Contact: Louise Denver
Corporate Affairs & Communications
Innovation, Deloitte
Mobile: 0414 889 857
Tel: +61 (0) 2 9322 7615

Budding entrepreneurs at RMIT University are having an impact even before they graduate, developing innovative business proposals through a collaborative project with Deloitte.

The Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship) students have teamed with Computer Science students on the industry placement program, which sees groups of students embedded in the Accelerated Innovation Group in Deloitte’s Melbourne office.

Entrepreneurship Program co-ordinator, Dr David Gilbert, said the 29 students were mentored by RMIT graduates who had been hired by Deloitte after taking part in the inaugural program last year.

“These projects give our students practical experience in developing novel business solutions in a real corporate environment,” Dr Gilbert said.

“This year, our multi-discipline teams have been able to move beyond reporting on the viability of innovations to the actual development of prototypes and business models for their commercialisation.”

“One of the teams did some ground-breaking work on a standardised business-reporting software, which is now the subject of a joint RMIT-Deloitte funding application to the Australian Research Council.”

Wes Sonnenreich, Director of Innovation at Deloitte said, “This is the second year we have run this innovative collaborative program with RMIT and it is truly paying dividends. James Sanders, who is now a part of our Accelerated Innovation Group, is a graduate from last year’s RMIT / Deloitte entrepreneurial program and he brings a great energy and good initiatives to the team.

This year’s student group is also doing some interesting work and bringing a fresh and different way of looking at problems which is one of the ways we define innovation at Deloitte.”

Team leader of the group that won the 2008 RMIT-Deloitte Innovation Project, Helen Barclay, of Hawthorn, said their proposal identified business opportunities for Deloitte in the rapidly growing eco-industry.

To read the full press release, download the attachment below.

Dr David Gilbert
Program co-ordinator
RMIT
Mobile: 0428 367 821

Gosia Kaszubska
Media and Communications
RMIT University
Mobile: 0417 510 735
Tel: +61 (0) 3 9925 3176