What can industrial partnerships bring in to small-group projects to teach signal and image processing?

This paper deals with our positive experience about project-based pedagogy with the help of industrial partners to teach signal and image processing. During one semester, students are working in small groups of 6 to 8 students, supervised by two teachers or engineers working in a small or a big com pany. Various topics are proposed each year such as radar pro cessing, mobile communication system or image processing. The role played by the industrial partners is crucial: they give seminars about program management, they evaluate the tech nical quality of the projects and the clarity of the oral presen tation. An award ceremony is also organized at school during which the activities of the companies are presented. There are also some discussions about the activities of a young engineer and several awards in various categories are given. A cocktail party ends up the day. Anonymous online surveys completed by our students as well as discussions with our partners con firm the relevance of these projects.