Can Software Engineering be Taught by Making (and) Music? a proposed empirical study

The work proposed here centres on materializing core concepts of software engineering (e.g. version management, architecture, the interplay between functional and non-functional requirements, the need to think at both small and large scale simultaneously, user interaction and design constraints, as well as project management) in design thinking through the creation of physical instruments, and their subsequent translation (by introducing the crucial engineering concepts of abstraction and abstract representation) into a combination of software-based digital instruments with physical controllers. The hope is that by doing so, the thinking skills that benefit software engineering (beyond programming) can be developed through physical, not just mental practice. More broadly, students can engage with other aspects of their curriculum (physics, art, design etc) and bring these to bear in an integrated way.