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New Google TV Just in Time for AMOS Lab Course

The upcoming Agile Methods and Open Source lab course (AMOS) just got even better with the arrival of a Google TV device shown below. Thank you Google!

Why We Teach The Way We Do

Today, a colleague confided in me:

“Dirk, if I were a student, I wouldn’t attend your classes. I never liked to speak up and would rather cram for an exam at the end of the semester rather than open my mouth in class.”

Well, that was quite the bummer. However:

We teach to make the most of your time: To achieve the highest possible learning in the shortest amount of time. Your (student) time is precious, and so is ours. For that, we encourage active class participation. To make this clear, parts of your grades depend on that participation.

Look at the following increasing steps of class engagement:

Continue reading Why We Teach The Way We Do

SS 2012 Courses Online in StudOn

Our two main courses for SS 2012 are:

You can now register using StudOn.

FAU in Top Third of German Entrepreneurship Ranking

The chair of Geograhpy studies at LMU published an entrepreneurship ranking of German universities, see this PDF. FAU’s total score is in the top third, place 21, up from place 34 two years earlier. I’m not entirely sure how to interpret it, but one thing about FAU stands out: On the dimension of Entrepreneurship education, it scores bottom third, hurting its overall score.

I’m not sure this is a fair assessment, or maybe if it is, the question of why needs to be asked. That the recent EXIST IV funding round directed all money to Munich, Bavaria’s capital, rather than some to Nuremberg, Bavaria’s second largest city, is not going to help. But if entrepreneurship education needs improvement, the OSR Group is doing its part. With FIRM, PROD, and AMOS we are offering three entrepreneurship related classes to students.

In particular the AMOS lab course has spawned the Mydosis startup, which recently received seed stage funding of about EUR 100K. We are now working on the successor, Free Seas Ahoy! while still supporting Mydosis. From my (professorial) perspective, the ranking results support my current approach: Rather than trying to be a broad platform for many startups, I’m hands-on with exactly one startup per year.

Gang of Google Nexus One Phones Arrived

Google has been a generous sponsor of the AMOS lab course in the past and just doubled, well, ten-folded down: After a trip I found this boatload of Nexus One phones on my desk. It will be very helpful to students to actually experience and experiment with the phones on campus rather than being (mostly) confined to the Android emulator. Thanks so much, Google!!

Class Schedules of OSR Group Led Teaching

Here a list of (permanent) links that point to the schedules of classes we teach.

Code Type Clickable Copyable Full Name Status
FAU PSWT Lecture Schedule http://goo.gl/0fy1T Applied Software Engineering Every WS
FAU ADPP Lecture Schedule Advanced Design and Programming Practices In Planning
FAU NYT Lab Course Schedule http://goo.gl/VqoFO Nailing your (Research) Thesis Every WS
FAU AMOS Lab Course Schedule http://goo.gl/BZpU8 Agile Methods and Open Source Every SS
FAU ARCH Seminar Schedule http://goo.gl/ZXJjg Software Architecture Every WS
FAU PROD Seminar Schedule http://goo.gl/tTAI0 Product Management Every SS
FAU UXD Seminar Schedule User Experience Design In Planning
FAU FIRM Seminar Schedule http://goo.gl/Xpz90 The Software Firm Irregular

All of them are world-readable Google Spreadsheets.

Free Seas Ahoy! Released 1.0 Version

Free Seas Ahoy!, the 2011 AMOS Project, reached its 1.0 version today at http://fsahoy.com, finishing of the semester and the lab course with a successful 1.0 release. Check it out! And below, please find a few photo impressions from the final Scrum review and release session as well as the business plan presentation. Thanks to everyone who participated and worked hard to get FSA! out the door. And stay tuned for what is yet to come…

Continue reading Free Seas Ahoy! Released 1.0 Version

Weekly Links

FAU Start-up Mydosis Seeking Cofounder or Employee #1

Mydosis, a FAU student start-up that recently received seed stage funding, is looking for an additional co-founder or employee #1. We are looking for a student and/or experienced Java software developer to help us take http://mydosis.de to the next stage. Mydosis is a community portal for pediatric dosage information. If a Medical Doctor (M.D.) prescribes a drug to an infant today, in 90% of all cases, this drug will not have been approved for infants nor is there validated information provided by the drug makers. Basically, M.D.s are left to their own devices, and the Mydosis community portal, operating on the Wiki(pedia) principle is its first and one-stop shop for self-help. (The Mydosis blog has more information, and we also posted here about it (in German). More on the business model as we engage.) We are looking for a technical person to help develop the company software further. You can join the founding team as a co-founder and receive a salary or be paid in equity. Other models are possible too. We are interested in capable technical people and compensation will be commensurate with your energy and experience (FAU students are welcome). If you are interested, please contact Markus Stipp (project leader) or Dirk Riehle (scientific advisor).

Impressions from 2011 AMOS Project Student Presentations

Next to the regular sprint rhythm, students perform specialized functions in the AMOS project, our annual agile methods and open source lab course. Below please find photo impressions from an acceptance testing, test plan management, and user experience session, all led by students.

Continue reading Impressions from 2011 AMOS Project Student Presentations