Cambrian College is celebrating a 15-spot jump in its Re$earch Infosource placing in Canada's Top 50 Research Colleges.
The list ranks colleges by research income generated during the previous year. Last year, Cambrian ranked in 37th position, but this year it jumped to 22nd position. This is the eighth year in the row it has made the list.
Greater Sudbury's other college, Collége Borèal, did not make the list.
Cambrian's research activity in 2017 was valued at $3.2 million, up 73 per cent from the previous year's total of $1.85 million.
The college's president, Bill Best, said Cambrian's strategic plan, released three years ago, laid out the goal of becoming nationally recognized for research.
“We don't do those things because we're looking for the recognition,” he said, speaking to Sudbury.com after a Nov. 1 press conference where the college celebrated its Re$earch Infosource ranking.
“We did recognize that this was a great impact for our students, our faculty and our staff, and also our local small- and medium-sized enterprises, who are the real benefactors of this type of activity.”
Re$earch Infosource also ranked Cambrian as second nationally among all colleges for growth in research income (up from 19th) and third among mid-sized colleges for paid student researchers.
Two large grants secured by the college over the past year account for the jump in rankings, said Mike Commito, director of applied research at Cambrian.
One was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grant for $2.1 million for innovations in environmental remediation in the mining industry.
The other was an Ontario Centres of Excellence grant for $765,000 to carry out work in the field of predictive and preventative maintenance.
Cambrian also works with a lot of individual companies on innovation to solve real-world problems.
“The great thing about Cambrian is our applied research program can run the gamut of all the 80-plus programs in the college,” said Commito, adding that Cambrian has 15 active research projects.
One of the aforementioned industry partners is Farquhars Dairy, which started on Manitoulin Island in 1933, and is still operating in Northern Ontario today.
“We're excited and proud to be working with Cambrian's HVAC, electrical and welding departments to help us develop and replace our current refrigeration with a more efficient and environmentally conscious alternative,” said Stewart Fowler, the dairy's vice-president of operations.
“We agree that giving students real-world experience working on practical applications can only help them successfully transition into the workplace.
“We also look forward to continuing our partnership with Cambrian on this project, and would certainly recommend the school and its graduates to other industries.”
Heather Benson, who graduated from electrical engineering technology at Cambrian this past spring, said she benefited greatly from working on applied research during her time as a student.
“Applied research has provided me opportunities that my core courses just had not been able to,” said the woman, who now works as an applied research technologist at the college.
“Time spent in the program has allowed me to apply the theories and techniques that I have learned throughout college to real-world problems and projects. My favorite aspect of applied research is the challenge.
“Every day I get to work with new technologies and equipment that I've never seen before or heard of, which allows me to learn something new each day that I can bring into the workforce later on.”
