An innovative practice in a graduate course combining startups evaluation and image processing

A joint development of business and engineering skills should be a nowadays concern in order to fulfill with the expectation and the vision of educating the engineer of 2020. However, in practice, such harmonization of abilities and skills during the educational experience provided by a course may be challenging due to several reasons. The lack of homogeneity regarding students' background within a specific course, as well as a short duration of the course itself are among the reasons. In this paper, an innovative practice conducted for engaging students in the development of skills in business and engineering is presented. The practice was focused on image processing startups evaluation. It involved professionals from different areas such as management, accounting, and engineering in a master's program of information technology. The course had a duration of eighth sessions, in a time period of a month. Student outcomes were evaluated according to a rubric designed for this context. It considers engineering, business, and communication skills. This practice was motivated on previous experiences of the same course where the instructor found the challenges mentioned above. Analysis of obtained results during the innovative practice indicate that is indeed challenging for students to properly enhance the considered skills during the course. Presented activity and designed rubric may be useful for further innovative practices aiming a development of engineering and business skills. Details are provided in this paper in order to allow its reproducibility.