Top Ten
January 14, 2019
Queen’s celebrates new innovation space with Ignition Week
The Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre at Queen’s University will celebrate the grand opening of its new innovation space with a week-long event geared toward entrepreneurship and innovation. The Queen’s Gazette reports that Ignition Week will feature sessions on e-commerce, innovation and invention, social entrepreneurship, and more, with established entrepreneurs and Queen’s alumni on hand for panels and networking sessions. “This new facility in Mitchell Hall will allow the DDQIC to strengthen the university’s support of student design and experiential-learning, and foster ideas with incubation and acceleration opportunities,” said Queen’s Interim Provost and Vice-Principal Academic Tom Harris. Queen’s Gazette (ON)
Confidence surges around creation of MUN law school
Momentum is building for a new law school at Newfoundland’s Memorial University, reports CBC. “This is going to happen,” announced MUN Provost and VP Academic Noreen Golfman. Last fall, MUN’s senate approved a detailed proposal for the new faculty, suggesting that the school could be up and running over the next three to five years. There is currently no law school located in Newfoundland and Labrador, which Supreme Court of Newfoundland Justice Fonse Faour says is “a huge gap” in the province’s legal system. CBC (NL)
UVic opens new $9.5M facility for ocean-climate research
The Victoria Times Colonist reports that Ocean Networks Canada, based out of the University of Victoria, has settled into a refurbished facility. According to a UVic release, the $9.5M Ocean-Climate Building—which was formerly a residential care facility—features new fibre optic networks; a flexible interior wall system to create large, collaborative workspaces for interdisciplinary work as well as individual offices; and extensive seismic upgrades. “It’s going to be a world-leading centre for research that’s going to help us to better manage human activity going forward, related to both climate change and also to marine issues,” said federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. UVic |Times-Colonist (BC)
RRC partners with Indian university, explores satellite campus concept
Red River College has established an academic partnership with Chitkara University in India. A release states that RRC is exploring pathways to establish a satellite campus at Chitkara in order for RRC to deliver its two-year Business Information Technology program to students in India and create international exchange opportunities. “Red River College is a global operation, and growing in stature in the area of international education” said RRC President Paul Vogt, who added that the “signing of this agreement with Chitkara University will allow us to continue to encourage academic collaboration, educational exchanges and innovative joint research projects with a leading institution in India.” RRC | Education News Canada
New innovation sandbox at Dal looks to foster talent, economic growth
A new space at Dalhousie University is looking to bring together multidisciplinary teams to develop ideas and innovative solutions that tackle important local and global problems. Dal reports that SURGE, which is short for Science Unleashed: Research Growing the Economy, is an innovation “sandbox” that joins nine other similar centres in NS, which are all working to foster talent development and economic growth in the region. The university also reports that SURGE is located between the two core facilities in Dal’s Faculty of Science, making it a natural fit to funnel talent into provincial science-based sectors such as oceans, clean technology, and life sciences. Dal (NS)
Bereskin: Consider copyright before embracing open online resources
Open educational resources (OERs) pose a “seductive and sensible solution to skyrocketing textbook costs,” writes Cassidy Bereskin for the Hamilton Spectator,but blind enthusiasm can obscure “critical discussions about their potential limitations and implications for copyright and pedagogy.” Bereskin reflects on copyright issues that have arisen around open access as well as reluctance from faculty to use OER in their courses. The author concludes by encouraging the industry to engage in a practical discussion about the implications of OER usage. The Spectator (National)
Lambton looks to spur regional tech, IT cluster with new research centre
After seven years of government-supported industry collaboration, Lambton College has established its new Information Technology & Communication Research Centre. A Lambton release notes that the centre will be particularly important as Sarnia-Lambton strives to establish its own Digital Technology and IT Cluster. “There have been several major innovations in digital technology and communications in recent years, and this new Centre will be a catalyst for development of the skills required to meet the needs of Industry 4.0, both in our community and around the globe,” said Lambton President Judith Morris. Lambton (ON)
Improving food safety inspires new $1M gift to UoGuelph
The University of Guelph has received a $1M gift to establish a new professorship aimed at improving food safety in Canada and abroad. The Leung Family Professorship in Food Safety, based in the university's Department of Food Science, has been funded by Tony and Connie Leung, both 1977 grads of UoGuelph and founders of the Tampa-based Sanwa Growers Inc. “My research at Guelph will integrate genomics with other fields like social media and artificial intelligence to develop models to potentially predict food-borne outbreaks before they occur,” said Lawrence Goodridge, who will take up the new Professorship this month. UoGuelph| Guelph Mercury (ON)
YorkU opens Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study and Research Building
York University has officially opened the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study and Research Building. A YorkU release states that the $50M, 67,000-square-foot facility will house the Schulich School of Business’ Research Office and four Centres of Excellence: the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business; Schulich Centre for Global Enterprise; Brookfield Centre in Real Estate and Infrastructure; and the newly developed Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. YorkU adds that Rob and Cheryl McEwen donated $8M to the construction project, which also received $15M in funding from the Government of Canada through the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund. YorkU (ON)
Trillium College opens Sudbury campus
Trillium College will open a new campus in Sudbury, Ontario, reports CBC. The privately-owned career college's new campus will offer programming in massage therapy, medical laboratory technician, personal support worker, esthetics, video game design, accounting, and medical office administrator programs. Campus Director Derryck Turcotte told CBC that although private colleges tend to charge higher tuition than their public counterparts, their compressed programs offer the potential for faster earnings. “By being able to complete a program … in six months rather than a year, it also means for a lot of people that they're out working six months sooner,” added Turcotte. CBC (ON)
