In February, Michelle Hutt, associate dean, School of Business, IT & Management (BITM), and Katie Boone, manager, International Projects and Partnerships, Durham College (DC) International, visited Kenya as part of the college’s second mission to the country. 

The visit involved a two-week workshop series to support Sigalagala National Polytechnic (SNP) with efforts to develop competency-based programs in the fields of renewable energies and advanced solar power systems. The workshops also provided guidance to SNP delegates on organizing their first program advisory committee, incorporating industry input into curriculum design and completing a labour market information report to receive approval to commence program development based on the analysis.

Developed with the support of Joanne Paterson, professor, School of Justice & Emergency Services, Katie Boone also led workshops on gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The workshops opened up dialogue on critical issues impacting youth socio-economic development in Kenya and helped create better understanding of the cultural norms within which the partnership would flourish. The discussions paved the way for a partnership founded in mutual learning and respect.

In November 2017, DC hosted a group of 25 Kenyan post-secondary leaders from five partner institutions. In conjunction with DC’s Canadian partners, Olds College and Algonquin College, Marianne Marando, dean, BITM, and Michelle Hutt led workshops on industry engagement and strategic development of program advisory committees.

Both initiatives were part of the DC-led Kenyan Education for Employment Program, a three-and-half-year project facilitated by Colleges and Institutes Canada and funded by Global Affairs Canada that started in spring 2017.

In January, Durham College completed its seventh mission in Vietnam as part of a five-year partnership focused on supporting Hau Giang Community College (HGCC) to develop a technical vocational program in post-harvest production.

Sue Hawkins, student services specialist, School of Intersciplinary Studies (IS), and Jacqueline Towell, manager, Curriculum Development, Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment (CAFE), travelled to Vietnam to provide training, best practices and strategies focused on teaching HGCC faculty and staff how to plan and lead student-centered focus groups and use subsequent information to plan and design student services and activities that support recruitment and retention.

While there, Hawkins and Towell also shared a variety of resources and tools to help identify barriers to success, develop student-centered coaching and advising models, increase student leadership and engagement, organize orientation activities and deliver career development services.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the partnership is being facilitated by Agriteam Consulting Ltd, an organization that provides management and technical expertise to developing and transitional country partners on projects that promote sustainable growth and meaningful opportunities for people to improve their lives.

Over the course of the project, DC faculty and staff are working with their counterparts at HGCC to share their expertise with developing programs in the areas of food and pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food sciences.

The project is proving to be quite successful. For the 2017-2018 academic year, HGCC’s post-harvest production program saw 31 students enrol for the fall semester, and 24 students enrol for the winter semester.

The project’s next milestone will see DC host 13 HGCC delegates for a conference being held Monday, April 2 to Friday, April 13. The objectives of the visit include building HGCC faculty’s capacity to teach the new curriculum in an applied, student-centred approach; explore a variety of teaching and learning resources and assessment methods to support HGCC food and pharmaceutical science programs; develop lesson plans that demonstrate student-centred teaching; and reflect on teaching and learning skills to help plan future training activities at HGCC.

Durham College (DC) announced today that it has received $14.7 million in funding from the provincial government through the Greenhouse Gas Campus Retrofits Program, including $9.1 million to fund the new Simcoe Geothermal Field project at the Oshawa campus. DC is using $1.45 million to complete upgrades of existing facilities, including the installation of high-efficiency HVAC systems, new and upgraded building automation systems and LED lighting and $4.1 million will take the form of an eligible interest-free loan, uses for which are still to be explored.

The announcement was made by Granville Anderson, MPP (Durham), on behalf of the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (MAESD) at an event held at the college this afternoon.

Launched by MAESD as part of Ontario’s five-year Climate Change Action Plan 2016-2020, the Greenhouse Gas Campus Retrofits Program aims to support projects that demonstrate innovative plans and approaches to increase campus sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also supporting other institutional and Strategic Mandate Agreement priorities.

The Simcoe Geothermal Field project is part of a multi-year initiative at DC’s Oshawa campus to create a net-zero carbon footprint in existing campus buildings by using reclaimed land to install a geothermal field, new central plant and piping network.

“On behalf of everyone at Durham College, I extend my sincere thanks to the provincial government for this significant investment in our vision for a campus that makes a direct positive impact on the health and future of both the environment and our students,” said Don Lovisa, president, DC. “Today’s announcement of the Simcoe Geothermal Field project is the latest example of our commitment and action to support sustainable and environmentally responsible practices across all aspects of our operations.”

In addition to the environmental benefits that the geothermal energy system will yield, the project will also provide significant new experiential learning opportunities for DC students. The geothermal field and new heat pump plant will become a living lab that will be incorporated into a wide variety of program curricula to address new green-energy technologies and careers.

“Durham College is a leader of technology and innovation in Durham, so it’s important that we ensure institutions like this are equipped with the most up-to-date, efficient, and environmentally friendly infrastructure,” said MPP Anderson. “I’m delighted that funding from the Climate Change Action Plan is helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on our campuses, thus creating a better learning environment for our students.”

“DC is already widely recognized for our excellence in advancing environmental sustainability through our programs, services and facilities,” added President Lovisa. “We are one of Canada’s Greenest Employers and a proud recipient of a silver rating from the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Now, thanks to innovative projects and planning such as the Simcoe Geothermal Field project, our reputation and leadership in this area will only continue to grow and strengthen.”

While competing in the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) Ontario District Durham College (DC) event on March 3 and 4, high school students from across the province also got a first look at where they could be headed next while visiting the college’s Oshawa campus.

For the fourth year in a row, DC hosted more than 1,000 of the province’s brightest young minds, along with their mentors, family, friends and fellow robot enthusiasts, at the annual event. Competitors demonstrated their technological and engineering skills and knowledge as they operated five-feet-tall, 140-pound robots they had designed and built in only six weeks.

Teams competed in this year’s intensive arcade-themed game, FIRST® POWER UP^SM. Robot fans enjoyed watching teams play the game that saw them trapped in an 8bit-video-game world and use power cubes to defeat the game’s boss.

During the competition’s opening ceremony both DC president Don Lovisa and FIRST® alum/DC Mechanical Engineering Technology student Donald Bark encouraged the crowd to take advantage of their time at the college to explore the campus. In particular, FIRST® competitors were directed to the Integrated Manufacturing Centre, where robot repairs and tune ups were being offered by DC faculty and students using the facility’s industrial-grade equipment.

After two days of intensive battles, organized with the help of numerous, dedicated volunteers, the following teams comprising the Red Alliance were declared district champions:

• Team 610 – Crescent School Coyotes, North York
• Team 4476 – W.A.F.F.L.E.S Community Robotics, Kingston
• Team 6110 – Archbishop Denis O’Connor Catholic High School Doc Botics, Ajax

Students had a lot of fun while gaining real-world engineering experience, developing leadership skills and learning to work as a team under pressure and tight timelines.

Winners of the DC event now move on to the FIRST® Ontario Provincial Championship at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, April 12 to 14, where they will compete for a spot at the World Championships that will be held in Detroit, Michigan, from April 25 to 28.

Learn more about FRC.

On February 21, Durham College (DC) students and employees were joined by community leaders to honour the legacy of Black Canadians past and present, during the college’s Black History Month celebration.

Hosted by the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Transitions, DC was honoured to host special guests Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Member of Parliament for Whitby, and Mayor of Oshawa John Henry, who both spoke at the event.

DC’s Black History Month Celebration also featured a dance and drumming workshop by Sanaaj Mirrie, social entrepreneur and artistic director of Afiwi Groove School, and a poetry reading by artist, activist and social innovator Greg Frankson, a.k.a Ritallin.

On February 12, Steven Del Duca, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development and Growth, visited Durham College’s (DC) Oshawa campus to speak with students and employees during a town hall in The Pit.

After sharing brief remarks, Minister Del Duca spent the remainder of the hour-long session answering questions that ranged from discussing the impact of minimum wage increases on part-time jobs to addressing the need to foster diversity in fields such as science, engineering, technology and math.

With an emphasis on optimism and a focus on Ontario’s strengths, Del Duca reviewed the opportunities for students in the dynamic and rapidly changing economy. He also stressed the importance of continued investment, strategic decision making and driving innovation to preserve the positive gains achieved for the province since the recession.

Calling all entrepreneurs! The hit CBC television show Dragons’ Den will return to Durham College (DC) on Wednesday, February 28, to hold auditions in the search for Canada’s best new businesses.

Currently in its 12th season, the show’s producers are embarking on a nation-wide tour in search of the country’s best new business concepts and products in need of a Dragon investment. During its stop on campus, aspiring DC entrepreneurs and members of the general public are invited to pitch their concepts in five minutes or less. If they show producers they have what it takes to pitch in the Den, they could be invited to Toronto to face the Dragons.

DC is committed to enhancing entrepreneurship in the community and encourages anyone with an innovative idea to apply. DC students may also contact FastStart – an entrepreneurial training partnership aimed at students – for assistance in preparing their pitch.

Prospective pitchers are encouraged to apply online and bring a completed application form to the audition.

Auditions:

When
Wednesday, February 28
11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where
Durham College, Oshawa campus
Student Services building, Room SSB 116 AB
2000 Simcoe St. N.
Oshawa, Ont.

Durham College (DC) announced today that its Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ORSIE) has been awarded $250,000 through the Government of Ontario’s Colleges Applied Research and Development Fund (CARDF), administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), to study artificial intelligence (AI) in business solutions.

The funding will be used to research how “narrow AI” can help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) uncover new business insights while also providing intelligent and autonomous solutions that help increase a company’s productivity and growth. Narrow AI is any software that uses technologies such as machine learning, decision support, natural language processing and automation to make business recommendations, autonomously make decisions, or take action in a manner that would be considered intelligent.

“The AI research DC is undertaking addresses a significant need for SMEs across our economy,” said Debbie McKee Demczyk, dean, ORSIE. “This funding will support those research efforts, as we help SMEs adopt AI to solve their business challenges. Our hope is that, through collaborative research, and the implementation of advanced systems, we can help the SMEs of Southern Ontario become more competitive in an increasingly digital economy.”

The funding announcement also coincides with the recent launch of the AI Hub at DC, a new research centre within ORSIE dedicated to advancing the adoption of artificial intelligence as a way to improve business productivity and competitiveness. Through the AI Hub, firms that would not typically have access to the benefits of state-of-the-art AI techniques, will be able to capitalize on  advances in machine intelligence, automated learning, decision support, optimization, robotics, language/meaning understanding, and advanced manufacturing practices.

DC also received ten College Vouchers for Technology Adoption from CARDF. Valued at $10,000 each, under this program the college is will work with 10 growth-oriented local SMEs who are looking to adopt technology to improve their operations and increase productivity. This will be achieved by using one of three methods – process automation, customized online collaboration tools and data visualization.

Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, in partnership with OCE and Colleges Ontario, the $20-million CARDF program not only seeks to drive collaboration between post-secondary institutions and industry, it also aims to create efficiencies so industry can access the skills, services and innovations offered by colleges, while also providing experiential learning opportunities for students.

“Our province needs talent to continue to sustain its growing innovation eco-system. Investing in applied research and development is a step towards a brighter and more prosperous future for our province,” said Reza Moridi, Minister of Research, Innovation and Science. “By bringing together colleges and the R&D sector, we’re creating opportunities for our students and ensuring they are ready for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Companies with an interest in how AI and digital transformation can enhance their businesses are encouraged to contact the AI Hub by visiting http://www.durhamcollege.ca/TheAIHub, emailing theaihub@durhamcollege.ca or calling 905.721.3223.