University start dates are here, and that means it’s time to introduce our fall semester partners for UW-Madison’s Computer Sciences Capstone!
What Is the Capstone?
CS 620, the Computer Sciences Capstone, is a course I developed and have been teaching since its pilot in Fall 2020. What started as a special topics experiment has grown into one of the most distinctive undergraduate experiences in the new UW-Madison School of Computing & AI (CAI), and in 2024 it became an official, permanent course with its own number.
UW-Madison Computer Sciences Capstone projects offer our undergraduates real-world, hands-on experience while learning and using best practice software development techniques and agile principles. A capstone project leverages a student’s classroom experience and enables them to put classroom lessons into real-world practice which is designed to launch them into successful careers in the private and public sectors.
Here’s how it works in practice: students form agile teams of four to six, partner with a real company or organization, and spend the entire semester building and shipping actual software for a real client. They use agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Lean Startup, and Google Design Sprints on a real project with real stakes and real mentors from the partner company. Many partners hire students directly out of the course.
The People Side of Software Development
The technical skills our students bring to the course are strong. UW-Madison has one of the top-ranked Computer Sciences programs in the world. They can write code and use new technologies like nobody’s business. What the Capstone focuses on is everything else: the professional skills that determine whether a technically capable developer becomes an effective one.
How do you interview a customer to understand what they actually need, not just what they say they want? How do you run a sprint? What’s the best way to give and receive feedback in a professional setting? How do you navigate a project when the requirements change, the deadline doesn’t, and your team disagrees about the right path forward? How do you present your work to a stakeholder who doesn’t speak your language?
These are the skills that separate developers who write good code from developers who build things that matter. And they’re the skills that are hardest to teach in a traditional classroom setting, because they only really develop through doing. These are also the exact skills that will continue to be valuable as AI takes over the coding side of software development.
These skills are also the focus of my book, Agile Discovery & Delivery: A Survival Guide for New Software Engineers & Tech Entrepreneurs, which the course draws on throughout the semester. The book is built around the same premise as the Capstone: that the people side of software development is at least as important as the technical side, and that most engineers enter the workforce underprepared for it.
Why Partners Are So Important
I say this every semester and I mean it every time: without partners, this class doesn’t happen.
The partners are what make the experience real. They provide the projects which include actual challenges their organizations need solved. They provide the mentors: smart, experienced people who meet with student teams regularly, give honest feedback, and share what professional software development actually looks like from the inside. And they provide the stakes, for example, the knowledge that the work isn’t hypothetical, that real people will use what the students build, and that the decisions they make matter.
Sponsoring a capstone project is a strong investment for any company, R&D organization, or non-profit that considers computing core to their success. Benefits include meeting and recruiting future employees, forming close connections with UW-Madison faculty and students, networking with other project sponsors, solving technical and data-related challenges, and helping build the future of technology education in Wisconsin and beyond.
Many of our partners return semester after semester because the relationship is valuable in both directions. The students get an experience they can’t get in a typical classroom. The partners get talented, motivated developers working on real problems and a direct pipeline to some of the best emerging technical talent in the Midwest.
Fall 2026 Partners
This fall, I am thrilled to welcome an exceptional group of partners spanning startups, nonprofits, healthcare, defense, logistics, neuroscience, environmental science, and some of the biggest names in technology. Each one brings a unique project and perspective to our students, and together they represent the kind of breadth that makes this course so distinctive.
Radiant Intel — Bringing cutting-edge intelligence and data capabilities to our students’ work.
Oshkosh Corporation — One of the world’s leading manufacturers of specialty vehicles and equipment, with complex engineering and software challenges that will push our teams.
Idea Fund VC — A venture capital partner that gives students a window into the startup investment ecosystem and the software challenges that come with it.
Microsoft — One of the most recognizable names in technology. Our students get to build for and with the people who build some of the world’s most widely used software.
WiscAI — An AI start-up bringing cutting-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence challenges directly into our course.
Google — A returning partner and one of the world’s most impactful technology companies. The experience of building for Google is one our students don’t forget.
GE Healthcare — A returning partner that brings the added weight of real-world healthcare stakes: software that could actually impact patient outcomes.
Qualcomm — One of the world’s leading semiconductor and wireless technology companies, bringing deep technical challenges and global scale to the Capstone.
Dell — A technology giant with a broad portfolio of challenges that gives our students exposure to enterprise-scale software development.
RegenMed — A regenerative medicine partner that represents exactly the kind of mission-driven, high-impact work I love bringing into this course.
UW Surgery — Connecting our students directly with the healthcare challenges facing one of the top academic medical centers in the country.
UW-Madison BUILD Lab / School of Pharmacy — A UW-Madison research partner bringing real pharmaceutical and health sciences software challenges to our teams.
Amazon / Shopbop — A returning partner, Amazon’s Shopbop team brings fashion-meets-tech problems that are more complex and interesting than they might first appear.
PBS Wisconsin — One of our most beloved returning partners and the first nonprofit to join the Capstone back in 2023. PBS Wisconsin’s projects always carry meaningful real-world impact: making content more accessible, more engaging, more useful.
Schneider — One of North America’s premier transportation and logistics companies, bringing supply chain and fleet technology challenges to our student teams. Also a great returning partner!
Holos — A virtual reality startup partner bringing multiple projects to the course over many semesters, giving several student teams the experience of building in an early-stage, fast-moving environment where their work will have immediate, visible impact.
Wisconsin School of Business — A UW-Madison partner that brings cross-disciplinary energy to the course, bridging the worlds of business and technology in ways that mirror what our students will encounter in their careers.
Rosenberg Lab — Department of Neuroscience — A research lab with real scientific questions and a need for custom software solutions. This is where computer science and neuroscience meet in the most exciting ways.
Wisconsin DNR — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources brings environmental data and conservation challenges to our students and a reminder that software can serve the public good in ways that go well beyond the tech industry.
SpecScape — A company bringing specialized spatial and landscape analysis challenges to the Capstone, giving our students experience in a niche and growing technical domain.
Twenty partners. Over twenty real projects. Approximately 250 senior computer science students who are about to find out what it actually feels like to ship software that matters.
I cannot wait to see what they build.
Interested in becoming a Capstone partner for a future semester? Reach out to me at afield@wisc.edu or contact Justin Hines, Director of Corporate Relations, at jhines3@wisc.edu. You can also learn more about the program at cs.wisc.edu/computer-sciences-capstone-course.
And if you’re a student reading this who wants to know more about what the Capstone experience is actually like from a student’s perspective, check out this recent opinion piece: Capstone Course Prepared Me for a Career in Tech.
