STRIPE, the multi-billion dollar online payment company founded by Limerick bothers Patrick and John Collison, is among the global technology firms that have joined forces with University of Limerick to redefine computer science education.
UL is introducing a new integrated undergraduate and Masters degree in partnership with over a dozen leading tech companies from Ireland and around the world, including Stripe, Analog Devices, Shopify, Zalando, Intercom, and Manna Aero.
With the rapid growth of the internet economy, the Immersive Software Engineering (ISE) programme is designed to meet increased global demand for developer talent.
This is borne out by Stripe co-founder and President John Collison who said that there are nowhere near enough software engineers, despite the fact that they have incredible careers solving some of the world’s most important problems in the fastest growing industries.
“Immersive Software Engineering seeks to provide a great path to being more secondary students – especially girls – into technology,” he added.
Software engineers and computer scientists can command high salaries straight out of university with over three quarters of tech companies in Ireland saying the shortage of tech skills is losing them money.
ISE will bring the concept of ‘residencies’, which are more common to medical degrees, and use them as a key feature for the first time in computer science education.
Just as trainee doctors apply skills that they have studied in a classroom to the real world, so will ISE students, and they’ll be doing it inside some of the world’s most successful tech companies.
Over the four year course, ISE students will complete five paid residencies, each between three and six months long. They will be part of professional teams solving problems like improving access to financial services around the world, fighting the climate crisis, and building next generation instrumentation for healthcare.
The programme, which has received support from Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and venture investors, is designed to attract Ireland’s elite young talent with all classes held in a purpose built studio.
University of Limerick President Professor Kerstin Mey said UL’s industry partners were invaluable in the conception of the programme.
“By bringing their industry experience to the benefit of our future graduates and effectively doing something that has never been done before in shaping and changing how computer science is taught in Ireland”.
Programme co-director Professor Stephen Kinsella said UL wanted the course to change the way Ireland’s highest performing students think about computer science as a career option.
“We want to bring a more diverse audience to computer science and we want ISE graduates to be the premier computer science talent around the world. We’re really excited to be able to work with so many great partners to bring this vision to life,” he explained.
Analog Devices chief executive Vincent Roche said that the global demand for developing skilled software engineers is growing at an exponential rate.
“As we at Analog solve the most challenging real-world problems in areas such as healthcare and industrial, we have an increasing demand for these skillsets and see the need growing in coming years”.
