Stimulating Creativity Through Opportunistic Software Development

Using opportunistic software development principles in computer engineering education encourages students to be creative and to develop solutions that cross the boundaries of diverse technologies. A framework for opportunistic software development education helps to create a space in which students can combine systems that were never meant to work together or even to be reused, and thus produce innovative ideas and solutions. A case study involving students in a course on intelligent human-computer interaction design demonstrates the approach, and the authors discuss some lessons learned.