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North Bay's innovation centre said it's expanding the engineering capacity and talent within northeastern Ontario.
The Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping (ICAMP) at Canadore College has launched an Industrial Solutions Centre.
The centre is a partnership involving ICAMP, Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION) and EnCata, an international product design and development company.
A college news release said there will be specialized equipment that companies can use to participate in the design, development and testing of innovative ideas under the guidance of qualified engineering personnel.
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The Industrial Solutions Centre will open in early 2022. It will be a located within ICAMP's space at the college's Commerce Court Campus.
According to Encata co-founder Peter Dudin, it will be a space for innovators and startup teams to make product prototypes to see if they're workable and practical.
“A very common problem around the world is that people come with ideas and they’re expecting design houses or companies to develop things from scratch. That works, but it’s a costly process,” he said in a statement.
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“Students will work with these companies through the centre, and we have no doubt that they will bring new and progressive skills to the workforce when they graduate,” said Canadore College president-CEO George Burton in a news release.
“I see the partnership as creating a new kind of innovation zone,” said Rob Deline, IION's executive director.
"Through these advanced prototyping capabilities, I see opportunities for contract research and development. There just aren’t places for companies to go to get this sophisticated problem solving done. I think this is going to drive a lot of local and regional innovation, and new intellectual property.” said Deline.
Canadore said since ICAMP's establishment in 2013, it's worked on more than 700 projects with more than 300 different organizations.
