A New Chapter in Test Automation Education at Obuda University

Every university in our field aims to prepare students for those challenges that they are likely to encounter after graduation, and this is especially true for a practice-oriented institution like Obuda University. While we, as professors, try to avoid the “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” effect, it is nevertheless true that industry partners have such insight, which is sometimes hard to match from the side of academia.

This is particularly the case in subjects like this, where there is a heavy emphasis on real-life solutions and less on theoretical background and issues such as mathematical foundations. In these cases, it is often true that it is much better to directly involve industry partners in teaching; I believe that our collaboration with Sigma and László gives an excellent example for this.

While the present course is mainly oriented towards education, I also see potential in terms of research and innovation. Despite being a practice-oriented institution, we have substantial research activity, and more importantly, there has been a strong focus on improving it in the past few years.

Students who are interested in this field (or become interested after this course!) have the opportunity to join collaborative research topics, which Obuda University fully supports, and I hope more and more students will use this opportunity in the future.

In addition to often having better insight, the presence of industry partners offers one important additional benefit: quick response to the changing needs and environment. It is probably safe to say that we, without support from our industry partners, would not be able to react and change as quickly.

This course is a good example how the industry’s involvement can improve our response time: new practices, tools, software and approaches can almost instantaneously appear in the curriculum, thanks to having input from those who are involved in the implementation of those practices, tools and approaches, and who have the most direct experiences with their industrial value and usefulness.

Excellent in my opinion! Cooperation on the administrative matters has always been very smooth; I personally have only had very good experiences with this. (I hope this is similar on Sigma’s side too!) Notably, the feedback we received from the students was almost uniformly positive or very positive. They seem to enjoy having a course with an industry partner!

The primary goal of our test automation course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of modern software testing while providing practical industry examples to build hands-on knowledge. We’ve designed the curriculum to bridge theoretical concepts with real-world applications.

The syllabus covers various phases of web application testing, including unit testing, integration testing, and Selenium-based front-end testing. We also explore the testing of machine learning models, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s technology landscape. Our approach emphasizes practical skills that students can directly apply in professional environments.

We have three instructors from Sigma teaching this course. We distribute topics based on each instructor’s expertise and professional experience, allowing everyone to incorporate their specialized knowledge into the teaching process. This approach ensures students benefit from diverse perspectives and real-world insights.

Each instructor brings their unique industry experiences to the classroom, which creates a rich learning environment where students are exposed to varied approaches and methodologies in test automation. We regularly collaborate to maintain cohesion across the curriculum while leveraging our individual strengths.

My experience is positive overall. Students show genuine interest in the material, and they increasingly appreciate our interactive teaching approach.

I’ve found that constructive discussions frequently develop in the classroom around specific problems, with students often proposing excellent solutions and interesting, forward-thinking approaches during these conversations.

An important outcome has been that university teaching serves as an effective recruitment channel—several of our new colleagues at Sigma first met us through these courses, which I consider a valuable achievement for both the students and our company.