A Graduate's Role in Technology Transfer: From Requirements to Design with UML.

It is a universal challenge to bridge the gap between academia and industry, and between theory and practice. This challenge is particularly critical in the discipline of software engineering and is often categorised under the umbrella of technology transfer. Experience suggests that one of the least well understood aspects of software development is in the move from requirements to design. We support the view that software designers fail to treat design as a process rather than a product and as a consequence become experts in representing the products using models/languages but fail to master the design process. In contrast, recent developments in academia have shown that design can be more effectively taught using problem based learning techniques. This appears to produce students who better understand design as a process; but how can we ensure that this academic advancement will have a positive impact when these students move out into the real world? In this paper we analyse the role of a recently qualified student1 in facilitating technology transfer in the form of introducing engineers to best practices in using UML to move from requirements to design.