November / December 2005


Ontario colleges plugging into research

If Einstein had not toiled in the Swiss patent offices examining how new gadgets would work, it has been suggested that he might never have developed his special theory of relativity.

His brilliant breakthroughs, being celebrated this year to mark the 100 anniversary of their publication, might never have emerged had it not been for Einstein's daily mental co-mingling of advanced scientific theories and practical, real-life applications.

In the Canadian research community, colleges have entered the realm of research, development and commercialization by focusing on the practical applications of university-generated research.

They are, after all, institutions of applied arts and technology, and are helping to create real-word benefits from advanced research by playing a role that is distinctly different from but complementary to researchers at universities and major corporations.


Collage from Niagara College's Centre for Advanced Visualiztion

As Marti Jurmain, Director of Research and Innovation, Niagara College said at the ORION R&E Summit in June 2005, "We focus on the 'D' in R&D."

There are 150 colleges nation-wide, operating in 900 communities. Ontario has 24 colleges in 200 communities. Their core role has been to provide workforce training and retraining to meet local community and industry needs. Today, applied research and commercialization are becoming priorities for colleges, helping them to better serve their business and industry stakeholders.

About one-third of Ontario colleges have significant research infrastructure. Specialized college applied research facilities exist in fields ranging from advanced materials and manufacturing testing to energy efficient housing, viticulture and high-definition digital imaging. The emphasis is on prototyping and helping companies through the execution of proof-of-concept in the marketplace.

Niagara College's Centre for Advanced Visualization (CFAV), for example, has developed a specialty in land use planning. For the past five years, they have been building 3D virtual reality (VR) presentations that explore various land use scenarios such as traffic planning.

The presentations are an extremely effective communications tool for engineering firms and planning staff, said CFAV's Mike Duncan, especially at public meetings to explain the impact of re-routing traffic in a neighbourhood. The current research focus is on increasing the levels of realism. The next step is to begin incorporating real-time traffic data into VR presentations.

Sheridan College's Visualization Design Institute has used academic and industry collaborations to push applied visualization research into the realm of immersive, real-time, interactive, multi-user experiences. Application areas include robotics, engineering, medicine, training and entertainment.

Avrim Katzman, the Institute's Director, unveiled iplay.tv, a proof-of-concept project they are developing with an industry partner, ETV, and Communications and Information Technology Ontario (CITO), an Ontario Centre of Excellence. iplay.tv is a remarkable, live-to-air multi-player computer game in a game show format. Sheridan created the underlying technologies for iplay.tv and has applied for the patents.

Katzman and his colleagues have learned a few lessons from their 'D' experience in R&D. Among them: find partners with complementary skills and solutions; start partnerships before funding opportunities arise; and, think beyond funding.

Developing funding sources is just one of the items on Gregory Weiler's 'to-do' list. Weiler recently left the university environment to join Fanshawe College as Dean of Applied Research, Innovation and University Partnerships. His main task: building an R&D enterprise at Fanshawe.

Colleges are relatively new players in Canadian research, said Weiler, chair of the Heads of Applied Research committee of the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario. They nonetheless bring strengths to the process that complement those found in universities and large corporations. For example, he says, the faculty brings a different set of skills and experience to applied research in their fields that can add value to college-university collaborations. Colleges also have strong links to their communities and local industries that can open project doors.

There are challenges for colleges as they expand their role in research, said Weiler. Among them is building the administrative infrastructure that universities take for granted, but some research infrastructure is in place and making its presence known, both internally and externally.

Fanshawe has been involved with SHARCNET since its inception and, said Weiler, "high performance computing has energized our students' interests and ideas. It's important to consider the different demographic of college versus university students." Colleges traditionally appeal to students with a more practical bent to their imaginations. Now, through research collaborations with universities, those students are being more exposed to advanced scientific theories.

As was the case of the young physicist in the Swiss patent office, remarkable innovations may emerge.

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges has published a profile of the colleges' contribution and increasing capacities in applied research.
www.accc.ca/ftp/pubs/brochures/2005_a-research.pdf.

ACAATO has published an overview of colleges' successes in applied research. See www.acaato.on.ca.

Quick Facts*

  • 2% of Ontario's 6,388 full-time college faculty engage in applied research, development and commercialization activities. 20% of college faculty hold research-based master's or doctoral degrees.
  • Ontario colleges project that within a decade, with adequate funding, 10% or approximately 700 full-time faculty will be involved in applied research and development activities at any given time.
  • Between 2000 and 2003, the federal government has invested $3.5 billion in research under the three federal granting councils (CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC) and $2.1 billion in research infrastructure, of which only $18 million or 0.3% went to Canadian colleges.
  • Ontario colleges are asking for a new federal funding envelope dedicated to college research reaching $100 million per year by 2010, to support applied research at Canadian colleges undertaken in collaboration with private and public sector partners.

* Source: ACCATO Photo: Image of Niagara College CFAV Composite of traffic simulation visualizations - From left, Alex Krugel, Modeler/Artist, Dr. Mike R. Duncan (Chair of Advanced Visualization), and Rob Teather, Programmer.


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