At the launch of Monash's Sun Authorised Academic
Java Campus are, from left, Sun Microsystems
Australia managing director Mr Russ Bate,
Victorian Treasurer and Minister for Information Technology and Multimedia The Hon.
Alan Stockdale MLA, and Faculty of Information
Technology dean Professor John Rosenberg.

In what is seen as a milestone in IT training in Australia, Monash and Sun Microsystems last week announced the launch of Australasia's first Authorised Academic Java Campus (AAJC) program.

The AAJC program, which is expected to attract students from across Australia as well as overseas, will see the establishment of a centre at Monash's Peninsula campus that will provide students with training in the Internet programming language Java.

Faculty of Information Technology dean Professor John Rosenberg said the program presented a unique opportunity to Monash students and businesses in Victoria by providing opportunities for students to gain practical, hands-on experience in implementing Java technology through projects in real business environments.

According to Professor Rosenberg, through structured internships and cooperative education opportunities Monash will be able to provide unrivalled classroom and problem-solving experiences as well as giving Monash students the opportunity to work with Sun's Java technology, which is considered the finest hardware and application development tools available.

Under the agreement with Sun Microsystems, key academic staff in the Information Technology faculty have already become certified Java programmers, and students will be encouraged to do likewise.

The program also allows for the university to develop links with the community by assisting developers prepare products to meet the Java certification standard and develop Java technology class libraries, services that could potentially create new revenue streams for the university.

According to Sun Microsystems managing director in Australia Mr Russ Bate, the program is a perfect example of how universities and business can collaborate to further open standards-based technology, better prepare students for the workforce, and benefit the local economy.

"The participation of Monash University in this program will help to significantly extend and elevate the use of Java technology within the academic community, while benefiting students and local businesses, " he said.

At the same time as the faculty launched the AAJC, it announced the appointment of Professor Elizabeth Kendall to the new Sun Microsystems chair in network computing.

The main players in emerging communications technologies from academia and industry both in Australia and internationally have joined forces to put together the second multimedia educational series in the Monash-Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) partnership.

The 13-part weekly radio series In the Pipeline: Converging Communications is being presented on Radio National on Fridays at 5 am, with repeats at 12.30 pm on Radio Australia, ABC Online, and World Radio Network in North America and Europe.

The associate producer and academic consultant to the series, Monash's National Centre for Australian Studies lecturer Ms Joanne Jacobs, said the series would be of interest to a wide range of audiences.

"Digital TV is set to begin on 1 January 2001, the Federal Government is considering regulation of the Internet, and 22 per cent of Australian homes are currently connected to the Internet, with hundreds more connecting each day - we are clearly in the middle of a period of rapid change, " Ms Jacobs said.

A range of Monash academics will feature in the series, along with some major industry players including Mr Robert Cringely, presenter of the ABC television program Nerds; Mr Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Communities; Ms Tara Lemmey, president of Electronic Frontiers Foundation; Mr Simon Davies, head of Privacy International; Ms Laura Miller, editor of the online magazine Salon; and Ms Kim Anderson, head of marketing at PBL.

The Pipeline website at au/pipeline will publish a fortnightly e-zine throughout the radio series and will include a reading room, program transcripts and audio.

A six-part television series on e-commerce will screen next year, and later this year Monash will be delivering online an e-commerce training module targeted at small business.

Source: adm.monash.edu