Case Study: Washington State University improves senior design collaboration with VMware AirWatch Socialcast

Giving students, professors, and professionals the right tools for solving real-world design challenges

Washington State University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) needed a secure, easy-to-use way to help senior design teams collaborate with professors and sponsoring companies. The existing mix of meetings, email, and Facebook groups was inefficient, felt unprofessional, and raised concerns about protecting sensitive academic and intellectual property. VMware AirWatch provided the Socialcast social collaboration platform to meet this need.

With VMware AirWatch’s Socialcast, WSU created a shared workspace where students, faculty, and industry sponsors could post updates, share documents, track progress, and communicate in real time from desktops or mobile devices. The solution reduced time spent coordinating calendars and arranging meetings, improved project visibility for professors and sponsors, and helped teams focus more on solving real-world problems. By fully deploying Socialcast in the Senior Design Curriculum, WSU enabled deeper collaboration and more efficient project handoffs, while giving students valuable workplace-ready teamwork skills.

Washington State University