I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years teaching and mentoring UW-Madison computer science students through the Capstone program, and one thing I’ve noticed consistently is the gap between what students learn in the classroom and what the real world actually asks of them. Students graduate with strong theoretical foundations and solid coursework, but often with limited experience writing production code, working with actual clients, or delivering software that real people depend on.
At the same time, I’ve seen campus organizations (research labs, departments, and student groups) struggling to get relatively straightforward software projects built. Not because the work is impossibly hard, but because professional development is expensive, and the path to getting a custom tool or application built isn’t always obvious.
That gap is exactly what the UW Computer Sciences Department is trying to close with a new program I’m proud to be directing: CS Marketplace.
What Is UW-Madison’s CS Marketplace?
CS Marketplace is a new initiative from the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences that connects campus organizations with skilled computer science students who can build the software solutions they need.
The model is straightforward: organizations submit a project, students apply and get matched, and over the course of a 15-week semester, a student developer works 10-15 hours per week to bring the project to life. The student earns a $2,000 scholarship and valuable, real-world experience. The organization gets high-quality software development at a fraction of what it would cost to hire a contractor or external developer.
It’s a win-win that I think has the potential to change how both groups operate.
Why This Matters for UW Organizations
If you run a research lab, lead a campus department, or manage a student organization at UW-Madison, there’s a good chance you have at least one software project that’s been sitting on the back burner. For example: a data analysis pipeline you wish existed, a dashboard that would save your team hours every week, or a custom web application you’ve been meaning to build for two years but can never quite justify the cost or the complexity of contracting out.
CS Marketplace is built for exactly those projects.
The types of work that fit the program are broad: AI-driven data analysis tools, custom websites, iOS and Android apps, visual dashboards, experiment data pipelines, automation scripts, database systems, AI chatbots, feedback platforms, and more. If it involves coding or AI and can be scoped to roughly 150-200 hours of work, it’s likely a good fit. And if the department proposing the project is not sure about its size, they can reach out directly to scope the project before committing.
UW Organizations’ time commitment is genuinely manageable. They don’t need to be a programmer or to provide technical mentorship. They just need to be available to answer questions about their organization’s needs and give feedback on work in progress. The CS Marketplace team and Computer Sciences faculty handle the rest.
The cost of $2,000 per student per semester is, frankly, a remarkable value for a custom software project. Professional developers charge multiples of that for a fraction of the work.
The pilot cohort launches Summer and Fall 2026, with the deadline to submit a project for Fall being August 14, 2026. If you work at UW-Madison and have a project in mind, and can cover the $2,000 scholarship with your budget, now is the time to submit it.
Why This Matters for Students
For students, the job market right now is incredibly tough and real-world projects like these are genuinely hard to find. This isn’t a theoretical assignment that disappears into the void at the end of the semester. CS Marketplace projects produce working software that lives in the world and that you can talk about in interviews, add to your portfolio, and point to as evidence that you can do the work that employers actually need.
Students get a $2,000 scholarship for one semester of work, 10-15 hours per week, for a project matched to their skills and interests. They’ll work independently most of the time, with structured check-ins with their project sponsor every one to three weeks. And they’ll practice the professional development workflow that the industry actually uses: agile sprints, client feedback loops, version control, and iterative delivery. Through CS Marketplace, students build things that matter.
For students who are earlier in their careers and finding it hard to land that first internship without experience, CS Marketplace offers a way to build the portfolio that breaks the cycle. For students who are further along and want something more meaningful than a side project to talk about in senior year recruiting, it offers the same thing with more depth.
The program for Fall 2026 is open to undergraduate students who have completed CS 506. Applications are open now, spots are limited (the pilot cohort will have 5-12 projects), and matches will be made on a rolling basis as projects arrive. So applying early gets you the best selection.
CS Marketplace: The Bigger Picture
I’ve been thinking about why this model feels so right to me, and I keep coming back to something I’ve believed for a long time: the best way to learn is to do real work for real people with real stakes.
Classroom projects are valuable. Coursework builds the foundations that make everything else possible. But there’s a kind of learning that only happens when someone is actually depending on what you build; when the feedback isn’t a grade but a person saying “this doesn’t quite do what I need” or “this is exactly what I was hoping for”. That kind of learning shapes developers in ways that coursework alone simply can’t.
CS Marketplace is a way to create more of those opportunities for students who are ready to step up, and for campus organizations that have problems worth solving. The UW Computer Sciences Department is one of the top-ranked programs in the country, and the students coming through it are talented, motivated, and eager to do meaningful work. This program gives them a structured, supported way to do it.
If you’re a UW organization with a software project sitting on your list, I’d love to talk with you about whether it’s a fit. And if you’re a CS student reading this and thinking it sounds like exactly the kind of experience you’ve been looking for, it just might be! Apply early.
CS Marketplace is presented by the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences. Questions? Reach out to me directly through this site.
Learn more at cs.wisc.edu/cs-marketplace
