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You bring the problem. They bring seven weeks.

As an industry client you write a design brief, mentor a team of Cambridge second-year computer scientists, and meet them four times across Lent term. This guide sets out exactly what that involves — what you commit to, what you receive, and what seven weeks of student effort realistically buys.

  • 4 meetings with you

  • 7 weeks of work

  • 30–60 hours per student

  • 5 documents to you

  • One 4-minute video

What being a client actually involves

Four formal meetings, four documents to read, and a brief to write beforehand. The meetings can be in person or virtual, and it is the team's job to schedule them with you inside the required week.

  • Write a brief

    Roughly 100–200 words describing a problem worth seven weeks, submitted to the organisers before the Michaelmas briefing lecture.

  • Meet four times

    Weeks 1, 2, 4 and 6 of Lent term. Requirements, then specification sign-off, then two progress reviews.

  • Read before you meet

    Each meeting is preceded by a PDF, sent at least 24 hours ahead — before noon the day before — so you have time to review it.

  • Unblock the team

    Data, credentials, API access, documentation or hardware. Access that hasn't been approved is a classic week-one risk.

  • Watch and vote

    Videos go online for staff, clients and students in week 8, and you can vote for your favourite projects.

  • Come to the exhibition (optional)

    A public screening, demonstrations of every project and the awards, on the last Wednesday of Lent term.

The dates that involve you

Filtered down to the milestones a client is actually part of. Student-only deadlines are left out. (Dates shown are for the Lent 2027 run.)

When What happens for you
Mon 16 Nov 2026 Briefing lecture — your brief is presented. Students see the design briefs for the first time. Your brief needs to be with the organisers in good time before this; ask them for the current cut-off.
Thu 21 Jan 2027 Teams announced — expect to be contacted. Groups, clients and briefs are announced. Your team elects a contact person who will introduce themselves and ask to book Meeting 1.
Week 1 · 21–27 Jan 2027 Client meeting 1 — requirements. Clarify what you actually need and what success looks like. The team is advised to meet as early in the week as possible.
Week 2 · 28 Jan – 3 Feb 2027 Client meeting 2 — specification & plan. You receive the draft Functional Specification and Project Plan at least 24 hours beforehand. This is the meeting to correct the scope.
Week 4 · 11–16 Feb 2027 Client meeting 3 — progress. Progress Report 1 reaches you at least 24 hours beforehand.
Week 6 · 25 Feb – 3 Mar 2027 Client meeting 4 — progress. Progress Report 2 reaches you at least 24 hours beforehand. This is the last formal meeting before the team freezes the code.
Thu 11 Mar 2027, 12 noon Code freeze — team stops building. The team submits its video and a full copy of the repository to the examiners. No credit is given for anything added after this, so expect development to stop here.
Mon 15 Mar 2027 Videos online — you can watch and vote. Videos are available to staff, clients and students from Monday to Wednesday, and you can vote for your favourites.
Wed 17 Mar 2027, afternoon Exhibition and awards — you are invited. Public screening of the videos, an interactive exhibition with demonstrations of every project, and the awards.
Wed 17 Mar 2027, by 5pm Final Group Report reaches you. The last possible time for the team to email you the final report as a PDF.

Six things clients most often get wrong

None of this is meant to put you off — projects regularly produce genuinely useful prototypes. But going in with the right expectations is the difference between a great experience and a disappointing one.

Budget: 60 hours per member

The project plan must work to a budget of no more than 60 hours per person, and the course expects 30–60 hours of work each, spread over seven weeks. Multiply by your team size for the total engineering effort available — then assume a good part of it goes on learning, co-ordination and writing.

Seven weeks, and a hard stop

Building runs from week 1 to the code freeze at noon on Thursday 11 March 2027. No credit is given for features added after that, so development genuinely stops — there is no quiet extra fortnight.

Students are assigned, not recruited

Group membership is decided by the department. Students express preferences but there is no guarantee they get them, so your team may not have chosen your project. They are second-year undergraduates working alongside a full lecture load.

The briefs are meant to be ambitious

Design briefs are deliberately intended to push the bounds of what students can achieve, often involving new technologies, substantial engineering effort, or research problems that have never been solved before. Expect a strong prototype, not a production system.

It is assessed as learning, not delivery

Credit is awarded for working effectively as a team, maintaining a professional relationship with the client, and each member making a substantial technical contribution. A project can succeed academically without shipping everything you hoped for.

You do not automatically get the code or the IP

The repository is submitted to the examiners via Moodle. Ownership of copyright in the source code and any other intellectual property is something to discuss and agree with the team — the organisers can advise if asked. See Intellectual Property.

Interested in proposing a project?

All communication regarding the group projects should be addressed to the group project email address, so it reaches the whole organising team: group-project@cl.cam.ac.uk.