At DCSIL, we believe collaboration and teamwork aren't just nice-to-haves,
they're the foundation of everything we do.
The core founding principle of DCSIL is collaboration. Success is not a product of individual effort but of cohesive teams that maintain transparency and mutual accountability. This interdisciplinary approach ensures that technical precision and business strategy evolve in tandem, transforming individual expertise into a viable startup venture.
The efficacy of the incubator relies on professional behaviors that enable high-functioning team dynamics. Students are expected to adhere to the following standards: Your consistent engagement is the primary driver of team momentum. Being dependable is a requirement for the progression of the project. Sharing ideas openly and disclosing specific engineering bottlenecks or resource constraints is essential to maintain team trust and ensure everyone is working toward the same technical objectives. Founders must be willing to treat all work as a draft, using external feedback to identify flaws and improve both the system architecture and the product strategy.
This program simulates a high-stakes startup environment by merging two distinct but interdependent disciplines:
The Business of Software (CSC454/2527) focuses on market viability, financial modeling, and strategic positioning. The Engineering of Software (CSC491/2600) focuses on technical infrastructure, scalable architecture, and the development of a robust proof of concept.
The curriculum is structured so that these disciplines do not operate in isolation. Technical development serves as the evidence for business feasibility, while market research dictates the engineering requirements. This reciprocal relationship ensures that every technical decision is grounded in market reality and every business model is backed by functional code.
While all students in the engineering stream are concurrently enrolled in the business stream, the reverse is not always the case. To account for this asymmetry, participation in cross-course collaboration is a formal graded component of the business course. This ensures that every team member, regardless of their specific enrollment, is held accountable for the integrated progress of the startup.
Teams must function as unified units where success is measured by the ability to synthesize technical milestones with business objectives. The final output is not two separate projects, but a single cohesive product and pitch. The most successful ventures to emerge from DCSIL are those that effectively bridge the gap between these two specialized workstreams.