The Faculty of Computing and Engineering interacts with industry and other organisations in many different ways. The main areas involved are:

• Graduates. The teaching in the Faculty is strongly vocational with an emphasis on developing practical skills. This ensures that graduates are immediately ready for a career in industry. This is the main objective for most of them but the courses also prepare students for further study at postgraduate level.
• Course Development. The requirements of industry are reviewed regularly to confirm the currency of the courses offered and to identify new requirements or opportunities.
• Placement Students.Undergraduates who take computing as their main subject spend their third year working on a Placement in industry. On successful completion, they are awarded a Diploma. The undergraduate programmes are structured to provide each student with the necessary technical skills and personal qualities to make them valuable to a Placement employer. Many students, having impressed their employers, are offered full-time positions after graduation.
• Undergraduate Projects.Undergraduate students tackle a substantial individual project in the final year of their chosen course. These projects may be defined by the academic staff in the Faculty or proposed by students returning from Placement, building on the knowledge they have gained. In some cases the projects may involve the Placement employers.
• Masters Projects.Students studying for an MSc degree complete a substantial project for the award. Some of the projects are offered and jointly supervised by industry.
• PhD Projects.Some PhD projects are sponsored by industry through the CAST & CASE Award Schemes or by individual contracts. Typically, the student tackles a topic that is of strategic interest to the organisation concerned and of research interest to the academic supervisors who oversee the project within the University.
• Student Internships.In some cases students may spend time working in industry on 'internships'. Over the past two years, for example, CISCO has offered four-month research internships in the US for students on PhD and Masters Courses in the School at Coleraine. So far nine students have taken part in the scheme, most of whom are studying for a PhD. More information.
• Student Sponsorship.Some students are sponsored by industry during their study. This may be for the full period of a course or during the final year of an undergraduate programme after Placement. Currently, these are arranged directly by the students, without the School being involved. With increasing fees it seems likely that interest in these types of award will grow.
• Student Prizes.A range of prizes is available for award to the most successful students. Some of these prizes are offered by professional bodies, such as the British Computer Society, but most are from industry. Examples include the Kainos Prize for the best final year undergraduate project in each of the computing Schools.
• Undergraduate Competitions.Some organisations run student competitions that the students can enter individually or with School support. In 2007, for example, a student group at Coleraine competed in the Microsoft Imagine Cup, winning second place in the all Ireland final, for a project on linguistic phonics More information.
• Collaborative Projects.Most research in the Faculty is undertaken through funded projects in partnership with industry.
• Research Centres.Research can also be undertaken through formal research centres. For example, the Centre for Software Process Technologies (CSPT), which was established in 2002 as a Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering, engages in research and knowledge transfer aimed at supporting the economic and commercial growth of software development organisations in Northern Ireland.
• KTP Projects.Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) evolved from the Teaching Company Scheme (TCS). KTP is a funding mechanism for joint research and development projects between industry and academia. The University of Ulster has a strong history of success in the area, both in terms of the number of awards made and in project achievements. The University also hosts a KTP project support centre.
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  Fusion Projects.The FUSION programme is managed by InterTradeIreland, an organisation set up to promote business relationships between the North and South of Ireland. The University is currently involved in a substantial number of these projects.
• Short Courses.On request, the Faculty can organise training courses on new technologies for industry. In the past, for example, these have included courses on Internet Application Development and Object-Oriented Development.
• Consultancy. On request, academic staff can provide services for industry on a consultancy basis. Examples include acting as an 'expert witness', reviewing technological support in an organisation, reviewing commissioned reports, sitting on interviews panels, and reporting on a specific technology issue or development.
• Staff Internships.Academic staff can spend periods of time outside the University studying or working on specific projects in other organisations. These may be funded by the University, the hosting institution or supported through independent schemes promoting collaborative work, such as the Royal Academy of Engineering.
• Spin-Out Companies. Occasionally, research work produces results with commercial potential. One particularly successful example is Causeway Data Communications (CDC), whose main product is Spatialest, a GIS package for property appraisal. InvestNI and the University are shareholders in the company.