Computerworld — San Jose State University's charter is to produce educated workers for the local workforce, and that means Silicon Valley.

As a result, says Sigurd Meldal, chairman of the school's computer engineering department, students going for a master's degree in computer engineering or software engineering are expected to graduate with practical skills and hands-on experience. But it's important that they get good grounding in theory as well, he says. "You have to have the foundational theory or you die after five years in the workforce," he says.

All students must undertake a "capstone experience" that includes requirements definition, design, implementation and deployment, Meldal says. "Most do it with a local industry partner," he says. "It's a real project." In addition, about half of the faculty members come directly from the IT industry.

At a Glance

Location: San Jose
www.engr.sjsu.edu/cmpe
Department: Computer Engineering
Programs: Software engineering, computer engineering
Key administrator: Sigurd Meldal, professor and chairman
In-state tuition: $4,358
Out-of-state tuition: $10,460

"My employer was very impressed with the designing, the application area and the technology that I used in my [master's degree] project," says SJSU graduate Deepti Lalwani, now an analyst at AT&T Inc. "Many companies are still trying to adopt the technology that I used. The program is oriented toward problem-solving, and each course gave me a lot of experience in thinking out of the box and approaching problems."