DC civil engineering students team up with Confederation College peers for unique hands-on experience Posted on November 3, 2020 at 2:43 pm. Innovation in the classroom is the key to preparing students for the workforce. This fall, civil engineering students from Durham College (DC) and Confederation College in Thunder Bay are taking part in a unique experiential learning opportunity that mimics a real-world industry scenario for their AutoCAD and hand drafting courses. The exercise will task students from Confederation College with hand drafting an object located on their campus and communicating the information required virtually for DC students to create a final engineered design in AutoCAD. Students must tap into the skills learned in their respective drafting and communication courses to ensure project success. As they would in the working world, students will leverage collaborative digital technologies, including email, SharePoint, Google Docs, Zoom and MS Teams to develop blueprints that accurately reflect the object and original hand-drawn design. “This project echoes real life project situations from both a technical and management perspective and is a great example of how our students learn by doing,” says M. Minelli, program co-ordinator for the Civil Engineering Technician and Civil Engineering Technology programs. “During a construction project life cycle there are many occasions where the project execution team is on site and the project design team is not, and they need to communicate through technical writing and drawings to solve problems that arise with site conditions or where value engineering takes place in the field.” This is the second collaboration between DC and Confederation College, and is just one of many innovative hands-on learning opportunities that make DC a leader in transformative education. A second DC faculty member receives a Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Award of Excellence Posted on October 5, 2020 at 8:08 am. Durham College (DC) is pleased to share that Chris Daniel, a professor in Durham College’s (DC) Mechanical Engineering Technology program and faculty advisor with DC’s FastStart entrepreneurship team, has received a Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Award of Excellence for his dedication to the local community, his students and the broader post-secondary sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nominated by Michelle Hutt, executive dean of the School of Science & Engineering Technology, Chris demonstrated his Ontario spirit when the pandemic struck by spearheading a team of 65 college students, employees, alumni and community members, who used 3D printers to create the frames for PPE face shields used by healthcare workers on the frontlines battling COVID-19. At the height of production, 83 rapid prototyping machines were running across Durham Region and a GoFundMe page was established, which ultimately raised $15,918.32. In total, Chris’ 3D printing team produced 6,350 face shield headbands, as well as 32,700 ear savers. In addition, a $441.66 donation was made to the Lakeridge Health Foundation. Chris joins colleague Edward Logan, who also received a Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Award of Excellence. The college is very proud of them both for helping to bring DC’s new mission – together, we’re leading the way – to life. Developed to honour the work being done by professors and instructors at Ontario’s publicly-assisted, Indigenous and private post-secondary institutions during COVID-19, the Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Awards of Excellence celebrate the incredible work of professors and instructors on campus, in the community and beyond. Carpenters Union Local 397 Contributes $100,000 to DC Skilled Trades Expansion Posted on September 14, 2020 at 12:18 pm. Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce the fundraising campaign for the Whitby Campus skilled trades and professions expansion has received a significant donation of $100,000 from the Carpenters Union Local 397. The generous donation will go toward the Building for Skills campaign, which has raised $4.4 million to date, supporting a 60,000 square foot addition to DC’s Whitby campus. When completed, the expansion will allow 750 more students to study skilled trades and professions each year. “The Carpenters Union is supporting this expansion because we understand the need to train more young people in the trades,” noted Joel Neville, Local Union Coordinator. “The new facility will provide more room and resources not only to our carpenter apprentices but for the apprentices of many other trades accessing this great new facility.” In recognition of the Carpenters Union Local 397’s gift, a multi-purpose classroom will carry the name of the union that represents women and men in Durham Region and Northumberland County who work in a variety of construction related skilled trades, including carpentry, drywall and resilient flooring. Construction continues at DC’s Whitby campus with plans to open in fall 2021. “We are extremely grateful for the support of organized labour. This generous donation from the Carpenters Union Local 397 demonstrates a dedication to the training of future skilled trades professionals and support for DC’s state-of-the-art facility that will have a positive impact on the workforce of Ontario. This gift will help Durham College continue to develop skilled workers who contribute to a strong economy and vibrant communities,” said DC President Don Lovisa. DC Journalism program continues winning streak in Ontario newspaper competition Posted on August 7, 2020 at 11:40 am. Students and faculty from the Durham College (DC) Journalism – Mass Media program once again won big in the Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s (OCNA) Better Newspaper Competition (BNC). DC’s journalism program was introduced more than 40 years ago and has won dozens of OCNA awards since, most recently finishing second in the Best College/University Website category in 2018 and first in both the Best College/University Website and Student Feature Writing categories in 2017. The Chronicle newspaper won first place in the General Excellence Newspaper – College/University for the 2019 awards. The category judge praised The Chronicle’s “eye-catching front pages,” “fantastic editorial and op-ed pages,” and “flawless presentation of issues.” The Chronicle also placed second in the Best College/University Newspaper Website category. Judges complimented the website’s user-friendly navigation, particularly for mobile, as well as the paper’s “solid, well-rounded content” with its balance of campus news, community and pop culture coverage. In addition to the program’s overall success, Dave Flaherty, a 2010 Journalism – Mass Media graduate and current editor of the Oshawa Express newspaper, took home accolades with his win for Best Heritage Story. The BNC is an annual contest that recognizes the outstanding work produced each week by the OCNA’s member newspapers and showcases it to readers and advertisers. Congratulations to DC’s Journalism – Mass Media students and faculty on this well-earned celebration of their dedication and hard work. DC Photography grad to be featured in Applied Arts virtual gallery Posted on July 30, 2020 at 3:52 pm. Anurag Parteek Singh’s successful career as a professional photographer is coming into sharp focus thanks to his recent win in the prestigious Applied Arts Awards. Mere months after graduating from the Photography program at Durham College (DC), Anurag’s work, ‘The Untitled Gaze”,’ garnered industry accolades as a winning selection from the Character Portrait category of the Applied Arts Student Awards. In addition to the profile boost within Canada’s visual arts landscape, Anurag’s photograph will be featured in the Applied Arts virtual gallery of winning work that will be included in the Student Annual Edition, to be published online in October. Regarded as the go-to destination for creative advice, insight and inspiration, Applied Arts has been awarding design, advertising, illustration and photography professionals and students since 1992. The Student Awards are open to high school and post-secondary students enrolled in relevant programs. DC takes great pride in Anurag’s work and success and congratulates him on this significant professional achievement. DC Journalism students put learning to work, gain real-work experience creating COVID-cation podcast Posted on April 23, 2020 at 7:59 am. Faced with COVID-19-related cancellations and postponements of their field placements, six Durham College Journalism – Mass Media students decided to create their own real-work experience. The result is COVID-cation, a weekly podcast created by students for students. Each episode focuses on a specific theme – from education to emotional wellbeing to finances – while exploring the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on students of all ages. Working under the supervision of their professor, Danielle Harder, the team oversees all aspects of development, production and deployment of the podcast and supporting materials, allowing them to put their classroom learning to the ultimate test. In addition to honing their story development and audio and video skills, the students are gaining valuable real-work experience and content for their portfolios in the areas of on-air hosting, social media management, website development, online publishing and much more by doing journalism work on multiple platforms. Watch the Global News Durham story profiling the students behind COVID-cation. DC Advertising students create buzz with wins in national creative competition Posted on April 1, 2020 at 3:18 pm. Several students in the Durham College (DC) Advertising and Marketing Communications program walked away from a national creative competition with more than bragging rights; they also secured prestigious paid apprenticeships with award-winning agency, Grip Limited (Grip). Teams of DC students competed in Grip’s annual Orange Juicer competition, which challenges students from across North America to put their creative chops to the test solving a real creative brief from a real client. Teams must create an innovative advertising pitch, all in less than two weeks, before presenting their fully integrated plans to a panel of senior industry professionals. Grip’s participating client for the 2020 competition was a cannabis company and the brief required teams to create awareness for new forms of cannabis while promoting responsible consumption in a highly regulated market. DC’s students rose to the challenge, vying against 19 other teams. Two DC teams made the Top Seven, advancing to the Big Pitch, and eventually taking second and third place honours. In their decision, the panel noted that this was “the closest race in the competition’s eight-year history.” The students praised the competition for being “an amazing opportunity to apply classroom learning in a professional setting,” and allowing them to experience the intense realities of agency life. Congratulations goes to all of DC’s competitors, including winners Christian Buraga, Brad Cea, Madelyn Clarke, Alecia Forgeard, Jackie Hartman, Eyuel Markos, Lauryn Mills, Abigail Reynolds, Cassidy Rochford-Seager, Pietro Sales and Claire Smith. For anyone who thinks they’ve got what it takes to create award-winning ideas worthy of attention, DC’s Advertising and Marketing Communications program can certainly start them on the path to becoming an advertising professional! For more information, contact Dawn Salter, professor and program coordinator, for more details or DC’s Recruitment team. DC puts 3D printers into action making PPE for donation to workers on frontline of COVID-19 Posted on March 30, 2020 at 1:11 pm. Working out of their garages and basements, Durham College (DC) students, employees, alumni and community members are using 3D printers to create the frames for face shields used by the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative launched on March 26 and within 48 hours the first donation of personal protective equipment (PPE) built with the college’s 3D-printed parts were delivered to Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg, Ontario. “Ontario PPE manufacturer InkSmith put out a call for support to the 3D printing community and Durham College immediately answered that call,” said Chris Daniel, a professor with the college’s School of Science & Engineering Technology. “Six of DC’s 3D printers are now relocated to my garage and a group of our Mechanical Engineering Technology students and alumni who have their own 3D printers are on board with this initiative and printing furiously too.” There are currently 20 DC community members using 30 rapid prototyping machines across Durham Region to create the face shield frames. With community outreach being led by DC’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the college is currently working with two partners to see the parts put to use: DC is shipping frames to InkSmith, where the parts are used to create the company’s community shield, a sanitized single-use shield which InkSmith is donating quantities of to underfunded hospitals and healthcare providers. The college is also collaborating with a team from Ontario Tech University that is also creating one-time-use face shields for donation to local healthcare teams. “I am always proud to count myself among DC’s more than 90,000 alumni but it’s in moments like this that I’m grateful to be part of a community that is so committed to supporting our greater community, especially the brave men and women who are working tirelessly on the healthcare frontline,” said alumnus Brent Lessard, who is currently using his 3D printer at home to contribute to the college’s face shield frame production. Lessard also sits on the DC Alumni Association board of directors. On March 28, Chris Daniel launched a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $1,000 to purchase more polylactic acid, or PLA, the printing material used to 3D print the face shield frames. In less than a day, more than $8,000 was donated, 100-per-cent of which will be used to purchase more PLA for the DC project and to purchase more face shields from InkSmith that will also be donated to healthcare providers. Chris Daniel is a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program at DC as well as a faculty advisor with the college’s FastStart entrepreneurship team. Two of the 3D printers he is currently using to create PPE parts are on loan from DC's 360insights Entrepreneurship Centre, located at the Oshawa campus. He is joined by the following team members who are also working from home to print the parts: Students Marlon Alleyne Paul Burgess Jonathan Cusack Striepe Rumedh Cyril Shane DeSilva Andrew Kay Kyle Laughton Adeshpal Singh Alumni Donald and Sarah Bark Ankit Bhat Brent Lessard Harshit Patel Mitchell Russell Blake Smith Employees Chris Daniel Community members Jane and Todd Ferguson James and Debbie Fraser Nora and Jeff Stevens Jaydev Chauhan Durham College puts 3D printers into action creating PPE for frontline workers facing COVID-19 Posted on March 30, 2020 at 10:20 am. Students, employees and alumni are producing up to 150 face shield parts daily for donation Oshawa, Ont. – Working out of their garages and basements, Durham College (DC) students, employees and alumni are using 3D printers to create the frames for face shields used by the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative launched on March 26 and within 48 hours the first donation of personal protective equipment (PPE) built with the college’s 3D-printed parts were delivered to Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg, Ontario. “Ontario PPE manufacturer InkSmith put out a call for support to the 3D printing community and Durham College immediately answered that call,” said Chris Daniel, a professor with the college’s School of Science & Engineering Technology. “Six of DC’s 3D printers are now relocated to my garage and a group of our Mechanical Engineering Technology students and alumni who have their own 3D printers are on board with this initiative and printing furiously too.” There are currently 16 DC community members using 26 rapid prototyping machines across Durham Region to create the face shield frames. With community outreach being led by DC’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the college is currently working with two partners to see the parts put to use: DC is shipping frames to InkSmith, where the parts are used to create the company’s community shield, a sanitized single-use shield which InkSmith is donating quantities of to underfunded hospitals and healthcare providers. The college is also collaborating with a team from Ontario Tech University that is also creating one-time-use face shields for donation to local healthcare teams. “I am always proud to count myself among DC’s more than 90,000 alumni but it’s in moments like this that I’m grateful to be part of a community that is so committed to supporting our greater community, especially the brave men and women who are working tirelessly on the healthcare frontline,” said alumnus Brent Lessard, who is currently using his 3D printer at home to contribute to the college’s face shield frame production. Lessard also sits on the DC Alumni Association board of directors. On March 28, Chris Daniel launched a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $1,000 to purchase more polylactic acid, or PLA, the printing material used to 3D print the face shield frames. In less than a day, more than $8,000 was donated, 100-per-cent of which will be used to purchase more PLA for the DC project and to purchase more face shields from InkSmith that will also be donated to healthcare providers. Chris Daniel is a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Technology at DC as well as a faculty advisor with the college’s FastStart entrepreneurship team. Two of the 3D printers he is currently using to create PPE parts are on loan from DC's 360insights Entrepreneurship Centre, located at the Oshawa campus. —30— About Durham College At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,400 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the Honours Bachelor of Behavioural Science and Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management. We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need. The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building, the Centre for Collaborative Education, which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors. DC’s Whitby campus is home to the Skills Training Centre, where students receive hands-on training and instruction in industrial-grade shop labs for carpentry, HVAC, welding, elevating devices and crane operation, among others. The campus also features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs. For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000. For more information, contact: Melissa McLean Communications and Marketing O: 905.721.2000 ext. 2952 M: 647.880.6363 melissa.mclean@durhamcollege.ca DC journalism student Tara Sottile earns double work-integrated learning awards Posted on March 25, 2020 at 11:01 am. Tara Sottile, a second-year student in the Durham College (DC) Journalism – Mass Media program, has been named a Work-integrated Learning (WIL) Student of the Year at both the provincial and national level. On March 11, Education at Work Ontario (EWO) announced Sottile as their 2019 WIL Student of the Year. EWO awards the honour to students “who have showcased exceptional job accomplishment, extra-curricular involvement, academic achievement and a strong contribution to work-integrated learning.” On March 16, Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL Canada) announced Sottile as the WIL Student of the Year in the category of Other Forms of WIL – College. She was one of only four students to be honoured by CEWIL Canada out of more than 40 competitive nominations. Sottile was put forward by DC’s Experiential Learning team with the support of partner organization Students Offering Support (SOS). Among the highlights flagged by the college were her leadership skills, professional expertise, initiative and creativity, which she demonstrated in particular while participating in an education abroad opportunity in Guatemala, where she worked on a digital storytelling project with local youth. “Tara has demonstrated the transformative influence that work-integrated learning can have on students,” said Amanda Brown, manager, Experiential Learning, with the college’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “Through service learning experience, she has transformed from a passive-observer to an engaged learner and confident student journalist. She now takes advantage of every opportunity to try new experiences and expand her skills.” Sottile was also commended for being a champion of WIL at DC, especially international service learning, through her advocacy for expanded WIL opportunities and mentorship of first-year students. “Tara’s support of work-integrated learning is now contributing to the expansion of similar experiential-learning opportunities between SOS and DC in other areas of study,” said Jamie Arron, executive director of SOS. In each of their announcements, EWO and CEWIL Canada highlighted Sottile’s passion for writing, broadcast and video production. In addition to her regular studies, she is a radio tech at the student-run campus radio station, Riot Radio, as well as a regular contributor to DC’s campus newspaper, The Chronicle. Inspired by her WIL experiences gained through her academic program, Sottile is focused on pursuing a career in radio broadcasting after graduating. 1 2 3 4 5 6 »
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