Channel Seven meteorologist Jane Bunn is one of them. Her business, Jane’s Weather, uses machine learning to create hyperlocal and more accurate weather forecasts for farmers and the agriculture industry.

Jane’s Weather provides customised weather forecasts to help Australian farmers manage their resources and boost their output.

SummerTech LIVE is the program helping achieve that. Delivered in partnership by the Victorian Government and Victorian Chamber, it helps students kickstart their careers in IT with a 10-week studentship while providing much-needed digital skills to Victorian businesses.

It has placed more than 500 students with almost 300 businesses since it began in 2017.

Jane’s Weather was matched with two students to develop a proof of concept on using machine learning to improve the accuracy of weather predictions. By analysing temperature data, they proved that their method could increase the accuracy of forecasts tenfold.

“It’s all about using this data in the best way we can to get precision farming in the end,” Jane says.

John Said, CEO of Werribee-based farm Fresh Select, benefitted from the improved technology, which helped the business “make decisions right down to the day we plant and when we are harvesting. That accuracy and detail specific to the region is hugely important to us.”

Jane added: “I’d highly recommend SummerTech LIVE because you’ve got these students there, they’re so eager, they want to do the best they can so it’s a win-win either way.”

Program details

Does your business have a digital technology problem which needs to be solved or a technology-related idea that you’d like to explore and develop?

The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is proud to partner with the Victorian State Government to deliver the 2023-2024 SummerTech LIVE Program.

It helps Victorian businesses upskill their digital capabilities and solve technology-related problems while giving students the opportunity to gain work-ready skills.

The program offers a $5,000 studentship for 10-12 weeks over the summer break. There is no cost to businesses but they will need to provide in-kind support for the students and the necessary tools for the students to do their job.

Funding of up to $1,000 per project will be provided to participating tertiary institutions to support the educational mentors working with the students.

More information and registration is available via SummerTech LIVE. Applications close on 11 September 2023.