Experience Report of the AWS+KCL Impact Accelerator for Public Sector Engagement

This industry experience report chronicles the experience of developing an impact-focused group project module within a computer science master's programme at King's College London over two years. The module was set up in collaboration with Amazon Web Services to match student teams with public sector challenges requiring innovative technological solutions. An iterative process of modifications based on partner and student feedback aimed to enhance the learning experience and outcomes. Key benefits included providing authentic professional development for students, enabling innovation and entrepreneurship, building partnerships between academia and the public sector, and embedding responsible innovation into projects. However, challenges emerged around managing expectations, ensuring consistent partner engagement, providing support for spin-outs, and handling sensitive data issues. As more projects involved artificial intelligence applications in the second year, developing mechanisms to ethically provide access while protecting sensitive information was an increasingly crucial need. Moreover, understanding the value and impact of this model of software engineering project module requires additional research support. Overall, this collaborative module offers a promising model to deliver impact-driven solutions through coordinating academia, industry, and public sector partners. Further research can help optimise such partnerships for societal impact.