I491 Capstone Internships

Back to Internships in Informatics

The School of Informatics believes that real-world experience is a valuable part of an educational program. The school provides students a way to obtain academic credit for their work experience. In addition, students may fulfill the capstone experience requirement when the internship involves a specific project.

The project internship satisfies the capstone experience requirement in place of the I450 - I451 sequence. A student will receive credit for designing, executing, and documenting a project assignment selected in consultation with his or her employer. Employment must involve a project for which the student has substantial independent involvement as well as close supervision by the employer.

Students are required to complete 6 credit hours of I491 for their capstone project internship. (360 hours of supervised work). There is a maximum of 6 credits allowed for I491.

Prerequisites

• Completion of the Informatics core courses at the 100 and 200 levels
• Completion of INFO I308
• In good academic standing
• Admitted to the School of Informatics
• Junior or Senior

Approval

Capstone project internships must be approved in writing before any work begins. Approval of the internship requires completion of all prerequisite courses before the beginning of the internship.

The first step is to download and complete the Internship Contract (PDF) which serves as the application for an I491 internship. The Internship Contract requires a project proposal. You must complete the contract and proposal, obtain your employer’s signature for approval, and set-up a brief meeting with Matt Hottell, Internship Supervisor to present your proposal.

Contracts must be submitted no later than the end of the first week of the semester during which your internship will begin. It is preferred that you submit your contract as soon as possible after you have secured your internship (i.e. the previous semester). Don't wait to submit your contract and please allow time for revision!

After your contract has been approved, you will be authorized to register for I491 by the recorder in the School of Informatics. The recorder will verify that you are in good academic standing and have fulfilled the prerequisite requirements.

Major considerations for the approval of a capstone project internship include whether you will have a project assignment providing adequate capstone experience and will be able to write the required project report at the conclusion of your internship.

Requirements

1. Bi-weekly status reports

   During your entire internship status reports must be completed and turned in via oncourse by Monday at noon of each even-numbered week of the semester.

   Status reports should contain the following information:

   • How is your internship going.
   • Any questions or concerns you may have.
   • Any difficulties that you may be experiencing.
   • Any changes in the terms of the internship:
     • Ending date.
     • Scope or type of project is different from contract.
     • Unexpected termination of the project.
     • Change of employer status.
   • Any other information that might be important.

   (Two weeks before the end of the internship, students should include in their status report an outline of what will be included in the final internship report)

2. Internship report

   Due Date: No later than 30 days after the completion of the internship. *

   As part of the internship course, you should write a paper three (3) to five (5) pages long.

   The paper should be well organized (the organization should be described in an introduction) and should:

   • Describe the structure of your employer and your place in that structure.
   • Summarize your accomplishments during employment (students also doing a Project Report need not repeat material covered in that report).
   • Discuss the relationship between your academic coursework and the internship.
   • Identify those skills that have been developed as a result of the internship.
   • Establish a relationship between the internship and your future career goals.
   • Consider how the internship might lead to full-time employment in this company (both from your perspective and that of the company).

3. Project Report

   Due Date: No later than 30 days after the completion of the internship.*
   
   You must arrange a meeting with Matt Hottell to review your project report before your final project report is submitted.

   If you intend to use your internship experience to satisfy your capstone experience requirement, you must write a paper that describes a substantial project that you completed as part of the internship. The paper should be substantial and professional in both form and content. It should be about 3,000–4,000 words in length. Documentation written as part of the employment activities is often suitable as the basis for this paper.

   The content of the paper should emphasize the project — it should not be a diary. That is, the report should discuss what you did, not how you did it.

   The following is a guide of topics that the paper may address — it is not meant to be either exhaustive or required, although it is typical of most projects.

   • Organizational context: a description of the company and computing environment for which the project was undertaken.
   • Goals: describe the reasons for which the project undertaken, that is the intended benefits and results.
   • Specification: describe how the project achieved those goals.
   • Analysis: describe tests, procedures, and tools used to analyze the problem and its solution, as well as the results of that analysis.
   • Tools: discuss whether or how the software environment constrained the required design decisions.
   • Product: describe those things produced to achieve the project goals, which may be software, multimedia, web pages, information analysis, etc.
   • Design
   • Testing and Evaluation
   • Conclusion

   You should also include, as a preface or postface, the brief Internship Report described above.

   In as much as this course is an academic activity, the report will be graded according to academic standards. Roughly one quarter of the grade will be based on the writing of the report, one quarter on the content of the report, and one half on the quality of the project. This reflects the statement: “English is your most important professional tool, use it with precision.” The first edition of William Strunk’s excellent writing guide, The Elements of Style, is a great reference for issues such as knowing when to use “that” and when to use “which” in a modifying clause.

4. Supervisor’s Evaluation Form (PDF)

   Due Date: No later than 30 days after the completion of the internship. *

   At the completion of the internship, the employer shall submit an evaluation of the student’s performance indicating satisfactory completion of responsibilities.

5. Student Evaluation of Internship Form (PDF)

   Due Date: No later than 30 days after the completion of the internship. *

   At the completion of the internship, the student shall submit an evaluation of their internship experience.

6. Time Log

   Due Date: No later than 30 days after the completion of the internship. *

   Students should submit a time log to show hours worked.

Submit all materials to: Jeremy Podany, Director of Career Services.

Deliverables Checklist

The following materials must be submitted together at the completion of the internship.

Finding Employment

• Contact Informatics Career Services for assistance, OR
• Secure your own internship, OR
• See Informatics career resources, OR
• The Career Development Center also has internship resources including an internship fair. However, their internship fair is for all disciplines and has relatively few IT internships

• Admissions
• Degrees
• Undergraduate Program
  • Requirements
  • Sample Curriculum
  • Internships in Informatics
• Graduate Programs
• Minors and Certificates
• Courses
• Cognates
• Capstone Projects