Often, I tell students that some of the most important things they will get out of a course won't necessarily be found on the course outline, that "pathways to success can only be found, not made".

This was the experience for many students in Trent's Honours software engineering course this year and it was stunningly evident in their recent end-of-term group presentations. Presenting work for scrutiny by one's peers and the university's entire Computer Science/Studies faculty for most students is a particularly daunting challenge. It draws heavily on the theoretical and technical knowledge acquired over four years of study together with one's presentation and interpersonal skills.

Eight quite diverse projects were undertaken this year. The first to be presented was under the guidance of Dr. James Jury, Chair of Trent's Department of Physics, who is doing advanced research in the area of gamma-ray medical imaging. In this project, two students examined the limitations with current technology and created a computer-based simulation to successfully prove that these limitations can be overcome and the technology can be significantly advanced. Not a trivial undertaking!

A second research project explored the prospects of using the university's computer network and desktop computing resources in a distributed processing configuration to better utilize these resources when they are not in use. The idea is to break a large computing problem, such as a solar system simulation program used in an astronomy course that calculates interacting massive-body trajectories, into small pieces and spread the computation across many computers when they are idle.

Four presentations followed in the community service category which included a patron data management system designed specifically for the Peterborough Kiwanis Music Festival, a web-based data management system for Trent's Student Peer Mentoring Program and a Java-based employee absence and sick day credit tracking system for the Regional Municipality of Durham. As well, a new geographical information display system was demonstrated which will be used by the Trent International Program and Office of Research and Graduate Studies to answer questions such as "where in the world do Trent's international students come from?" and "in what parts of the world is the Trent faculty doing research?". In time, this resource will be available to the public and accessible through these departmental web sites at www.trentu.ca.

Two particularly interesting prototype applications were also presented: a records, information and document management portal for the CGI consulting group and a web-based data management system which will be used by Trent's locksmiths in managing the university's key inventory data. This latter project is part of a new "open source" software development initiative which employs an Apache web server, PHP and the PostgreSQL database management system on a Debian Linux server.

All in all, it was a "first class" showing and I have the sense that most, if not everyone, passed.

And the lessons learned?

Well, some things just never seem to change. As John Gall wrote in Systemantics - the underground text of systems lore, "If anything can go wrong it will . . . New systems mean new problems . . . Systems tend to expand to fill the known universe . . . Complex systems exhibit unexpected behavior . . . Reality is more complex than it seems . . . The system always kicks back . . . The old system is now the new problem . . . If a system is working, leave it alone. Don't change anything . . . A system can fail in an infinite number of ways . . . Bad design can rarely be overcome by more design, whether good or bad." Above all, "Cherish your system failures".

And what did people learn that wasn't on the course outline? Interestingly, this list contains things such as "how to deal with people," "patience," "appreciating different learning styles and needs," "you can't always expect to get what you want" and "how to adapt in dealing with people" ­ things that are vital outcomes in a liberal arts and science education. For everyone, the experience at the end of the day was entirely in keeping with the university's motto: Nunc cognosco ex parte . . . now I know in part.

Peter Northrop is Trent University's educational computing advisor and a member of the part-time computer studies/science faculty. He also co-ordinates the work of the Trent Academic Technological Innovation Centre [TAcTIC].