Orbital (a.k.a., CP2106: Independent Software Development Project) is the School of Computing’s 1st year summer self-directed, independent work course. This programme gives students the opportunity to pick up software development skills on their own, using sources on the web. All while receiving 4 units1,2 of academic units graded on a CS/CU3 basis. SoC provides the Orbital framework for helping students stay motivated and driven to complete a project of their own design, by structuring peer evaluation, critique and presentation milestones over the summer period.

(Note 1: The units from Orbital are generally counted towards Unrestrictive Electives (UEs). If you are planning to use the credits from Orbital to fulfill your degree requirements, please check the specific degree requirements applicable to your cohort for information and consult the undergraduate office of your faculty as needed.

(Note 2: If you are an SoC student and required to attend a programming remedial during summer, you can still take part in Orbital as per normal. However, in the event that you do not manage to pass the remedial, you will not receive any units from Orbital.)

(Note 3: Only teams who manage to pass Orbital will be registered to the course for the CS grade and the academic units. For teams who do not manage to do so, Orbital will not be reflected in the official records, such as EduRec and the transcript, in general. However, as a form of penalty, students who do not contribute to the project properly and / or have caused significant teamwork issues might still be registered to the course and receive a CU grade individually.)

For external visitors: Check out our Facebook page using the “Facebook” tab on top to find out the current events surrounding Orbital. The remainder of this page is informational for the 2025 cohort.

Self help for Orbitees

Before you have been accepted into the programme…

  • The application period for Orbital 25 is tentatively scheduled in mid-March.
  • Please check out and follow our Facebook page using the “Facebook” tab on top to get the latest updates.
  • Students who are going to do any of the following will NOT be allowed to participate in Orbital.
    • take part in any internship registered under SoC/CFG for units (via CP3880/CP3200/CP3202/CFG2101), NOC, UG Summer Research Program (CP2107, a.k.a. Odyssey) or
    • complete CS2103/CS2103T/CS2113/CS2113T by the end of this semester

After you have been accepted into the programme…

  • To submit milestone READMEs, project logs, posters and videos, as well as to evaluate your peer teams’ projects, login to Skylab.
  • To check on deadlines, use the Google Calendar on this page below. It is embeddable as a separate calendar, so you can import it into your own calendaring software.
  • For past materials, you can usually check the YouTube channel as well as either the Liftoff or Mission Control tabs in this website.
  • To communicate with staff, especially your advisor (n.b., not mentor), email your advisor directly. The contact details of your advisor (and mentor, where applicable) are available in Skylab.
  • For all other matters, use MS Teams. For administrative matters, first try to contact your assigned advisor, and then the facilitators. We recommend installing the MS Teams mobile client to keep abreast of announcements.

Structure and Calendar

[Dates here are indicative, but may be revised; please consult the official Orbital calendar above for the most updated information]

Orbital consists of 3 main events (details accessible from the navigation bar above):

  1. (mandatory) Liftoff (12-19 May 25; the week right after final exams): project idea formulation + planning
  2. (optional) Mission Control (17/24/31 May + 7 Jun 24: the first few Saturdays of the programme): online workshops on technical / software engineering topics + project consultations (recordings to be provided on a best effort basis)
  3. (mandatory) Splashdown (27 Aug 25; Wednesday, Week 3 of Sem I, AY 25/26): poster presentation (with voting) + invited talks + awards ceremony

In addition, although Orbital is structured as a self-driven programme, it consists of 3 (mandatory) evaluation milestones (roughly corresponding to ideation, prototyping and refinement) that students must submit on Skylab at the end of each month. Each milestone has a corresponding peer evaluation in which teams will be critically evaluating other peers’ projects. The peer evaluation is an integral part of the Orbital process, as it helps students reflect on each others’ work and helps them to push each other to a successful conclusion (you’re not at it alone!). The quality of a team’s evaluation of other teams factors into the final level of achievement of the team and is evaluated after the final milestone:

  1. Evaluation Milestone 1 (2 Jun 25)
    • Peer Evaluation 1 (9 Jun 25)
  2. Evaluation Milestone 2 (30 Jun 25)
    • Peer Evaluation 2 (7 Jul 25)
  3. Evaluation Milestone 3 (28 Jul 25)
    • Peer Evaluation 3 (4 Aug 25)
    • Feedback on Peer Evaluations (11 Aug 25)

It is fine for you to be overseas during the summer vacation. However, you are expected to manage your time properly to complete all the required tasks on time as a team. Being overseas is NOT a valid excuse for missing the deadlines.

There is an official Google calendar for Orbital. You can add it into your calendar if your calendaring software supports iCal format; just use https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/o477t98fkcop21qjrk5giehp98%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics for the public address of the Orbital calendar.

Levels of Achievement

Orbital is meant to be a voyage of software development with self-learning, so all teams who deliver a working software system with proper documentation illustrating at least 130 nominal hours of decent effort in self-learning and, more importantly, software development will be awarded the pass.

In addition, we recognise that certain teams put in extra effort in their summer projects, and as such, Orbital internally recognises three different levels of achievement that teams can work towards:

  • Project Gemini (intermediate): Any web application with suitable extensions, or a project of your own design using other technology stacks (not restricted to web applications, but could include game development, mobile app development, or any project with exposure into programming). Project teams also must provide at least average quality evaluations of their peers.
  • Apollo 11 (advanced): Any Project Gemini project advanced further to develop more complex features, and use or demonstrate awareness of basics in software engineering, testing and documentation. Project teams also must provide useful evaluations of their peers.
  • Artemis (extreme): Any Apollo 11 project advanced further to develop even more complex features, to use or demonstrate good knowledge in software engineering, testing and documentation. Project teams also must provide detailed and useful evaluations of their peers. Teams attempting this level are eligble for mentorship.

For teams who do not manage to achieve Gemini will be assessed on whether they can still pass Orbital at the Vostok (beginner) level, which requires a basic web application project that can perform CRUD.

For more details on Orbital’s levels of achievement system, consult the Level of Achievements page.

Collaborators