UCL Industry Exchange Network (UCL IXN)
Our trailblazing programme is a win-win for all: students gain customised industry experience throughout their course; companies get to fast-track innovation.
UCL Computer Science launched the UCL Industry Exchange Network (UCL IXN) in 2011. Since then, our students have collaborated with Microsoft, IBM, NTT DATA, Intel, Google, Facebook and Amazon. Alongside the technology giants, we partner with top international banks, the next-big-thing SMEs and the most creative gaming companies. Our students have helped the NHS transform digital healthcare and brought technical advances to charities.
UCL IXN readies the students for their careers. They work with our partners to devise proofs of concept to solve real-life problems. At the same time, they learn vital business skills. The unique Industry Exchange Network pedagogical approach, established by Prof Dean Mohamedally and Prof Graham Roberts, has been endorsed as best practice by the UK government*.
Other universities run capstone programmes where students might have a single industry project experience, often in their final year. In contrast, UCL Computer Science undergraduate students can work on industry projects as part of their taught modules, in multiple years of their degree programme. Master's students have three months dedicated to a full time on an UCL IXN summer project.
UCL IXN uses a motivation tracking approach to focus on students' particular interests, identifying the fields in which they want to work. They are able to become specialists who don't need to retrain before starting employment.
For partners, the programme allows them to innovate with low risk. Creating proof of concepts and prototypes with the students, they explore ideas quickly with minimal costs and disruption to their business. Many welcome the opportunity to have long-running projects, where expert teams of students develop a concept over subsequent years. Partners say how the students bring fresh insights, new approaches to solving problems.
UCL Computer Science is ranked second in the UK for research power and first in England (REF2021), and this leading research guides our teaching. Our students have exceptional talent but are also equipped for industry. We're building tomorrow's technology leaders who can share their knowledge and pass on their skills. Our partners often call the programme a recruitment pipeline. Reach the best first with UCL IXN.
* Reviewed in the UK government’s Topol Review 2019 and endorsed by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
How our projects work
We nurture long-term relationships with our industry partners, and the projects are truly collaborative. We require every company to have a named technology mentor to support the students alongside a UCL supervisor.
UCL Computer Science undergrads (Cycle 1) spend 25% of their time in every year of their course working on industry projects alongside their taught modules.
Master’s students (Cycle 2) spend three months dedicated to IXN projects as part of their dissertations.
Undergrad students - Cycle 1
Terms 1 and 2 (Oct to Mar)
UG & PG In-Class Teams
(25% time load)
UG Final Year Dissertations
(25% time load)
- UCL IXN for undergrads
- led by Professor Dean Mohamedally
- At least 20% of projects are charitable/open-sourced
- Calls for project proposals May-June for Oct start
Master's students - Cycle 2
Term 3 (June to Sept)
PG Courses
Individual Dissertations and Team Projects
(100% time load)
- UCL IXN Innovation for MSc students
- Led by Dr Carolyn Phelan
- NDA and closed source projects allowed (IP exchanges)
- Calls for project proposals Nov-Jan for June start
What our partners say
We regard the IXN programme as a 'win-win' situation. UCL wins because the students gain industrial experience of a 'real problem'. We win because the students can explore (and sometimes solve) a problem that is relevant to what we do. Both sides can benefit from what we think of as a three-month long interview.
GOSH DRIVE is delighted to collaborate with the UCL IXN programme. The programme allows us to engage with talented and enthusiastic computer science students who are keen to develop technology that has the potential to change lives.
The UCL IXN programme has been a fundamental part of transforming how we engage with universities.
UCL was part of the founding story of KI Insurance – working alongside the Ki team, Brit Insurance, and Google. The IXN programme provides an ongoing opportunity for UCL and Ki minds to work together on core problems at the interface of financial services, data, machine learning and computer science. Now in its 5th year of operation, UCL and KI have run over 20 IXN thesis projects, and several IXN alumni have gone on to join the Ki team.
