Dr Avtar Gill

Dr Avtar Gil and Joanne Curry attending the CeBIT awards 

ceremony.

Dr Avtar Gill originally trained and worked as a doctor for 20 years before starting his IT studies at the University of Western Sydney, since then Avtar has made some great achievements and contributed significantly to the University.

Avtar’s combined knowledge of health and IT lead him to develop a health and wellbeing smart phone application. “My work in medicine has given me an understanding of the health needs of Australian society” for which he received the 2012 NASSCOM Innovation Student Award at the CeBIT conference (pictured left). The CeBIT awards recognise outstanding achievement in the information and communication technology industry.  

Avtar also attended the Innovation boot camp held at Australian Technology Park Innovations (ATPI). The boot camp explored ways to commercialise research through practical case studies, workshops and networking. The topics touched on legal, theoretical and practical aspects of innovation, “Its best moments were when local entrepreneurs gave their experiences and lessons learnt during their journey”.  The camp emphasised “the three P's, Patience, Perseverance and Persistence” as the keys for any budding inventor/entrepreneur. “For me the Boot camp take home message was ‘If you have a dream-do it’ which is what I am doing.”

Avtar was also able to take part as the student representative in the UWS Innovation Intellectual Property Evaluation Panel. The UWS IP Panel is the University’s method of assessing a projects commercial potential. UWS staff and students can present their innovations to the experienced panel with the prospect of securing support for provisional patent protection, full patent protection, prototype development support and general commercialisation advice. UWS Innovation and the IP Panel are keen to help students and staff with their commercial needs and to increase commercial awareness.  “I have learned much from the pitches presentation discussions and feedback that day. I think this was an invaluable experience for any UWS student to be granted such privilege invitation.”

If you would like the opportunity to sit on the IP panel as an HDR student representative, please contact Victoria Hirst at UWS Innovation on (02) 9685 9742 or email v.hirst@uws.edu.au

The IP Evaluation Panel dates for 2013 are:

»» Friday, 24 May 2013

»» Friday, 12 July 2013

»» Friday, 13 September 2013

»» Friday, 29 November 2013

If you have any questions concerning Intellectual Property or Commercialisation please refer to the UWS Innovation website http://www.uws.edu.au/innovate or contact us on ip@uws.edu.au.