Discover the next generation of entrepreneurs

Contents

3 Introduction

4 Embedding entrepreneurship into education: Margaret Maile Petty, Executive Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

6 UTS and the startup ecosystem

8 Growing the next generation of startup founders: Murray Hurps, Director of Entrepreneurship

13 Meet our UTS Startups: Tekuma

14 Meet our UTS Startups: Tech Gym

16 Meet out startup interns: Albert Boukarim and Tailor Brews

17 Meet our startup interns: Hayley Tulich and Investible

20 Connecting our corporate partners with entrepreneurship

21 The value of ‘intrapreneurship’

22 How UTS and Ericsson are paving a new world of work

24 Breaking law with King and Wood Mallesons

26 Taking the lead in our precinct

28 Making precincts places where startups thrive: Glenn Wightwick, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Innovation and Enterprise

30 UTS spaces open for partner collaboration

32 Join us!

Produced by the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit. Find us online at entrepreneurship.uts.edu.au

Introduction

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Embedding entrepreneurship into education at UTS

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) recognises the incredible potential of this generation of startup founders and business disruptors. We’re fully committed to supporting our students to start that entrepreneurial journey.

More than 40 per cent of our students have told us they want to create their own jobs or start their own companies, and we’ve listened. Through our work in the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit (IEU) we’ve developed a range of co-curricular programs and real-world industry opportunities to equip students with the entrepreneurial tools that will be critical to their success.

Our unit work comes under the areas of Entrepreneurship, Partnerships and Precinct, which is visualised in the graphic to the right, and which you’ll learn more about in this booklet.

Inspiring and supporting students

Over the next five years, we plan to reach over 50 per cent of our students with entrepreneurial experiences and support. This includes first touch activities and forums such as entrepreneurship bootcamps, hackathons, startup weekends, and other collaborative, ‘no experience required’ events.

We’re also making free introductory entrepreneurship education resources, such as our UTS Open Introduction to Entrepreneurship taster course, and our digital Entrepreneurship Toolkit. Our aim is to engage every UTS student at every level.

For those keen to learn more, we’ll be working to inspire students to take the next step. This could be taking part in co-curricular opportunities such as pitch events, fireside chats and workshops to develop and refine entrepreneurial skillsets.

This also includes for-credit coursework options, plus our startup internships program, offering that real-world experience to bridge the gap between learning about entrepreneurship and doing it. Check out our startup internship case studies from page 15.

Margaret Maile Petty, Executive Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UTS.

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Empowering student founders

Students who are ready to create their own startup can then formally join UTS Startups. Student founders will be connected to a wealth of support within a dynamic, rapidly growing community. They will also have access to co-working space, regular check-ins with our mentoring team and a range of professional services. Hear more about UTS Startups from our Director of Entrepreneurship, Murray Hurps, on page 8.

Another important way we’re demonstrating our commitment to student entrepreneurship is by opening up access to seed funding opportunities and valuable industry exposure. This is primarily through partnerships with the likes of the Galileo Emerging Founders Fund, Main Sequence Ventures and Significant Capital Ventures.

Leading in technology and innovation

Whether our students want to create a startup, work for one, or add value within a future corporate industry career, our programs and opportunities will prepare them for the jobs of the future, now. Alongside the startup ecosystem, it’s crucial we work with corporate partners to share expertise and initiatives. You can read more about our corporate collaborations from page 20.

We’re also taking the lead in shaping a new technology and innovation precinct, right here in the heart of Sydney and on UTS’ doorstep. Our open, urban campus means we’re also in a great position to open up our state of the art facilities, such as our Tech Lab, ProtoSpace and Data Arena, to our community and partners. Find out more about our precinct activity from our Deputy Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Enterprise, Glenn Wightwick, on page 28.

We believe the jobs of the future will be shaped and created through the ingenuity and innovation of our graduates. We look forward to working with you!

50%Over the next five years, we plan to reach over 50 per cent of our students with entrepreneurial experiences and support.

Get in touch: margaret.petty@uts.edu.au or on Twitter @margaretmaile

IEUPrecinct

Ultimo hub

High-tech spaces

Innovation & collaboration

Startup ecosystem

Corporate industry

Partnerships

EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship

education

Startup Internships

UTS Startups

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UTS and the startup ecosystem

UTS and the startup ecosystem

Working with universities to develop talent

“We’re working with organisations like UTS to identify talent gaps and to encourage the development of entrepreneurship programs focused on getting students into startups. It’s important to give students valuable hands-on experience with the kinds of products and business environments startups are building, as we’re doing with our own UTS intern.

It’s imperative that the startup ecosystem works side by side with universities to make sure a high quality level of talent is coming through, ensuring the continued growth of Australian startups. Universities like UTS provide a critical pathway for that.”

Alex McCauleyCEO, StartupAUS

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Growing the next generation of startup founders

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Murray Hurps, Director of Entrepreneurship, UTS.

I’ve spent 14 years starting and building startups, and five years supporting them. I founded and grew the number two ad-blocking product worldwide, hitting a peak of five million downloads per month. I’ve been CEO of Startup Muster, the largest survey of Australia’s startup ecosystem, CEO of Fishburners, the largest community of startups in Australia and Program Director for FUELD, Westpac’s data-focused accelerator program.

Needless to say, I’m passionate about Australian startups, and the opportunities they present for employment, exports, investment, and an overall prosperous future Australia. Startups are recognised as leading job creators worldwide, and a key driver of new jobs growth.

Universities – the most fertile ground for startup founders

Being at the coalface of talent development, universities are uniquely positioned to move Australia’s entrepreneurial needle in the right direction. It’s our responsibility to inspire and educate students on the incredible opportunity they have.

Not only are their living expenses and life commitments the lowest they’re likely to ever be, students are surrounded by available and affordable talent, educational resources and a multitude of support and funding programs clamouring for their attention. It will never be easier in their lives to launch a startup, and when combined with the right university, there will never be a more fertile ground to do so.

With UTS’ clear focus on growing entrepreneurship, I’m excited to apply my experience to ensure we provide the best inspiration and support to every student.

From learning entrepreneurship to living it

We believe the key to entrepreneurship is the doing. Students need to find the problem they’re passionate about solving, and then to immediately and continuously receive support to succeed.

In collaboration with the team at the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit, I’ve set up a new community of student startups, UTS Startups. The goal is to inspire people to find the problem they want to solve, then be part of a community of all startups across UTS, with regular check-ins to connect them to what they need at any point in time.

In my mind, you have a startup the second you decide you have one, and you become a founder the second you decide you have a startup. We don’t have requirements around having a company, revenue, a dusty business plan document or a team of any kind. We simply define a startup as something trying to address a significant market, which is using technology to address the market quickly.

No perfect formula

Almost every university has an accelerator program, which is generally focused on providing a significant amount of support for a small number of startups - but our goal at UTS is different. We want every student inspired, and every startup at UTS supported.

We won’t prescribe a perfect path for anyone, but we will be giving UTS Startups access to our collaboration spaces, and connecting them to the best opportunities and support we can. This could be potential customers for their startup, investors, talent of every kind, founders with relevant previous experience, marketing strategists, lawyers, accountants, and anything else to help their business succeed.

UTS is the closest university to Australia’s largest startup community, and UTS Startups is designed to make the most of this position and community.

Connecting to the Sydney startup community

Startups can’t work in a bubble. I strongly believe every startup at UTS should be getting out of the university, getting in front of the best investors, being accepted into the best accelerators, working from the best incubators - generally behaving as you’d expect the best startups to behave.

To build paths into universities, it’s crucial to build paths out of them. UTS Startups is the highway connecting UTS to the wider startup ecosystem and corporate industry support and connections.

UTS is the university for those who aren’t just happy to get a job, but aspire to create their own job and jobs for many others through entrepreneurship. I’m certain UTS will be the university of choice globally for entrepreneurial students.

Want to support UTS and our startups on this journey? Drop me a line at murray@uts.edu.au, @murray on Twitter, or visit startups.uts.edu.au

Want to support UTS and our startups on this journey? Drop me a line at murray@uts.edu.au, @murray on Twitter, or visit startups.uts.edu.au

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“UTS Startups is the highway connecting UTS to the wider startup ecosystem, and corporate industry support and connections.”

Murray HurpsDirector of Entrepreneurship, UTS.

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Meet our UTS startups…

Give us your elevator pitch.

If you’ve ever flown a drone or controlled a robot, you know it’s counter-intuitive. New users find the two-joysticks difficult to learn and the other attachments – the cameras and robotic arms – aren’t factored in. Our one-handed six-degrees of freedom controllers are intuitive, universal and robust.

Our controller can be applied to drones, robots, underwater rovers, forklifts, VR gaming, and more. Drone, robot, defence technology manufacturers can all give their users a more intuitive control experience with our controller.

What key challenges and successes have you faced so far?

Challenge: Inventing something novel, innovative and making it work under the variety of environments and circumstances that exist in the real world.

Success: We’ve sold our first prototype units to customers who will act as our ‘alpha pilot’. It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point. We’re so glad people are now out there using it. We’re also really proud to have won a prize at the recent University Startup World Cup.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt so far?

Everything takes longer than you expect it to, and the things that happen fast are the things that you didn’t expect to happen at all. But seeing the joy on people’s faces when they discover just how easy it is really keeps us going.

What next big milestone are you going after?

Licencing partners. We are looking to the manufacturers who want to leap ahead of their competitors, who care about user experience and want to revolutionise how clients control technology.

Tekuma reinvents the control interfaceUTS Startup Tekuma, co-founded by UTS MBA graduate Annette McClelland, is taking to the skies. With a 21st century approach to the drone control interface, they’re making it easier for us to get a handle on this crucial tech.

Can you help? Email us at team@tekuma.tech

“Our controller can be applied to drones, robots, underwater rovers, forklifts, VR gaming, and more.”

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Tech Gym, co-founded with fellow student Thirunisha Thirumurugan, is a robotic rehabilitation company assisting physiotherapists and stroke patients, which emerged from the Faculty of Engineering and IT.

Before joining UTS Startups, Rowan was interning for an engineering firm but the call to work on Tech Gym grew stronger.

In one night, Rowan wrote a proposal about how working on his startup qualified him to meet all the required UTS internship subject standards. Little did he realise that UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship was already working to bring the ‘Build a Startup’ pathway into fruition.

An hour after receiving confirmation to work on Tech Gym for his internship subject, Rowan sent his resignation to the engineering firm – leaving a paid position for something “more interesting, engaging and worthwhile.”

He and Thirunisha then joined UTS Startups, and have already met with an accelerator program and investors. They are now taking the feedback on board to progress to their next goals.

“Our main milestone would be to have an MVP (minimum viable product) out by the end of summer. I’m just blown away with how much support we get.

The community and the vibe from everyone is phenomenal. You’ve got so many disciplines, so many backgrounds, and so much experience down here.”

Working on your own startup as an internship may be unconventional but for Rowan it’s a win/win. He’s able to work full-time on his startup and acquire the units needed for his degree.

Through initiatives like UTS Startups, Startup Internships and the support from UTS faculties, Tech Gym has been able to explore their own educational paths, unique to their ambitions, abilities and passions, whilst advancing their startup.

Tech GymRowan Smith of Tech Gym is the first UTS student to jump on the new ‘Build a Startup’ offering from the Startup Internships program.

“The community and the vibe from everyone is phenomenal. You’ve got so many disciplines, so many backgrounds, and so much experience down here.”

Want to support Tech Gym? Email startups@uts.edu.au

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Meet our UTS startup interns

Tell us about Tailor Brews.

Tailor Brews aims to bring customised beer brewing online. Beer brewing is a lengthy process and expensive in terms of equipment. We envisioned a micro-brewery where you could order a case of your own fully-customised beer online.

What did your work experience involve?

The start of my work experience involved designing a brewery within a very small space. Towards the end of the program I had to develop a prototype to change the brewing process and present it to investors.

How were you able to apply your uni knowledge?

They don’t teach you about beer brewing, but you can break it down like any other engineering task. And because it’s such a small team, you’re sitting right next to the marketing guy. You’re designing the product, and he’s trying to sell it. Because I had that experience and knowledge from my degree, I would think: “How can I design my product so it’s marketable?”.

A lot of people do internships at big companies. How is being at a startup different?

You get a very diverse experience, depending on the size and age of the startup. The difference with big companies is the small things.

Usually older companies have been doing things a certain way for ages and it’s going to be harder for you to imprint your personality on that business. Whereas most startups are still finding their feet, and your opinion is heard.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working in an operations supervisor role, as a direct result of my startup experience, but I do see that as just a stepping stone to me continuing my entrepreneurial path. I’d love to set up my own thing down the road.

Crafting success in the startup world

UTS Business and Engineering student Albert Boukarim found himself overseeing the engineering and marketing of Tailor Brews, a startup seeking to revolutionise craft brewing.

“You get a very diverse experience, depending on the size and age of the startup.”

Visit startupinternships.uts.edu.au to find out more.

Hayley says the internship allowed her to tackle challenges in a new environment, pushing her to quickly master new skills.

“This experience has been invaluable and I’d recommend everyone do it. The experience you gain from being put into the deep end means you grow so much and it’s nothing compared to what you would learn in a classroom.”

Elisa-Marie Dumas, Head of Global Partnerships and Programs for Investible, says Hayley proved she was able to learn quickly and get involved in the company’s daily business.

“Ideal interns are people who are naturally curious about entrepreneurship, but also, in how they think and move, are willing to learn, be agile and take on board 50 different things that we might throw on them.”

Hayley says her experience as an intern has ultimately pushed her towards exploring a broader career path in the startup ecosystem.

“This internship has sparked a massive interest for me in startups,” says Hayley. “I’ve met so many people who I would never have met before and, from the Impact Games, a couple of companies I’m interested in have been offering me the opportunity to come and work with them.”

Startup internships make a wise investmentUTS Bachelor of Technology and Innovation student Hayley Tulich now has a passion for startups and industry connections to boot.

Want to get involved in a startup internship? Email entrepreneurship@uts.edu.au

“I just wanted to experience the startup world,” says Hayley. “My internship has guided me through that process and sparked different interests in future career paths.”

With its new Startup Internships program, UTS is giving students the chance to work with early-stage startups in credit-bearing internships.

Connecting students with startups for work experience is having far-reaching benefits for both students and their entrepreneur hosts.

Working with early-stage investment firm Investible, Hayley helped coordinate Investible’s Impact Games, a competition where startups compete over three days in a variety of challenges, being judged across different areas.

Demand for management and data competency is expected to increase rapidly with the changing economy, and Hayley’s work on the project required a grasping of these core future-proofing skills.

“I was involved in the whole event: from the planning at the beginning to the execution of the event at the end. To start with, it was a lot of data collection, sorting the startups, but it quickly evolved into project management and testing all the challenges and seeing what needed to be improved on.”

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Hear from our startup ecosystem partners...

“We look forward to welcoming young, entrepreneurially-minded UTS students to our community. We know UTS is focused on providing hands on experience, and we’re excited to help bridge the gap between studying entrepreneurship and founding a startup.

The average age of a Fishburners founder is 38, so we believe that by exposing students to real-life entrepreneurship, we will see a greater number of younger founders.”

Pandora ShelleyCEO, Fishburners

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“There is a revolution in entrepreneurship happening across Australia, and UTS is at the epicentre. We see UTS Startups as an ambitious initiative to scale student entrepreneurship support and we’re excited to help complete the journey with further support.

UTS students are helping seed Australia’s startup boom. The more universities invest in entrepreneurship programs now, the more Australia – and the world – will benefit from the compounding benefits they create.”

James AlexanderCo-Founder and General Partner, Galileo

“The students of today are the founders and investors of tomorrow. UTS’ initiatives around student entrepreneurship are playing a big role in strengthening the ecosystem by building a pipeline of future founders. We are excited to collaborate again with UTS in the future.”

Lauren CapelinHead of Venture Community, Reinventure

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Entrepreneurship and corporate partners

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The value of ‘intrapreneurship’

Ann Schoefer, Deputy Director, Partnerships and Engagement, UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship

At UTS we believe entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting a startup. We believe bringing valuable curricular and co-curricular opportunities to the 40 per cent of students who want to create their own career pathways is about sparking the next generation of founders and leaders. An entrepreneurial career has potential for graduates to create their own job, working for themselves or as a corporate innovator.

Whether you like the term ‘intrapreneurship’ or not, it has now become key to business longevity in the face of accelerating technological change.

In a future work landscape, every employee will be expected to have an entrepreneurial mindset and contribute to the innovation capability of their company.

The skillsets and mindsets required in entrepreneurship – creativity, collaboration, communication, resilience, empathy, problem solving – have been earmarked as ‘future of work’ appropriate skills. These evergreen, lifelong skills will set graduates apart for new roles in the corporate world, enabling them to lead productive, positive change within an organisation.

By identifying and developing new business opportunities and ventures, new products or services, or new strategic directions, intrapreneurs are crucial for businesses to remain competitive well into the future.

Developing an entrepreneurial culture

However, business disruption doesn’t just happen thanks to one single intrapreneur. Successful innovation-led organisations set themselves apart by making an entrepreneurial mindset part of their culture – rewarding initiative and independent thinking, and encouraging experimentation and learning. They are also connected with external partners, including universities and research institutions, to build an ecosystem that taps into the new ideas and talent that these partners provide.

As part of this ecosystem, we wholeheartedly welcome corporate partners into our entrepreneurship world

for the support and expertise they can provide our student offering. However, we also believe our highly skilled students, plus the environments and methodologies we offer for new idea generation, can be priceless to industry, creating a genuine value exchange.

From hackathons and startup weekends, to bootcamps, workshops, talks, pitch events and co-designed innovation challenges, we are very proud of the corporate partner collaborations we have established so far. In the experiences they allow us to offer students, and the insights and talent partners have benefited from, we’re confident we have delivered wins all round.

A massive thank you to the likes of:

– Ericsson, who regularly runs hackathons with our Faculty of Engineering and IT and works with students on real-world problems and solutions (see case study, page 22).

– KWM, partners for the recent #breakinglaw hackathon (see case study, page 24).

– Optus, Telstra, Google and Wisetech, who have supported our Sydney Women Startup Weekends with judging, mentoring, plus financial and in-kind resources, empowering budding female founders.

– Microsoft and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, who have provided mentoring for our startups.

– AI firm Daisee, who supported our Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation’s Women in Data Science event, which included student masterclasses and high profile speakers.

We would love to welcome you as a corporate partner within the UTS entrepreneurship ecosystem, and become part of yours to help your company thrive in the future of work.

Drop me a line on ann.schoefer@uts.edu.au if you’d like to discuss what we can achieve together – I hope to hear from you soon!

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Hackathons, problem solving and mentoring

How UTS and Ericsson are paving a new world of work

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As an intern with Ericsson, Laura’s main responsibility was to oversee UTS engagement, following the successful launch of the Software Development Studio, in which engineering and IT students collaborate with industry mentors to deliver solutions to problems. For example, UTS students work on continually developing an on-the-road service management tool.

Laura joined on the back of a successful Smart Cities hackathon, which challenged students to create a solution marrying the Internet of Things with UTS building sensors to create SmartEvac, a more efficient fire evacuation system.

Her arrival also aligned with the Capstone projects for final year engineering students gaining momentum. As part of this, Ericsson presents students with a practical problem to investigate during weekly sessions in collaboration with staff.

“It’s been really fun trying to find opportunities to expand what other things we can get into, and find creative ways to build the partnership between UTS and Ericsson,” says Laura.

“It benefits everyone. Ericsson gets the perspectives of younger people who are coming from a different context and are very capable of delivering quality work. For students, you get to say you worked with industry on specific projects with Ericsson.

The student feedback we’ve had on the Software Development Studio is that it was great to work on a project that was actually being used by the company. They even got to meet the people using it so it was a realistic, real-world experience, which is great exposure.”

Learning key future skills

Laura has evolved from an intern to a project manager in the making. In an area where it’s crucial for technical abilities to be complemented by communications, problem solving, team management and people management, this is where Laura really shines.

“Every assignment is a problem and you need to either come up with the solution or manage the creation of one. It just takes analytical thinking and an open mind to see all the possibilities. Working together with people from different kinds of backgrounds is also really helpful in problem solving,” she says.

UTS Software Development Studio head Julia Prior says in-depth industry partnerships, and equipping students with essential technical and soft skills, are crucial.

“Practical initiatives such as our Ericsson partnership, with elements such as hackathons, Capstone projects and the Software Development Studio, are proving to be valuable ways for students to test their technical skills in a problem-solving environment,” she says.

“We are already seeing the value to industry in that we are providing a quality pipeline of competitive graduates.”

“UTS is one of four preferred universities in Australia with whom Ericsson has an established engagement program. Activities like hackathons create opportunities for Ericsson and the students to participate in an innovative proving ground for new ideas that we can potentially take forward as a company.”

Mirko OcokoljicRegional Head, Ericsson Software Adaptation Centre

22-year-old Laura Becker almost didn’t apply for the UTS and Ericsson Women in Engineering Scholarship she was awarded in 2017. Yet Laura, a fifth year ICT Engineering student, fit in so well at Ericsson that after completing the internship as part of the scholarship, she was offered a paid part-time role. This put her ahead of many of her peers before graduation and entering the real world.

Visit entrepreneurship.uts.edu.au to discover more ‘future of work’ ready opportunities.

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Hackathon participants also heard from experts including Hannah Glass (KWM Senior Associate and resident blockchain expert), Pasha Rayan (CTO and co-founder of virtual internship provider, InsideSherpa), Mark Gray (Westpac counsel), and Katie Smither (Chief Strategy Integration Officer at Publicis Communications Group Australia).

The hackathon culminated in each multi-disciplinary team (which included students from Law, IT, Business, Engineering and Design, together with KWM lawyers) pitching their solution to a panel of judges. This comprised Law Faculty Dean Professor Lesley Hitchens, KWM Executive Director of Innovation Michelle Mahoney, and Westpac Transformation Senior Manager Nicola Murphy, at a lively and energetic marketplace style event.

The judges were impressed by the quality, creativity and range of solutions. They ultimately awarded first place and $7000 to Team HighTide (pictured left), for their digital prototype that identifies, effectively triages and tracks the treatment of regulatory information from its inception through to enacted regulation. The People’s Choice Award also went to HighTide, who took away a further $3000.

Second place and $5000 went to Team Control Alt Complete for their development of a tool that allows legal professionals to see changes to documents quickly and efficiently on any device.

Other notable team solutions included a tool which automatically reads emails when received and sorts them based on priority, and a tool to automate the reading and analysis of constituent documents to identify the key information required.

#breakinglawwith King and Wood Mallesons 

Over 36 hours, the #breakinglaw hackathon held by UTS Law and international firm King and Wood Mallesons (KWM), saw 49 students work in 10 teams to devise solutions to everyday, real-world problems faced by today’s lawyers.

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“The future of work is changing not just the type of jobs we will have, but how we educate young talent about lifelong learning and the concept of a portfolio career. We believe students with an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset can turn ideas into value, which is increasingly needed in agile organisations.

“Working with a forward-thinking institution like UTS has given us the ability to collaborate with talented people who seek to solve problems in diverse ways – and is very much something we’d like to continue doing.”

Michelle MahoneyExecutive Director, Innovation, King & Wood Mallesons

Find out more at hackathons.uts.edu.au

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Taking the lead in our precinct

Taking the lead in our precinct

Ensuring the long-term durability of our ecosystem

“It’s crucial that the tech and innovation ecosystem collaborates closely with universities like UTS to ensure Sydney’s long-term prominence as a home for innovation and tech startups.

UTS is well positioned to provide essential resources such as academic expertise, world-leading research, and the talented graduates we need to keep Sydney’s tech ecosystem at the forefront of global innovation. It is innovative stakeholders like UTS that will ensure the long term durability of our ecosystem.”

Bede MooreCEO, Tech Sydney

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Making precincts places where startups thrive

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Sydney is emerging as a thriving startup hub in Asia Pacific. It’s at the forefront of the innovation landscape in Australia, and is creating over 35 per cent of the nation’s new startup ventures.

The momentum generated by key innovation precinct initiatives is the result of a purposeful ambition to boost our national economic potential through startup-driven growth.

So what is the role of a university in these precincts? We are a critical anchor, working in close partnership with businesses, industry, city and state government and other key stakeholders. We pride ourselves on driving innovation, bringing together startups, incubators, research, education, and public policy institutions.

Revitalising Ultimo

We articulated this vision 10 years ago, based on the belief that a university can and should support and lead its local community forward. This has led us to redeveloping our campus and catalysing activity around us, from the Goods Line connecting Ultimo to Darling Harbour, to curating public events such as the UTS Big Thinking Forums covering topics like the Future of Work.

We have also deliberately designed a campus where innovation and collaboration thrive, investing more than $1.5 billion in awe-inspiring buildings and high tech spaces such as our Data Arena, Tech Lab and ProtoSpace, which we are committed to sharing with our partners.

By focusing on walkability, transport, green spaces, cutting-edge research, shared facilities and partner collaborations, UTS is demonstrating how an anchor institution can activate opportunities, and ensure our neighbourhood becomes a world-class technology and innovation precinct.

We are excited to witness and be part of the explosion in entrepreneurship and startup activity, driven by emerging tech and the thriving ecosystem around us. With more than 40 per cent of our students wanting to create their own career pathways - either by founding a startup or working in one – we are committed to providing an environment to support this. As a result, we plan to ensure 50 per cent of our students have the opportunity to participate in some form of entrepreneurship experience.

Our UTS Startups program, led by former Fishburners CEO Murray Hurps, is an example of how we are contributing to Ultimo as a thriving startup precinct. In a dynamic and supportive environment, we connect student founders to co-working space, mentoring, resources and the wealth of opportunities on our doorstep. I’m proud to say the community is continuing to expand rapidly since its July launch.

To support the growth of the UTS Startups community, we are reopening 608 Harris Street, the former home of Fishburners, Australia’s largest tech startup community. This will be a thriving co-working environment for emerging startups, where student entrepreneurs can tap into each other’s enthusiasm, ideas, energy and peer-to-peer support. By reactivating this building we plan to honour its legacy, as a hub of entrepreneurship activity, in Sydney.

As a key anchor institution in our precinct, we recognise the critical role that collaboration plays in bringing people together to share their knowledge, know-how and experience. I look forward to seeing the next generation of startups emerge around us, supported by UTS.

Glenn Wightwick, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Innovation and Enterprise, University of Technology Sydney.

Get in touch: entrepreneurship@uts.edu.au

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UTS Startups Our UTS Startups collaboration space, based in Building 15 on the corner of Harris and Mary Ann Streets, is open to entrepreneurship-related events eg hackathons, startup-focused meetups, roundtables and more.

startups@uts.edu.au

UTS spaces open for partner collaboration

ProtoSpaceLed by the Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT), ProtoSpace spans 900 square metres and is buried below ground in UTS Building 7.

UTS has invested in state-of-the-art printing machines with a broad range of functionality, which means ProtoSpace can offer new opportunities for cutting edge applications of 3D printing.

ProtoSpace allows ideas to be trialled and refined, for possible commercial manufacturing or bespoke applications across a range of industries, from medicine to engineering, design and architecture.

protospace@uts.edu.au

608 Harris Street UTS is delighted to have taken the lease of this iconic building – the former home of Fishburners, Australia’s largest tech startup community. We plan to honour that legacy by reactivating the space as a hub of entrepreneurship activity, from events and workshops to co-working space, building on our commitment to meet the demand of over 40 per cent of students who want to pursue entrepreneurship.

608 Harris Street will play a key part in UTS realising its commitment to be an innovation leader in the Ultimo precinct.

entrepreneurship@uts.edu.au

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Tech Lab This new $60 million facility allows researchers to collaborate with industry on multidisciplinary research with real and sustained impact. Spaces are also available for partners to explore new and developing technologies.

UTS Tech Lab’s laboratories and capabilities span the internet of things, robotics, mechanics, electromagnetics, 5G networks and communications, electrical power and energy, data analytics, photonics, vehicle systems, autonomous systems, acoustics, multimedia and video surveillance, and civil and structural engineering.

techlab@uts.edu.au

Deep Green BioTech Hub, Green Light and GMP Lite The NSW Deep Green Biotech Hub (DGBH) at UTS brings together startups, SMEs, researchers, industry, students and other stakeholders to develop algae as a cost effective and sustainable source of food, fuel, cosmetics and industrial chemicals.

DGBH is also launching Green Light, the world’s first algae biotech accelerator program, to develop new algae-based products, services, and businesses.

Alexandra.Thomson@uts.edu.au

Meanwhile, a cutting-edge GMP Lite (Good Manufacturing Practice) facility will open in 2019. It is set to be an Australian first for algal-based pharmaceutical production, open to industry partners for proof-of-concept and R&D work.

algaebiotech.hub@uts.edu.au

Data Arena The UTS Data Arena is a powerful 360-degree interactive facility set to change the way we interact with data.

It can help industry partners simplify big data by identifying trends and steering research, via visualisation and analysis of complex data sets.

The UTS Data Arena has been used to identify biological markers in childhood cancer patients, track bacteria, travel through physical structures and create unparalleled computer graphics for film, fashion and entertainment.

dataarena@uts.edu.au

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UTS CRICOS 00099F 22409 NOVEMBER 2018Words: MaryLou Costa, Lourdes Millare, Liam Kennedy, Monica Reade. Images: Liam Kennedy, James Francis, Anna Zhu, Rosary Coloma, Leah Lucas, Alessia Francischello, Tina Reynolds, Rawpixel.