This web page has been constructed for the Melbourne IT scholarship program (1997/98)

Initial Proposals considered
Expressions of interest were requested by Melbourne IT on possible software applications for Internet based technologies. A ten page report on the idea, how it would work, the market applicability and a list of resources required were submitted as the proposal package. Six scholarships were chosen as worthy of prototype development.

Awards dinner
An awards dinner was held where the scholars were presented with their certificates. This also provided an opportunity for the scholars to meet one another and the staff involved with the project.

Melbourne IT
Dr Trevor Hales was assigned to the scholars as a supervisor, his role was to provide feedback on the work, co-ordinate the administrative tasks, report to Melbourne IT management and ensure the scholarship ran smoothly.

Scholars in residence
The residency commenced in December 1997 and was completed in March 1998. Some scholars work times varied within this broad framework. Scholars were supplied with standard office equipment (desk, chair, phone, coffee cup) and computing technology specific to their proposal requests.

Anthony Senyard Neural Network Tool	Darren Hawkins Virtual Reality Interface
Chi Keen Low Subscription Registration Tool	Allen Weeks Question / Answer System
Simon Smith Online Assessment and Treatment	Lin Hui Jia Image Retrieval

Mentors
A mentor scheme was set up where each of the scholars was assigned one person to specifically help with the prototype development.

Presentations
A presentation from each of the scholars were made to Melbourne IT, at the end of their individual program. The presentations were to demonstrate their research and the specific prototypes developed.

The future
Appraisals were made on each of the prototypes, where applicable the appraisals were used to further develop each of the prototypes. Most of the scholars are returning to university for continuing under-graduate or post-graduate studies. Melbourne IT has since returned to normal, having survived the scholarship experience. They even want to do it again!

Publicity surrounding the event included the following press article from UniNews, A University of Melbourne publication. Click here

Click here to visit the main website page for D C Hawkins.
Click here to visit the main website page for MelbourneIT.