Development of a New Software Product from a Classroom Project

It has long been known that the campus is fertile grounds for IT entrepreneurship through the identification and nurturing of possible commercial software systems [I], [2]. The campus is uniquely suited in many ways because failed ventures can still be considered worthwhile due to the knowledge gained and disseminated through the very process of creating a new system. Moving a project from idea to class project to retail ready system is a method for identifying and producing systems that both educate and become viable retail systems. Most examples tend to be small to medium size projects that fit a general need or are unique in implementation in some way. Our project produced a rewarding educational experience for the students and a new piece of software for market.