Profile of the Institute
The Software Institute of Nanjing University is one of the earliest model software colleges nominated by the Ministry of Education in China. With its A-rating software engineering education and its State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, the institute has set up teaching platforms such as the Jiangsu Provincial Software Engineering Experiment and Teaching Center and the National Experiment and Teaching Center for Computer Science and Software Engineering (which was co-built with the Department of Computer Science and Technology). It has also founded some research institutions, for example, the Technical Center for Application Software Engineering.
Currently, the institute offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in software engineering and the professional master’s program in information technology (software engineering). The bachelor’s program in software engineering was selected as a national first-level bachelor’s program in 2019 and won second prize three times in the National Teaching Assessment. This program was nominated as the national top program during China’s Eleventh Five-Year Plan and as the national pilot program for discipline reform during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. It is also the national pilot project for educational innovation and the national engineering practice project of the Excellent Engineer Training Program launched by the Ministry of Education. Teachers involved in this program were honored with the National Excellent Faculty Award. Besides, it is the key and A-rating flagship program included in the Jiangsu Provincial Excellent Software Engineer Training Program. Moreover, the professional master’s program in software engineering was evaluated as the Great Engineering Program in the National Assessment of Postgraduate Engineering Education.
The institute provides special labs for teaching and research on software testing, embedded software, software availability, computer networks, software development efficiency and intelligent software engineering. It has also set up practice centers with over 80 famous software companies at home and abroad to improve its students’ occupational qualities and employment competitiveness.
Faculty
The institute is backed by an outstanding faculty. Some teachers are from the National Teaching Group for Main Software Engineering Courses. The institute has 16 full-time and part-time professors and 12 associate professors. Among them, there is one winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, two members of the Specialty Teaching Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Education and two winners of the Excellent Teacher Prize of the Baosteel Education Fund. Moreover, the institute has recruited famous software professionals for lectures.
Achievements in Teaching and Research
The institute has long engaged in the research on software engineering and has made many achievements. Its research covers software engineering technology, software engineering management, information system engineering, embedded software and mobile app development technology. It has won several national honors including the second prizes of the National Teaching Assessment in 2005 and 2009 and the second prize of the National Science Progress Award in 2006.
International Exchange and Cooperation
The institute adopts an open-up teaching approach. It has established partnerships with many prestigious universities in the world such as Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Maryland, University of Queensland, Catholic University of Leuven and Waseda University. Globally famous software companies including Huawei, Baidu, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Intel and Cisco have donated teaching and experiment platforms and software to the institute. The institute has also set up student practice centers in over 80 nationally and internationally renowned software enterprises. Professor N. Wirth, designer of Pascal and Turing Award winner, once gave a lecture to the students of the institute.
Education
The institute has rich experience in cultivating high-caliber professionals in software engineering. It has for decades provided the country with outstanding practitioners of software engineering. The bachelor’s program in software engineering is the national key program, and the master’s program in software engineering was honored as the Great Engineering Program in the National Assessment of Postgraduate Engineering Education. The Innovative Training Center for Software Engineering of the institute is the national pilot hub for educational innovation. The institute’s training scheme and learning-through-practice system won awards in the fifth and sixth National Assessment of Higher Education. Introduction to Computing Systems, Computing and Software Engineering and Theory and Application of Operating Systems are recognized as the national high-quality courses.
Curriculum and Main Courses
The undergraduate specialties include software technology, mobile internet, embedded software, service computing and information system engineering.
The main courses include Discrete Mathematics, Introduction to Computing Systems, Computing and Software Engineering, Data Structure and Algorithm, Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Database Systems, Software Construction, Software Requirement Engineering, Software System Design and System Structure, Software Testing and Quality Management, Software Process and Project Management, Human-Computer Interaction Technology, Statistical Software Engineering, Structure of the Computer, C++ Advanced Programming, Service Computing and Embedded Systems.
Scholarships and Grants
Scholarships for undergraduates include the National Scholarship, the People’s Scholarship, the National Encouragement Scholarship, the Pan Xueping Scholarship, the Tung OOCL Scholarship, the Citibank Scholarship, the Google Scholarship, the IBM Scholarship, the HSBC Scholarship and the Shanda Scholarship. The scholarship can reach as much as 12,000 yuan per person. The total amount of scholarships hits over 600,000 yuan every year, and there are around 500 student-times receiving scholarships every year.
Student Grants include the Sun Hung Kai Properties Grants, the Cyrus Tang Grants, the National Grants and the Gratitude Grants. The highest grant reaches 10,000 yuan per person. Every year, more than 500,000 yuan is allocated as student grants, and about 200 student-times receive the grants.
Further Study and Career after Graduation
Most students have good prospects after graduation. Around 50% pursue graduate studies at home or abroad. They may go to over 40 universities in the world such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, Princeton University, Purdue University, University of California, Indiana University, University of Maryland, University of Oxford, Waseda University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The employment rate of the graduates whether from the undergraduate program or the graduate program has remained 100% for three years in a row, ranking the top at the university. The students are employed at famous IT companies such as Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, Meituan, Microsoft and Paypal. Over 85% of them work in Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing.