Open Liberty as a learning tool for university projects

University students are the next generation of software engineers. As such, they need opportunities to experience real-life scenarios of building applications for clients, with tools that are used in today’s applications. These experiences provide students with a deeper understanding of the end-to-end process of application development and help them to develop critical and practical skills for their future careers.

IBM developers recently worked with professors at SUNY Oswego to create a 15-week project in which students built a web-application by using Open Liberty, MicroProfile, and JSON Web Tokens (JWT). This project gave students hands-on experience delivering software for a client with open source tools and technologies. Students also learned methodologies like IBM Design Thinking and agile scrum.

The students used Open Liberty to build a successful microservice-based application on a deadline. The interactive guides on the Open Liberty site were important teaching tools for them to solve specific technical challenges in building an app from scratch. The project also gave students an appreciation for open source tools and how they can help contribute to these tools through collaboration with the community.

The students enjoyed the project and learned many new skills. They also made important connections to working professionals in the industry. You can check out the article they wrote for their perspective on the project.

From an IBM perspective, the project helped us gain interesting and helpful feedback from the students on our Open Liberty guides and documentation. Check out Paul Austin’s blog for a more in-depth view of what it was like to help run this project and mentor the students.

You can also check out the application the students built and their final presentation.

If you’d like to learn more about this project, or if you want create your own university collaboration, feel free to reach out to Paul Austin for more information.