About
Immersive Software Engineering at UL
ISE is a radically practical computer science degree at the University of Limerick, built with industry to change how software engineers are trained.
Our story
Why ISE exists
Software runs the modern economy, but the way we train software engineers has barely changed in decades. Ireland's technology companies consistently say they cannot hire enough skilled engineers, and that the gap holds them back. More than three quarters of Irish tech firms report that the shortage costs them money. Immersive Software Engineering was built to close that gap.
ISE started from a simple conviction. The best way to become a great software engineer is to do the work, supported by great teaching. So instead of four years of lectures and then a first job, ISE students spend about half the degree inside real engineering teams, on paid residencies, from first year. The idea is borrowed from medicine, where residencies have long turned students into practitioners, and brought to computer science.
The programme was designed at the University of Limerick together with the companies that go on to hire its students, Stripe among them as a founding partner, so that what students learn and what industry needs are the same thing. It was also built to widen who sees software engineering as a path for them, and to bring more students, and more young women, into the field.
The result is a degree built around real-world complexity rather than the lecture hall, and graduates who reach industry already knowing how to build.
The coalition
Built with industry, not just for it
ISE was created with the companies that hire its graduates, not at a distance from them. Stripe helped shape the curriculum and the residency model from the start, and Analog Devices was there at the launch.
More than 70 partners
From global platforms to Ireland's fastest growing startups, including four of the country's nine unicorns.
Real residencies
Partners host students on paid residencies and mentor them on real engineering work.
Industry scholarships
Partners fund scholarships that widen access to the programme, including an equity, diversity and inclusion award.
Milestones
The story so far
2021
The idea
UL, Stripe and Analog Devices set out to build a new kind of computer science degree, designed around paid residencies in industry.
2022
First cohort
The first ISE students start at UL, and AWS funds a Global Fellowships programme for the course.
2023
Recognised
ISE wins the Technology Ireland Outstanding Academic Achievement award.
2026
First MSc class
Sixteen students graduate with an integrated master's and move into roles at companies like Stripe, Fin, Analog Devices and AWS.
Where it stands now
A growing programme
“Working with the staff and students of ISE over the past two years has been an incredibly rewarding journey. Seeing our first MSc graduating class preparing to cross the stage is the ultimate validation of our curriculum, proving the immersive teaching model delivers exactly what we set out to achieve.”
Follow ISE
See it for yourself
The everyday of ISE, from residencies to student projects, lives on our channels.
Join the next cohort
Applications for 2027 are open through the CAO with code LM173.
Immersive Software Engineering, University of Limerick. A radically practical computer science degree.