The University of Toronto Introduction to Software Engineering Community Partnership program (”Partnership”) started in 2018. We have had over two hundred partners (non-profits, startups, universities, hospitals, research centers, and small businesses) with users in all continents (except Antarctica) to solve real problems using software. The impressive work of the students has helped our partners move their initiatives forward. Previous partners include teams from UNICEF, 1Password, Engineers Without Borders, Boston Children’s Hospital, Centre for Social Innovation, University of Toronto, Harvard Medical School, and over a hundred new ventures.
If you have a software initiative that can benefit from unique software, we invite you to review this document fully and submit a proposal for our upcoming cohort. Students will be developing software projects in teams of 6-7. They are in their third or fourth year of study in computer science, and many of them have professional working experience (e.g., as interns). They will be led by experienced Teaching Assistants who have professional experience as software engineers.
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Proposal Submission opens on December 8, 2025, and will close on January 3rd, 2026 at 11:59 EST. Please see Estimated Partnership Timeline for expected timelines and How to Submit Proposals for details on how to submit a proposal**.**
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Over 50% of our partners are returning partners.
If you are a returning partner, you are welcome to submit proposals now.
If you are a new partner, we strongly recommend reviewing the material so you have a solid grasp of what to expect before submitting a proposal.
Proposals contains 4 sections and should take about 30-90 minutes to answer all questions. You can review the questions and prepare beforehand but you may need to submit them all at once. We will collect the following information in two steps:
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If you are in the early stages, it will help immensely if you build early prototypes and proofs of concepts with lovable.dev, v0.dev, Bolt.new so you can include some details for students to visualize. They require no technical knowledge.
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<aside> 💡 Thanks to our CSC301 students, we have a new platform (built through this program) that helps us collect your proposals.
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Please register as a partner via this link (this address in case there is an issue with link: https://project-2-athena-learning-frontend-production.up.railway.app/)
You can watch this 5-minute walkthrough of some of the key details needed. If you have any questions or encounter any problems feel free to email [email protected].
Before the program starts, we review your proposals. If they are accepted, we share them with the students. You will get an update by the end of the month (January or September).