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DC’s AI Hub hosts fourth Tech Talk

On January 29, Durham College’s (DC) Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (AI Hub) hosted its fourth Tech Talk. The two-hour event focused on real estate from an industry standpoint and how AI has started to disrupt the market with key points around data integrity, privacy, security and regulation to help agents, brokers and investors improve customer services, achieve greater efficiencies, and identify and mitigate risks.

Four speakers gave presentations, including Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), Mustafa Abbasi, president and chief revenue officer of Zolo, Absar Beg, president of Lifelong Group of Companies and Gary Fooks, CEO and mortgage broker for 8Twelve Mortgage Corporation.

Attended by over 90 professionals from the AI and real estate industry, the talk covered topics such as quality assurance around financial documentation, putting real estate on autopilot, automation solutions for agents, and more.

Watch the AI Hub’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, as well as DC’s website for future Tech Talk dates. Sessions will focus on AI’s impact on health care and transportation. DC will also be hosting its inaugural Enable AI Summit on Thursday, June 6. This one-day conference will provide a platform for community members to converge around core applications and empower businesses to solve complex operational problems through applied research and AI.

DC’s director of athletics, Ken Babcock, to be inducted into the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame

In recognition of an extraordinary career, Durham College’s (DC) director of athletics, Ken Babcock, was announced on January 28 as a 2019 Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame inductee. The announcement was made to City Council, followed by a media conference at the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery. A formal induction ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at the Tribute Communities Centre.

Beginning his career with the college in 1987, Ken has been an outstanding leader and mentor, having helped many Durham Lords sports teams achieve an astonishing 42 provincial gold medals and 105 overall medals in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), and an additional five gold and 22 overall medals in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA).

His influence at DC goes beyond coaching, as Ken was a driving force behind the construction of the Campus Fieldhouse and Vaso’s Field in 2003, the Campus Ice Centre in 2005 and the Campus Wellness and Recreation Centre in 2007, all of which serve students and employees, but also the wider community.

“Ken has spent many years guiding young athletes to achieve success both on and off the field. His accomplishments are a testament to his unwavering dedication and passion for athletics at DC and beyond,” says Don Lovisa, president, DC. “The entire DC community is extremely proud of Ken and this well-deserved recognition.”

Over the span of his sports career, Ken helped found the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association in 1994, created the Durham College Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, helped launch the OCAA Hall of Fame in 2003, and developed and launched the University of Ontario Institute of Technology varsity athletics program in 2003.

He has also given back to the Oshawa community beyond the campus, primarily through Baseball Oshawa, where he has coached since 2005 and served as president since 2012. He was also a member of the organizing committee for the 2000 Ontario Summer Games, the 2008 Ontario Special Olympics Spring Games as well as the baseball portion of the 2015 Toronto Pan-Am Games.

The Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame honours the achievements of five Oshawa individuals and teams every year, recognizing those who have attained prominence and distinction in sports and who have made a major contribution to the development of sport.

Former DC Men’s Basketball coach, Peter Gordon, was also was also announced as a 2019 inductee.

Durham College and OPG Nurture Skilled Trades

On January 25, Durham College (DC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) celebrated the recent completion of the college’s first-ever Boiler Lab in Whitby. Funded by both DC and OPG, the new Boiler Lab will help ensure graduates gain real-world experience and knowledge from hands-on learning in an actual, operating boiler-room setting.

On hand to show support was the Member of Parliament for Whitby, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Northumberland – Peterborough South MP, David Picinni, who also serves as the parliamentary assistant to Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Training, College and Universities. The president of the Treasury Board, Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, Durham Regional Chair John Henry and the mayor of Whitby, Don Mitchell were also in attendance.

“Skilled trade professionals are in high demand and are needed to successfully complete OPG’s Darlington Refurbishment Project. Our partnership with Durham College is essential in providing current and future staffing needs. The Boiler Lab is the type of training facility that is a must for meeting demand,” said Jeff Lyash, OPG President and CEO. “Leading-edge institutions such as Durham College are training the next generation of skilled trades that will help ensure that Canada’s largest clean energy project continues to track on time and budget.”

Since 2005, OPG has invested $15 million in educational partnership programs with DC and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to increase the pool of skilled and qualified graduates as the nuclear industry enters into an era of a skilled trades supply gap.

“The partnership between the college and OPG is a great example of industry and post-secondary coming together to deliver training and demonstrates what is possible as a result of these types of agreements,” said Don Lovisa, President, Durham College. “OPG identified a need and through hands-on learning in the Boiler Lab, DC is meeting it. For our students this means they are graduating with the experience required to easily transition into their careers, helping ensure the future viability of the skilled trades.”

Training in the Boiler Lab is part of the  Power Engineering Technician – Fourth Class program offered at DC and will play an integral role in competency development.

Rachael Lave, a student studying in the Power Engineering Technician – Fourth Class program also spoke at the event about the importance of the new lab to the overall program, describing a recent issue that occurred with coupling that attached one of the turbines and the generator. By witnessing the issue first-hand, students walked away with greater insight into the types of issues they would face in their field and what the industry would expect of them.

The Boiler Lab joins a long list of training simulation environments offered at the college’s Whitby campus including energy, residential construction and carpentry and horticulture labs.

 

DC students recognized by Chemical Institute of Canada

On January 24, Durham College (DC) students from the School of Science, Engineering & Technology (SET) were recognized for their academic achievements by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC).

The following students received Silver Medals from the CIC’s Canadian Society for Chemical Technology, which are awarded to the top students at each Canadian college and university entering their final year of chemistry, biochemistry or a related program:

The following students received the CIC Book Prize, which recognizes students who have demonstrated significant academic improvement:

Congratulations to all of the DC recipients!

DC horticulture students bring classmate’s design to life at Landscape Ontario Congress

A team of Durham College (DC) Horticulture Technician students took their classmate’s vision of a tranquil outdoor garden room from design to reality for the 2019 Landscape Ontario Congress (Congress), an annual trade show and conference for Canada’s horticultural and landscape professionals.

Featured within the Congress’s Canada Blooms Campus: Student Feature Gardens exhibit, the DC installation was designed by second-year student Amanda Steinberg and featured extensive woodwork, including a wooden accent wall, and a secret waterfall.

Steinberg’s design and the students’ participation in the Congress were all part of an assignment in their second-semester course, Sustainable Garden Concepts and Design. With only two days to construct their installation, the hands-on experience challenged the students to apply their skills in a real-work situation with finite project timelines.

Held from January 8 to 10 in Toronto, the Congress also provided DC’s students the opportunity to network with industry professionals and their peers from other colleges.

2018 food drive made holiday season brighter for over 100 students in need

The co-chairs of the annual campus holiday food drive are extending their sincere thanks to everyone who helped make the 2018 initiative a resounding success.

A longstanding campus tradition, the drive provides hampers and financial assistance to Durham College (DC) and University of Ontario Institute of Technology (the university) student families in need.

“This yearly initiative is such an important one for our students,” says Lori Russell, manager of Information and Client Services – Office of the Registrar for the university and a co-chair of the drive. “When you have a student in your office who is struggling to afford the day-to-day necessities of life and is worried about providing for their children over the holidays – this type of assistance can be extremely impactful for the student and their family.”

“The success of the holiday food drive would not be possible without everyone who came together for this great cause,” says Russell’s co-chair, Kevin Griffin, a professor in DC’s School of Justice & Emergency Services. “Whether you donated non-perishable food items, packed boxes or spread the word about this great initiative – it all made a difference thanks to a strong group effort from students and employees at both institutions. I’m proud to say that we were able to pack and distribute 105 hampers.”

The campus holiday food drive is organized annually by DC, the university, the Kinsmen Club of Oshawa, UOIT Student Union and Durham College Students Inc.

DC celebrates launch of collaborative e-book publication

On January 16, Durham College (DC) celebrated the launch of the e-book, Active Learning Strategies for Higher Education.

A collaborative project through the Centre for Higher Education Research, Policy and Practice (CHERPP), the practical handbook was written by 12 post-secondary education practitioners from DC, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Technological University (TU) Dublin to provide educators with valuable strategies for improving classroom engagement to deliver an enriched student experience.

DC president Don Lovisa kicked off the book launch by congratulating all of those involved. Joining him in giving remarks were Dairmuid O’Callaghan, principal, TU Dublin, Blanchardstown Campus; Robert Bailey, interim provost and vice-president, Academic, University of Ontario Institute of Technology; and Cormac Doran, head, CHERPP.

Enactus DC hosts 100 high school students at entrepreneurial conference

On December 18, Durham College’s (DC) Enactus team hosted 100 local high school students from Monsignor Paul Dwyer and Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic secondary schools for the inaugural Side Hustle Summit. The one-day entrepreneurship conference designed for students in a Ministry of Education Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program is an Enactus DC social innovation project. The conference aims to motivate and empower young adults to pursue entrepreneurship while providing practical strategies for social media and website building.

The conference kicked off with keynote speaker Dan Cole, a DC alumnus and founder of RandomTens, a YouTube channel with over 21 million views, while workshops held throughout the day focused on entrepreneurial thinking, personal branding and development, using social media for business, and rapid website deployment.

Enactus DC will continue to support conference attendees who have expressed an interest in incubating new business ideas in 2019 by preparing them for the Summer Company program delivered by the Business Advisory Centre Durham and funded through grants by the Government of Ontario.

Durham College’s AI Hub partners with marketing services and analytics company, MobileXCo

Durham College’s (DC) Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (the AI Hub) is pleased to announce it has partnered with marketing services & analytics company MobileXCo on a project focused on using AI and machine learning (ML) to help automate Tether™, its web-based experience marketing platform.

In a time when consumers are driven by experiences, brands are looking to engage them in interactive and memorable ways. However, it can be difficult to measure which parts of a company’s marketing initiatives are delivering true value. Enter MobileXCo and Tether™, which helps companies close the gap between their promotion-type marketing activities and understanding how they contribute to sales by linking campaign participation and activity to transactions at retail.

By taking a transaction-centric approach to consumer participation in contests and gift-with-purchase reward programs, MobileXCo directly links specific consumer activity to a purchase. In the process they collect valuable data related to the participants and their transactions and analyze it to surface valuable insights.

In partnership with DC, the objective is to automate as much of the receipt data extraction, organization and analysis as possible. The end result will be a more streamlined and less labour intensive solution that inherently delivers incremental value based on data.

Over the course of four phases, DC faculty and student-research assistants from the college’s Computer Programmer Analyst and Data Analytics for Business Decision Making programs are working directly with MobileXCo, providing them with an opportunity to not only learn about advanced AI technologies but also hands-on industry experience developing a real, functional solution for a client.

Work with MobileXCo is scheduled to be completed early in January 2019. The project is one of several research initiatives being undertaken by the AI Hub, which will be further enhancing its capacity following the approval of $2 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), through the council’s College and Community Innovation Program.

DC hosts elementary students as they build and battle robots in the name of STEM education

Durham College (DC) was proud to host more than 400 of Ontario’s brightest young minds, along with their teachers, families and friends, on January 12 as they competed in the annual FIRST® LEGO® League Ontario East Provincial Championship.

Known by its acronym that means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, FIRST is a U.S.-based, not-for-profit public charity that inspires young people to be science and technology leaders. Leadership and innovation was on full display at this year’s competition, held in DC’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre at the college’s Oshawa campus, as teams of students, ages nine to 14, showcased their hard work and skills.

Teams first presented research projects to judging panels before unleashing their robots, which the students designed, built and programmed using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology, on to table-top playing fields.

This year’s challenge theme INTO ORBIT was all about space.  Teams were tasked with the challenge of solving physical and social problems faced by humans during long-term space travel.

While students were on campus, DC’s Dr. Elaine Popp, vice-president, Academic also encouraged them to think about the broader connections between what they do each year at these competitions and how it might lead them to future STEM opportunities.

“As a leading post-secondary institution, we know that the skills you learn today are the building blocks of further learning and exploration in science, technology, mathematics, engineering and the trades,” she shared with the young students. “By participating in the FIRST LEGO League, you are stepping into the unknown – a journey that could take you anywhere.”

At the end of a day filled with fierce and fun competition, team CTRL-Z from Bayview Glen School in Toronto was crowned the winner and awarded an opportunity to compete at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Championship held in Detroit, Michigan from April 24 to 27.

As a gold-level sponsor and host of FIRST LEGO League, DC offers students what is often their first experience in a college environment and helps them to envision where their passion for robotics, technology and engineering can take them to pursue a post-secondary education.

For more information about FIRST LEGO League, please visit www.firstroboticscanada.org.