Innovation Project

In the Innovation Project, OST computer science students work on a real task for two to four months – at your company or in your open-source project.

The focus is on results, not a report: students are assessed on their project plan, implementation, abstract, social media posts and a pitch at the final event. Each project is supervised by an OST advisor. The module is supported by the IFS Institute for Software and the INS Institute for Networks and Security.

• 1–2 students per task, each working around 180 hours
• 2–4 months of implementation, starting from 15 February 2027
• Visibility: two joint social media posts and a pitch at the final event

Your idea – built, not shelved

A prototype, an integration or a feasibility study you never find the time for? Students build it with support from OST – while you get to know future talent and support hands-on education in Switzerland.

Submit a project idea

A feature from your roadmap, built your way

Is your backlog growing faster than your free time? Students take on a clearly scoped issue in your established, actively maintained project, work through pull/merge requests and are supervised by OST. A link to the issue is all you need to submit.

Submit an issue

What you get

• One or two students work on your task for 2–4 months (approx. 180 hours each).
• An OST advisor supervises the project.
• Direct contact with motivated computer science students.
• Visibility through two social media posts and a presentation at the final event.

What we need from you

• A task with a clear project scope: a defined goal that can be broken down into milestones
• Few dependencies, so the students can work independently
• A contact person for questions, reviews and the final presentation
• Willingness to contribute to two social media posts