Summer opportunity for commercialising IT

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Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Students and members of the community will benefit from the hands-on experience of IT entrepreneur Matthew Michalewicz in a new University of Adelaide Summer School course, Commercialising IT Research, being offered in January.

This is one of more than 70 courses in the University of Adelaide's Summer School this summer offering students from all universities more flexibility and members of the community an opportunity to broaden their educational experience.

The 2011 Summer School has a range of courses in business, computer science, economics, education, entrepreneurship, commercialisation and innovation, engineering, humanities and social sciences, international trade, law, mathematics, psychology, public health and sciences and many are open to members of the community.

"In recent years the University of Adelaide has made a focussed effort to increase the take-up of our Summer and Winter School courses, offering greater flexibility and a wider range of study options," said Professor Fred McDougall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic). "There are now thousands of students who take advantage of this study opportunity each year."

The Commercialising IT Research course covers the process of transforming IT research into commercial products for the marketplace and is open to current Australian university students (as a credit-bearing course) and members of the general public (as a non-award course).

Mr Michalewicz, who is co-founder and Director of business software solutions company SolveIT Software and a Visiting Fellow in the University's School of Computer Science, is a former Ernst and Young management consultant and author, with 15 years of hands-on experience in technology commercialisation and supply chain management.

"There are a great many bright people studying or working in the information technology area with some fantastic innovative ideas that have potential for development," Mr Michalewicz said. "But very often, they have no knowledge of how to go about taking those ideas further.

"This course will give students and anyone with an interest in the area the basic skills and knowledge to turn their technical ideas into a business plan. It will give them a good understanding of the concepts and principles of commercialisation and an overview of business development generally, which should be helpful for anyone interacting with industry."

Mr Michalewicz is a Business Ambassador for South Australia and has won a number of awards for entrepreneurship and business leadership. Before co-founding SolveIT Software, Mr Michalewicz was Chief Executive for a high-tech company in the United States, growing the company to more than 150 employees with six international offices in four years.

Summer School enrolments are open now. Further information can be found at www.adelaide.edu.au/summerschool

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