BCIT: Students go speed dating at the Technology Centre

Originally posted at: http://commons.bcit.ca/update/2012/04/students-go-speed-dating-at-the-technology-centre/

Nancy Paris has never gone speed dating, but she’s certainly a believer in the concept. Nancy, the Director of BCIT’s Products and Process Applied Research Team (PART), and Dr. Neil Cox, program head for Electrical Engineering, have developed a model similar to speed dating, only they’re playing matchmaker to solely BCIT students and experts within BCIT’s Technology Centre.

Since September 2011, Nancy and Neil have organized for students from engineering and biomedical programs to take a visit to the Tech Center and do quick, meet and greet sessions with the school’s full-time researchers.

“The students essentially go to different stations and learn about different facets of product development, mechanical design and electrical design, quality systems, human factors and plastics” said Nancy. ”It’s not a heavy time committment, but a great demonstration on how applied research can be an added value of educational activities at BCIT.”

But this is far from just an ordinary field trip. A week before each speed dating session, the students are given a design exercise, where they have to come up with a product concept and do some research on how to realistically develop it.

At the speed dating session, they will present their mini design project at each station and get expert feedback from the research staff at PART and the BCIT Technology and Product Evaluation Group (TPEG).

The sessions only take half a day but Nancy hopes the impact will last for years to come.

“What we’re looking to do is broaden their educational experience,” she said. “I’ve had students say, ‘this is really cool, I didn’t know BCIT did applied research’.”