we managed to produce excellent results.” – says Ata ul Jamil, student at Aalto University; Tuxera’s student project Scrum master.
“The student team did excellent work in fulfilling Tuxera’s ideas about the software features. The team also paid lots of attention to software quality, which is a topic that we want to emphasize to our students.” – says Jari-Pekka Vanhanen, University Lecturer at Aalto University. He continues, “Esko Vähämäki, as our previous student, knows well what is required from the Product Owner in this setting, and provided the team with all the necessary support regarding facilities, domain knowledge, and technologies. His support ensured good project results but also an optimal environment for learning.”
Tuxera and the student community
Through the history of Tuxera, the company has actively engaged with the international academic community. Every year the company organizes multiple gatherings and events for the students, where they can learn new software development techniques as well as hear more about Tuxera and its company culture. The company also participates in the summer trainee initiative, where it hires students for the summer period, many of which later join Tuxera as a full-time employee.