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Student voices wanted for DC input session

As the college’s strategic plan approaches its three-year renewal, Durham College (DC) is engaging students to provide input on DC’s strategic direction for the next three years.

The involvement of all key stakeholder groups is vital to creating a plan that is reflective of the shared values and goals the college strives to uphold every day.

All DC students are invited to participate in a student-focused strategic planning session where they will have the opportunity to network and provide input on where the college is headed and how it should inform the strategic plan.

Students can choose one of the following dates:

Monday, September 16
2 to 4 p.m.

OR

Wednesday, September 18
10 a.m. to noon

Both sessions will be held at the Oshawa campus in the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre, Room G213. Snacks and refreshments will be on hand along with fun giveaways.

Interested students should RSVP by Thursday, September 12, stating their preferred session, by emailing the Office of the President or calling 905.721.2000 ext. 2252.

DC expands business hours to better serve students

Durham College is pleased to announce the expansion of core business hours for its academic school offices and student support services. These changes will help match access to resources with the level of evening activity on campus and further enhance students’ experience.

The new hours of operation for the fall and winter semesters at the Oshawa and Whitby campuses are:

  • Monday to Thursday
    8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Friday
    8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Updated hours are also posted on individual student service and support area web pages.

DC welcomes more than 900 new international students to campus

This week Durham College (DC) welcomed more than 900 new international students from 65 countries to campus for the 2019-2020 academic year. To help prepare students for the year ahead, an International Student Orientation was held on August 28 at the Oshawa campus.

Dean of International Education, Lisa Shepard, kicked off the event by delivering welcome remarks and advice to international students as they embark on their journey in Canada, encouraging them to find a mentor, make friends and write their own story. Later, DC President Don Lovisa and Dr. Elaine Popp, vice-president, Academic, welcomed students on behalf of the entire college.

Throughout the day, students received guidance on the many services and supports available to them and how to prepare for post-secondary education. They also learned about their health insurance plan, banking in Canada, how to find part-time work and also gained valuable information about building a future in Canada.

The day also facilitated the development of new friendships through fun group activities and a photobooth. After the event students were invited to browse a mini student services fair from Durham College Students Inc., FastStart DC, Enactus DC, the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre, as well as informative booths about residence, cell phones, banking and more.

“For many of our new international students, this is their first time being outside of their home country, so it can be very overwhelming and nerve-wracking.” said Janine Knight-Grofe, manager, International Education. “Our International Student Orientation activities are designed to introduce students not only to life in Canada, but also to life as a member of our DC community, so that when they start classes next week they have all the tools they need to succeed.”

More than 2000 international students will be studying at DC for the 2019-2020 academic year. With additional students expected to arrive as the year gets underway, DC prides itself on offering international students the highest-quality Canadian education, a safe and vibrant campus environment and a fun and rewarding student life – with everything from clubs and cultural activities to sports and recreation – to balance studies with activities outside the classroom.

For more information, please visit the college’s International Education office website.

DC to host Global Cyberlympics Finals in October

Durham College (DC) in partnership with The Regional Municipality of Durham announced earlier this morning at an official media launch that they will be co-hosting the Global Cyberlympics Finals on Saturday, October 26 at the Oshawa campus. Organized by EC-Council and SiberX, this will be the first time that the highly-competitive event will be held in Canada.

The Global Cyberlympics is an ethical hacking and cyber security competition that pits teams from all over the world against each other to compete in a series of challenges in areas such as digital forensics, malware analysis and cryptography. Following the 12-hour online elimination round on Saturday, September 7, finalists will compete for the winning title during the in-person Finals competition at DC. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony, to be held in Ajax, after the competition.

“We are so excited and proud to be hosting this unique competition at Durham College and seeing the very best talent in cyber security and artificial intelligence descend on the Durham Region for one of the most advanced competitions worldwide,” said Dr. Elaine Popp, vice president, Academic at DC. “As we continue to encourage advancement in the field of cyber security, I am confident this event will encourage interest and present new opportunities to address the talent gap that exists in this sector.”

“Durham Region is a hotbed of innovative thinking; a place where a diverse and inclusive workforce drives innovation and creativity,” said John Henry, Regional Chair and Chief Executive Officer for Durham Region. “Durham College plays a strong role within this innovative ecosystem—offering collaborative research, leading-edge innovation, and market-driven academic programming that is transforming our communities. We look forward to an engaging series of events, coming to Durham Region this fall.”

Since its inception in 2012, the Cyberlympics have seen more than 2,100 participants from 500 teams and 75 countries compete. Last year’s event included finalists from locations such as Brazil, Netherlands, India, Nigeria and Australia.

DC employees celebrate start of new academic year

On August 27, Durham College (DC) held its annual Academic Kickoff, an energizing event aimed at engaging and inspiring college employees for the new school year ahead.

Led by Dr. Elaine Popp, DC’s vice president, Academic, the event also gave colleagues an opportunity to reconnect while collaborating on new ideas to further enhance the student experience inside the classroom and beyond.

DC president Don Lovisa started the morning’s program with an overview of work done on campus over the summer months. This included a number of construction projects, including renovations of existing learning spaces and completion of the first student residence at the Whitby campus. President Lovisa also shared early feedback gathered during the college’s strategic planning process.

Tom Wujec, a global authority on innovation, disruptive technology and the art of visual thinking, delivered this year’s keynote address. The author of six books on technology, design, business and creative collaboration, and a six-time TED speaker, Wujec addressed the toolset and mindset needed for innovation in the world of exponential growth.

The morning also included a panel presentation featuring team members from DC’s unique AI Hub. The discussion highlighted recent AI project work to which DC employees and students had contributed, as well as projects underway for the coming year.

The AI Hub panel shared examples of how DC is helping local businesses adopt AI technology to improve operations while providing students with meaningful opportunities to engage in hands-on, real-work experiences through applied research.

To conclude the event, DC’s chief administrative officer, Dr. Scott Blakey, announced the nominations for the 2019 Employee Awards of Excellence.  The honours are presented annually to one DC employee in each of the administrative staff, faculty and support staff groups in recognition of outstanding contributions to the college and greater community.

DC Esports Gaming Arena hosts Ontario Collegiate Rocket League Finals

On August 24, esport student-athletes from 12 Ontario colleges and universities gathered at Durham College’s (DC) Esports Gaming Arena to compete in the Ontario Collegiate Rocket League (OCRL) Finals. A total of $7,000 in scholarship prizing was up for grabs in addition to the first-place title and – of course – bragging rights.

Co-produced by DC and OCRL, an entirely student-run organization, DC’s Esports Gaming Arena staff also offered mentorship throughout the event as students gained real-work experience for their resumés to help them gain employment in the fast-growing esports industry.

Fans were able to take in the action in-person thanks to the arena’s ample spectator space as well as online via Twitch, the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers.

Although scholarship money eluded them, DC’s Rocket League players did achieve an upset in their bracket with a win over the second-seed Lambton College team, which knocked the Lambton Lions out of the tournament.

In the end, the Waterloo Warriors (University of Waterloo) took first place; Guelph Gryphons (University of Guelph) placed second; and third place went to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.

DC announces new Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst training program

Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce that its Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (the AI Hub) and the School of Continuing Education will be delivering the first Canadian training session of the Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst (CTIA) course.

Offered in collaboration with International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), SiberX, and the Town of Ajax, the three-day course will take place from Wednesday, October 15 to Friday, October 18 in Ajax. The CTIA course was announced at the CISO Forum Canada event on August 22 in Niagara Falls, Ont. by DC President Don Lovisa.

“As technology advances and cyber threats become more sophisticated and complex, it’s crucial for security professionals to have access to relevant, specialized training that will prepare them for the ever-changing threat landscape,” says Lovisa. “This unique course offers a holistic and modern approach to threat intelligence that will equip professionals with the tools they need to protect their organizations.” 

The CTIA course has been designed and developed in collaboration with cyber security and threat intelligence experts across the globe to help organizations identify and mitigate business risks by converting unknown internal and external threats into known threats. It is a comprehensive, specialist-level program that teaches a structured approach for building effective threat intelligence and is compliant to government and industry published frameworks.

The course is delivered in a compressed three-day in-classroom format and prepares participants to challenge the Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst Certification exam by EC-Council. EC-Council is a world leader in cyber security and this credential is an industry-recognized certification.

“With a focus on teaching a detect, respond and defeat approach to cyber security, course attendees will be qualified to develop their own comprehensive threat intelligence program,” says Dr. Elaine Popp, vice president, Academic at DC. “The completion of this course will benefit participants by increasing their employability in the cyber security and threat intelligence sectors.”

For more information or to register for the course, please visit www.durhamcollege.ca/CTIA.

Lakeridge Health and Durham College project applies artificial intelligence to predict emergency department wait times

A new partnership between Lakeridge Health and Durham College’s (DC) Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (the AI Hub) will test the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict how long an individual will wait in the emergency department (ED), improving decision making and the patient’s experience in the ED.

The 40-week project, led by DC faculty researcher Amit Maraj and a team of four research assistants from the Computer Programmer Analyst program, will result in a prototype for an AI-infused recommender system. If successful, this system would make individual wait-time predictions for ED visits based on the person’s condition, what ED they are visiting and the time of day and year. The predictions would also take into account a person’s individual health status and other factors, including staffing, the number of people waiting for care and the urgency of everyone’s needs.

“People waiting in the emergency department often feel frustration and anxiety because they don’t know how long they will be there or what to expect,” said Dr. Ilan Lenga, chief information officer and chief medical information officer of Lakeridge Health. “We are pleased to be able to harness the ingenuity of the students and faculty at Durham College to develop a system that will benefit the community and improve people’s experiences in the emergency departments.”

The program team will look at a set of actual, anonymized patient data from the past to build a system – using machine learning – that can predict with a high degree of accuracy their wait time given everything that was happening in the ED at the time that they visited.

“We are excited about this opportunity to collaborate with Lakeridge Health to optimize the use of our health-care system’s resources using artificial intelligence,” said Don Lovisa, president, DC. “The work we are doing in this project has the potential to be tremendously helpful for patients while showcasing the real-world application of AI in a health-care setting in a way that will positively impact the system as a whole.”

Personalized predictions are important because emergency departments must treat the most urgent patients first, and do not operate on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

Three Durham College alumni nominated for 2019 Premier’s Awards

Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce that, in recognition of their outstanding career success related to their college experience and the significant contributions they have made to their community, three of its alumni have been nominated for Colleges Ontario’s 2019 Premier’s Awards.

Andy Popko, who graduated from DC’s Public Relations program in 1987, has spent over 40 years in the oil and energy sector working closely with western Canada’s Indigenous peoples to develop equitable joint venture partnerships that will protect Indigenous land rights. For his work, Popko was named an honourary Chief at Heart Lake First Nations and also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tribal Chiefs Institute in 2003. Presented on behalf of the Treaty 6 Chiefs, Popko is the first non-Indigenous person to be presented with the award. In 2004, he was also recognized as a Durham College Alumni of Distinction. Today, he is vice-president of Aboriginal Relations at NC Services Group Limited and a director at energy start-up Bitcrude. Popko is nominated for a Premier’s Award in the Business category.

Over the last ten years, Cailey Jones has worked her way up from volunteer to full-time teacher, vice-principal and finally principal of Botshabelo Urban Kids Educentre (UKE) in Midrand, South Africa. A 2010 graduate of DC’s Early Childhood Education program, she is driven by the knowledge that early access to education can change a child’s life. Over the past nine years, she’s helped build Botshabelo’s preschool program from the ground up, filling a need for children who may not otherwise access preschool education. In her role as principal, she introduced play-based learning, parent workshops, standardized assessment processes, and regular teacher evaluations and training. In 2019, she was recognized as an Alumna of Distinction at Durham College and was a guest speaker during the Global Grad event. She is nominated for a Premier’s Award in the Community Services category.

Bev Woods has given thousands of people a reason to smile over her 39-year career. Since graduating from DC’s Dental Assisting program in 1980 and the Dental Hygiene program in 1986, she has worked in both general practice and public health as a dental hygienist, consultant, and as a member and past president of numerous dental hygiene associations. In 2009, Woods founded Gift from the Heart (GFTH), a non-profit organization and annual one-day event that brings together dental hygienists across the country to offer no-cost dental hygiene services to those unable to afford or access care. The event has provided over $1.2 million in no-cost dental hygiene care to vulnerable populations over the past ten years. In recognition of Woods’ generous work with GFTH and meaningful contributions to dental hygiene and her community, she was recognized as a Durham College Alumna of Distinction in 2019. She is nominated for a Premier’s Award in the Health Sciences category.

“Using the skills they learned at DC, these three remarkable individuals have built successful and meaningful careers for themselves. We are so proud of their achievements and the impact they are having in their communities and worldwide,” said Don Lovisa, president, Durham College. “This is yet another example of how college education provides graduates with the foundation for success.”

This year’s Premier’s Award winners will be announced during a gala reception on Monday, December 2 in Toronto. For more information about the Premier’s Awards, please visit www.co-awards.org.

DC’s AI Hub receives $210,000 from Ontario Centre of Excellence

Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce that its Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (the AI Hub) received $210,000 in May from Ontario Centre of Excellence (OCE) for the College Voucher for Technology Adoption (CVTA) program.

Through the CVTA program, student teams guided by college faculty will act as consultants to local businesses, applying their skills and training to solve industry challenges related to innovation and technology adoption.

The funding awarded to DC will allow the college’s AI Hub to work with 21 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are facing barriers in the face of AI adoption, preparing them for pre- and post-AI development, including data collection and processing, algorithm selection, and the development of IT infrastructure, API or cloud computing servers. SMEs participating in the program will receive access to faculty and student expertise, collaborative workspace and valuable programs and resources.

 “Very few companies have in place the foundational building blocks that enable them to develop an effective AI solution that can generate value at scale,” said Dr. Elaine Popp, vice president, Academic. “We are thrilled that this funding will allow us to further support local businesses as they implement AI capabilities into their business systems, all while giving our students more opportunities for experiential learning.”

The college currently has a roster of projects lined up as a result of this funding with 10 vouchers still available for businesses interested in initiating a project with the AI Hub.

 “This funding is allowing 1COMMUNITY1 to connect with a diverse and passionate team of students that are eager to share their expertise, and who exhibit an honest and dedicated interest in fulfilling the success of our project,” said Kevin Craddock, chief technology officer, 1COMMUNITY1 – one of 11 current voucher recipients working with the AI Hub. “With this support, we have the opportunity to collaborate on innovative solutions that will help us leverage artificial intelligence to engage community through unique and accessible interactions.”

This is the second round of funding that the college has received from OCE for the CVTA program. The most recent funding of $100,000 allowed the AI Hub to develop technology-based solutions for 10 SMEs, including automation, online collaborative tools, and data visualization.