Project Proposals

To propose a project for TechLauncher, please contact us directly or email engagement.comp@anu.edu.au.

Project proposals are welcome from industry, government, research labs, community groups, and student-led startups.

As an indication, projects should be in one or more of the following areas:

• design, build and deliver projects
• consulting projects
• startup projects
• system optimisation problems
• open-ended explorations
• education and outreach
• research-supported projects
• student-led initiatives
• other negotiated projects

Members of the TechLauncher cohort are typically from the school of computer science, and therefore have specialist training in one or more of the following areas:

• software development,
• information systems and systems architecture,
• data science,
• artificial intelligence, and
• human-centred computing

Project Short-Listing

Every semester, we receive a large number of project proposals. To deal with these numbers, we create a short-list of projects that will proceed to team formation. We will short-list projects by considering project scope, level of difficulty and how the project will facilitate student learning.

2-Semester Commitment

Projects span 2 semesters. We require stakeholders to commit to 2 semesters with their team of students. Allocations are final and last for 2 semesters. Dropping a team mid-project is extremely detrimental to students’ projects, program, and learning.

Expected Commitment for Stakeholders

As a minimum, stakeholders should commit to weekly meetings with their team (preferably in person in the Hive space) on the team’s selected TechLauncher day. Stakeholders should provide the team with resources reasonably required to complete the project, as well as technical guidance.

Important expectations:

• Students are learning, results may vary. For many students this is their first real-world project or professional experience. They are very unlikely to perform at the level of experienced professionals.
• No critical path. It is not suitable for student projects to be on your critical path. Suitable projects include pet projects or nice to haves, not core business.
• All students equal. Any payment or incentive offered should be offered equally to all students in the team.
• Professional conduct. All parties are expected to adhere to industry and ANU codes of conduct.

The schedule of activities is published here at the beginning of each semester.

Student/Stakeholder Agreement

For situations where stakeholders request the transfer of IP and a non-disclosure agreement, we have a preferred agreement.

• Details of our preferred agreement are here.

We require that ANU staff have access to Project IP for the period that team members are enrolled in the TechLauncher program, for examination and assessment purposes.