We had group coding projects at university, and the first one was always "sponsored" by the local airport. I think the ATC manager was friends with a lecturer. Every year the students built to the same spec in groups, being able to compare and contrast. It was great fun.

The year before me was all about runway markings: take a bunch of industry specified XML describing the runway and produce accurate diagrams in a GUI browser.

My year was runway "redeclaration", if a vehicle has broken down on the runway, you can still use the runway as a shorter strip, accounting for the onion layers of different zones radiating out from the tarmac itself, accounting for the height of the obstacle and angles of approach, accounting for all the necessary safety margins.

It was my first real exposure to working in a team and to solving a real world problem with a good spec. Of course it was an absolute shitshow, but I look back on it fondly.