Update

New CAD Lab Offers Cutting-Edge Benefits for Students and Industry!

A cool space located in the middle of the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing is now ready for fresh ideas! With two curved glass sides and plenty of windows, the CAD (Computer Aided Design) Lab is an appealing place to learn.

Tim Waines, Interim Associate Dean, Trades and Manufacturing, is excited about the lab’s far-reaching potential. “If someone from the business community has an innovative idea, they can come to the College for invention or prototype development,” he says. Future lab use could include two proposed Engineering Technology programs (Electrical Engineering, and Automation and Manufacturing Engineering).

Developing links.  The lab houses CAD programs, a design station, prototyping equipment, video conferencing and consultation facilities. In addition to a large flat screen TV for 3D imaging to demonstrate a prototype, you’ll find a Rapid Prototyper. This high-tech piece of equipment can create a plastic replica to show clients before the final product is made out of stone, metal or any other material.

When clients from our community and the industry come forward, our Engineering Technology students will meet with them in the lab, discuss the project and begin work. Clients are invited back for a presentation. “Here’s what we’ve come up with and here’s how the project will look,” says Waines. “We can manufacture their project out of plastic, delivering something they can hold in their hands. Then they can send it off and have the project produced.”

Eric Kokko, the new RDC Director of Applied Research and Innovation, is responsible for supervising this Centre’s operation. He is developing links with business and industry to further the goals of the Centre and to build upon the capacity of RDC.

“RDC offers state-of-the-art equipment in a modern infrastructure along with world class people,” says Kokko. “We hope to build on the unlimited opportunities that this represents and engage industry, community, faculty and students in exciting endeavours. We’ve a talented and dedicated team, built over the years by people with vision.”

Kokko goes on to say that the project management experience our students gain will be invaluable to their careers. “The benefit to students is enormous; not only are they learning the theory, but they’re given an opportunity to do practicum requirements in partnership with the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing.” That means real work with industry – project work, prototyping and problem solving while learning real world project management skills. All on campus.

Students aren’t the only ones to benefit. Local industry will have access to graduates with the technical skills and the practical side. “What we hear from industry,” says Tim Waines, “is that it’s great to have grads with certification, but it’s even greater to have grads who come with project management experience.”