Facilities

The La Trobe University Microsoft Centre is a technology infusion initiative between Microsoft and La Trobe University and is supported by the State Government of Victoria and other technology providers.

The Centre is a facility for software developers (including subject matter experts, the developer community, university students and staff) where their ideas can be brought to life through the infusion of cutting edge hardware and software.

This facility is aimed at creating better links between students and business as well as lowering the infrastructure barriers and ensuring that the latest platforms are available to software developers for research and product development.

The facilities and activities in the Centre are closely aligned to the Microsoft platform that in turn will contribute to economic growth through development and transfer of technology, new IP and relevant world class skills transfer.

BizSpark

The Microsoft Centre houses the Microsoft BizSpark program, which provides support and development facilities for software startups, including:

• development tools, software (including Visual Studio Team System) and production licensing
• professional technical support from Microsoft and access to a global business community
• global visibility and access to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

How to join BizSpark

You can join BizSpark if you are a privately held company building a software-based product or service (even using open source code), in business for fewer than three years, and with less than US $1M in annual revenue.

To join, you must be sponsored by a BizSpark Network Partner. You can apply to join BizSpark through the Centre for Technology Infusion by submitting our online enrolment form. We will then send you an enrolment link.

No payment or credit card information is required, and there are no upfront costs. Microsoft will assess a US $100 program offering fee at the end of participation in the program, or the end of three years, whichever comes first.

The National Networked TeleTest Facility for Integrated Systems (NNTTF) is a $15 million facility providing fabless companies and design houses with engineering, pre-production test and characterisation services.

The facility operates as a virtual centre spanning Australia and is accessible internationally.  It consists of the facility node at ECU in Perth and 5 remote nodes. The Centre for Technology Infusion at La Trobe University is the NNTTF node in Victoria, Australia.  The NNTTF is accessible through the web with leading edge capabilities addressing the most complex testing and IP validation challenges such as mixed-signal and high-end digital integrated circuit (IC) technologies as well as other emerging technologies.

The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) is the Victorian node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). MCN is a collaborative initiative between La Trobe University, Monash University, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University, Deakin University, RMIT University, the Victorian State government, the Commonwealth government and the CSIRO.

MCN's ultimate purpose is to fill the gap in Australia for open access, multi-scale, multi-disciplinary nanofabrication infrastructure. MCN's goal is to support and produce research and prototype advances in areas that include environmental sensors, medical diagnostics, micro and nano actuators, novel energy sources (e.g. solar cells) and novel bio-nanotechnology products like drug delivery devices.The central MCN facility is based at a new, purpose-built facility, adjacent to the Australian Synchrotron. Approximately half of the central facility's research space consists of clean rooms (class 100 and 10,000) and the other half is occupied by biochemical laboratories.