Microsoft supports new mobile commerce research facility at Monash University

15 November 2000

Microsoft today announced its support of a new research facility, the Mobile Commerce Centre, at Monash University, Melbourne. The Mobile Commerce Centre (MCC) will provide a research and development facility for undergraduate and graduate students to work together with the business development community to incubate new concepts for the wireless marketplace based on the .NET platform.

Dan Fay, Programme Manager for University Research, Microsoft Research, is in Australia to meet with Monash University to discuss the initiative and to meet with other Australian universities involved in research and development around .NET and new computer languages.

"Microsoft Research already has a fruitful relationship with Monash University, as well as with other Australian universities such as Melbourne University and Queensland University, all of whom can boast some of the best researchers in advanced computer science research anywhere in the world," said Fay.

"Our decision to support Monash University's Mobile Commerce Centre reflects the tremendous work the University's Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering is doing to bridge the gap between blue sky research and real-world business, particularly regarding mobile commerce - the next phase in the Internet era."

"Microsoft Australia is proud to support advanced research into various areas of computer science as well as information and communication technologies," said Brian Dempsey, Victorian Education Market Manager, Microsoft Australia. "We are confident that Microsoft's collaboration with Monash University, as well as with Melbourne and Queensland Universities, will help to enhance the state of the art in mobile commerce and the creation of new wireless products," added Dempsey.

Monash University's Christine Mingins believes the Mobile Commerce Centre will be the best and fastest way of developing the latest research in mobile commerce and computing, and bringing it into the marketplace.

"What's really exciting about the MCC is the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to work with the business development community to incubate and create new products for mobile commerce," said Mingins, Associate Professor, Monash University.

"The MCC will bridge different faculties such as computing, marketing, business and engineering. Students from these different fields will work together to bring the best ideas to the business world. We envisage a scenario where the MCC will be able to present new business processes to organisations such as the Victorian Government and start-ups will be able to 'rent' mobile commerce experts from the Centre," added Mingins.

The MCC facility will operate from the Unipass Building at Monash campus and will officially launch in the new-year. Microsoft Research is considering investing up to AUS$750,000 over a three-year period in the MCC.

Today's announcement follows the provision last year by Microsoft of over $1 million in grants towards advanced computer science research at Monash University, Melbourne University and Australia's Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC) at Queensland University. The three Australian universities have also been involved this year in high-end research and development work on Microsoft's recently launched .NET platform, as part of its research in developing new computer programming languages, known as "Project 7".

Following the expertise gained through the research and development work on .NET, Monash University was well placed to begin teaching .NET courses as part of its Bachelor of Computing degree. Monash University is currently the only university in the world to offer .NET courses.

"We have had great response from our undergraduate and graduate students for the .NET course and we look forward to beginning our .NET hand-held application development courses later this year," said Damien Watkins, Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University.

"Our Bachelor of Computing degree is a commercial application development course that teaches students the latest technologies and platforms. Students who graduate from this course leave here knowing they are way ahead of the marketplace in terms of future technologies and the practical application of those technologies."

As part of his trip Dan Fay will also be visiting Melbourne University and Australia's Distributed Systems Technology Centre at Queensland University to learn more about their latest research developments.