Computer science students at Uppsala University in Sweden have developed software prototypes on top of Ericsson’s IMS platform, and in cooperation with two other Swedish companies.

The software development was part of a computer science course at the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University and involved two groups of 12 students in the penultimate semester of a master’s program. The course ran from September 2008 to mid-January this year.

Olle Gällmo

Olle Gällmo, lecturer at the Department of Information Technology, who runs the course, says that, in cooperation with Ericsson Research, he decided to focus on the development of IMS-based applications using the Mobile Java Communication Framework (MJCF), a set of IMS enablers developed by Ericsson Research and available on the web.

Testing the MJCF, and giving feedback to improve it, was part of the collaboration scope. For the application development, Gällmo chose to work with two Swedish companies – Mobile Arts and Green Hat People. Mobile Arts is a software company specializing in telecommunications and data communications products for mobile operators, and Green Hat People is an event a company that creates games played via mobile phones using Java applications.

Ericsson provided the students with test devices, training and support, and access to the IMS platform via MJCF; the actual application development was done in close cooperation with Mobile Arts and Green Hat People.

Close cooperation with the collaborating companies is fundamental to the course setup, Gällmo explains. “This gives the student valuable working experience, as well as professional contacts. For the companies, it’s a way of getting to know students for possible recruitment, besides developing software that might be of commercial use.”

Christian Axelsson

Christian Axelsson, one of the students, was project manager for the team cooperating with Mobile Arts. He says the work consisted of developing an Erlang-based IMS-application server, and an instant messaging application using that server. (Erlang is an open-source concurrent programming language originally developed by Ericsson.)

“We are very happy with the course, both the working experience it gave us, as well as with what we actually achieved,” Axelsson says.

The Green Hat People project was managed by Rasmus Haglund, one of the 12 students in his group. Besides acquiring technical knowledge, he says, the main benefit of the project was the hands-on experience of processes used in real workplaces, as well as contact with existing companies.  

Rasmus Haglund

Using Java technology, Haglund’s team extended the Green Hat People’s portfolio with four applications based on location information - role-plays, a music play, and a tourist guide.

“We achieved our goals and actually did better than we expected,” Haglund says. “And besides developing the applications, we also had time to test them on users outside the project, such as friends and fellow students.”

Both Axelsson and Haglund believe MJCF will be a useful tool, although they had some problems with it in the beginning.

Viktor Berggren, MJCF owner at Ericsson Research, says he is more than pleased with the outcome of the projects, both with the actual applications and the testing and improvements of MJCF the students contributed to. The MJCF portal is now available for the developer community and will be further developed during 2009, he says.

By Benny Ritzén

Uppsala University, Department of Information Technology (in Swedish)

MJCF Portal

IMS 

Mobile Arts

Green Hat People