Written by Lindsey Jeremiah, manager, Entrepreneurship Services
We may be giving up the crowded, frantic mall shopping experience this holiday season, but we think that’s actually not so bad! Staying home to stay safe has allowed the FastStartDC team to get creative with ways to share the holiday cheer this year!

So…  what did they do?

A team of student entrepreneurs collaborated to build a beautifully festive online marketplace to replace the in-person holiday market experience FastStart offers annually to support their student entrepreneurs during the holiday season. The new FastStart Holiday Store allows shoppers to browse products from more than 30 vendors anywhere, at anytime. The marketplace will be live until Monday, December 14 to allow for shipping time!

This online shopping opportunity allows our shoppers to purchase artisanal, handmade products online and have them shipped directly to their home, allowing for a safe and contact-free shopping experience this holiday season. The vendor roster includes products ranging from home décor, jewellery, woodworking, gourmet food, apparel, soy candles, beauty products, decorative mugs, art, and more. Perfect gift and stocking stuffer ideas!

The pandemic has had a double impact on small businesses and start-ups. Traditional storefront shops have been hit the hardest and have been forced to pivot to e-commerce, or close up shop. However, many of our student start-ups from Durham College are e-commerce based from the start. FastStart students build and launch businesses while they study and a key stage of the process includes the set-up of a Shopify platform to support the student so they can conduct business online.

FastStart students actually receive one year free on the Shopify platform, which gives them a chance to build an audience and customer base from their business and learn the ins and outs of digital marketing so that they can drive traffic and achieve conversions on their sites.

With a contactless option like the FastStart Holiday Store, you won’t miss the big box store shopping experience, with its mile-long lines at checkout, elbow throwing in aisles, and heavy winter attire making you sweat as you aimlessly drift with your list in hand.

Shopping online has never been hotter – and not just for its convenience. There has been a seismic shift in shopper mentality to support small business this year as a result of COVID-19. Entrepreneurs, side-hustlers, and modern makers are the new roster of go-to businesses we all love to support. They are local, they’ve been hurt by the impact of the pandemic, and they package their unique gifts with care and flair. We want to buy products that are made in Canada and we love to feel the glow of supporting our friends, family members, or neighbours with their small business. It’s a win-win.

Durham College (DC) and Precise ParkLink are thrilled to share the results of their long-term collaborative partnership through their online Artificial Intelligence Kiosk Case Study.

With a working relationship that began in 2015 when the college selected Precise ParkLink as its parking management services provider, this partnership has evolved beyond parking, as Precise ParkLink helps facilitate student learning as an industry partner for DC’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ORSIE).

DC’s applied research program, facilitated by ORSIE, solves industry and social challenges through innovation and collaboration. By engaging industry, faculty, students, and the community-at-large in research projects that address the needs of a technology-driven knowledge economy, ORSIE brings together multiple stakeholders and groups interested in mutually-beneficial solutions, leveraging the talent, facilities, and capabilities of the college and broader community to advance economic prosperity within Durham Region.

“One of the reasons organizations enjoy working with Precise ParkLink is because we offer the latest technology innovations available in the marketplace,” says Maria Lato, marketing manager for Precise ParkLink. “Being an ORSIE industry partner allows Precise ParkLink to tackle its large-scale research and development wish list faster.”

“Durham College and Precise ParkLink have engaged in five different applied research projects,” says Debbie McKee Demczyk, dean of ORSIE. “Each one of them involves DC students working closely with Precise ParkLink staff to address real-world challenges and create a solution that will then be introduced into the market.”

Working on Precise ParkLink projects, ORSIE students have the opportunity to gain valuable skills, such as “a chance to enhance their learning by working with industry professionals in the field,” says Lato.

“In addition, students gain hands-on experience while enhancing their communication, team-work, accountability and problem-solving abilities. These job-ready skills prepare students for future employment, making them valuable employees,” Lato adds. “The relationship is a win-win for Precise ParkLink, DC and its students.”

Discover how ORSIE and Precise ParkLink made AI in parking a reality and learn more about the partnerships in the Research at DC: Precise ParkLink video.

Durham College (DC) and Sheridan College (Sheridan), with support of up to $100,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), are pleased to announce that they will undertake university-industry projects by sharing their applied research centre services and by providing expert time to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Canadian media industry. The contribution from NRC IRAP will help support projects with up to 10 high-potential, growth-oriented companies who are aiming to develop media production workflows.

DC’s Mixed Reality Capture (MRC) Studio, in partnership with Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) at Sheridan College Pinewood Toronto Studios, will lead applied research and development projects with industry clients to help fuel the growth of Canada’s media industry by assisting SMEs in conducting the feasibility to create media content workflows, offering technical expertise and proof of concept for the inclusion of advanced technologies in the creation of media.

The colleges’ joint offering includes an integrated suite of the following technologies, all powered by leading-edge infrastructure technologies such as 5G and SIRTNET:

• Live performance tools for content creation using the film development kits for integration of all aspects of content creation.
• Virtual production techniques allowing content creators to plan, imagine, or complete a filmic element with the aid of digital tools to simplify content generation workflows.
• Integration of digital techniques such as AI, special sound effects and immersive experience using AR/VR techniques across all platforms.
• High-fidelity virtual human creation and aggregation to maximize productivity for content generation across all platforms.
• Access to Multi-National Enterprise (MNE) technologies such as leading-edge processor and graphics platforms from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

The MRC Studio and SIRT Centre are recognized for their demonstrated track records of success assisting SMEs with the development of proof of concepts in a variety of content generation projects. DC and Sheridan will use the funding to enable SMEs from coast to coast to gain technical skills, adopt new technology, commercialize innovations, create jobs and increase revenues within a globally competitive market.

Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce that it has been named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for the fourth consecutive year. Awarded as part of the 2020 editorial competition that is organized by the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project, this designation recognizes employers who create remarkable workplaces that minimize the environmental impact of their operations.

Winning employers are those that incorporate environmental values into their everyday culture, and attract employees because of such values and are evaluated on the following criteria:

1. The unique environmental initiatives or programs they have developed.
2. Whether they have been successful in reducing their own environmental footprint.
3. Whether their employees are involved in these programs and contribute any unique skills.
4. Whether their environmental initiatives have become linked to the employer’s public identity, attracting new employees and customers.

This year, DC has been recognized for its comprehensive approach to sustainability at both its Oshawa and Whitby campuses. From waste reduction initiatives to the way the college heats and cools its buildings, changes have been implemented at both a personal level and on a broader scale.

For employees this means using communal waste bins as opposed to personal garbage cans and removing individual printers in favour of centralized ones, all part of the in-house Green Office certification program, which encourages adopting sustainable practices in each office’s day-to-day operations.

At a macro level, capital projects such as the Simcoe Geothermal Field, which began running in the summer of 2019, help to reduce the demand for natural gas for heating and cooling, as well as electricity generation. The Energy Innovation Centre, which is also part of the geothermal field project, processes the power and is a living lab for DC students learning about green energy.

At the Whitby campus, the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food (CFF) is home to numerous sustainable features. There are agricultural growing fields, an apiary, greenhouse, pollinator garden and an arboretum, as well as more experimental projects, such as an old shipping container that has been transformed into a vertical hydroponic garden capable of producing 700 heads of lettuce per week, all year round. This innovative growing space uses 90 per cent less water than traditional farming methods, features LED lighting for growing and eliminates food miles – the distance food travels from where it is made to where it’s consumed – by providing fresh produce to the community without having to transport it by plane or truck from elsewhere.

“Durham College’s sustainability story continues to develop with each passing year,” said Don Lovisa, president. “It is something we weave into every aspect of our operations as an institution, and we are incredibly proud to be recognized for those efforts as one of Canada’s greenest employers.”

For more information on living green at DC please visit www.durhamcollege.ca/livinggreen.

While competing in the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) Ontario District Durham College (DC) event on February 29 and March 1, high school students from across the province also got a first look at where they could be headed next while visiting the college’s Oshawa campus.

For the sixth year in a row, DC hosted more than 1,000 of the province’s brightest young minds, along with their mentors, family, friends and fellow robot enthusiasts, at the annual event. Competitors demonstrated their technological and engineering skills as they operated complex, 140-pound robots they had designed and built in only six weeks.

During the competition’s opening ceremonies DC president Don Lovisa shared additional campus highlights with attendees, including the recent launch of two new applied research centres: the Mixed Reality Capture Studio and the Centre for Cybersecurity Innovation.

After two days of intensive battles, organized with the help of numerous, dedicated volunteers, the following teams comprising the Red Alliance were declared district champions:

• Alliance Captain: Team 188 – Blizzard (Toronto)
• Team 2200 – MMRambotics (Burlington)
• Team 8089 – Rockway (Kitchener)

Also notable was the winning team of the Chairman’s Award winner, Team 4039 – MakeShift Robotics (Hamilton), which is the most prestigious award a team can win. The Chairman’s Award honours the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FRC on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honour for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become science and technology leaders.

See all awards winners and results.

Students had a lot of fun while gaining real-world engineering experience, developing leadership skills and learning to work as a team under pressure and tight timelines. 

Winners of the DC event now move on to the FIRST® Ontario Provincial Championship at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, April 10 and 11, where they will compete for a spot at the World Championships that will be held in Detroit, Michigan, from April 29 to May 2.

Learn more about FRC.

Durham College (DC) is pleased to share that its FastStartDC program has launched SHIFT, a new business start-up accelerator service designed to support social enterprises and entrepreneurs, as they work towards making a positive social, environmental or economic impact on the world.

The unique service was announced in front of more than 100 DC students, employees, community partners and local business leaders at a launch party co-hosted by the Business Advisory Centre Durham as part of Do It in Durham’s Entrepreneurship Week, held on November 22 in DC’s Global Classroom.

During the event, attendees heard from the member of parliament for Whitby, Ryan Turnbull, , who spoke briefly about the benefits of social entrepreneurship, as well as a panel of social entrepreneurs, including Janet Nezon, founder, Rainbow Plate; Shaun Frankson, co-founder and chief technology officer, Plastic Bank; Elisa Birnbaum, journalist, author and editor, SEE Change Magazine; and Dan Kershaw, executive director, Furniture Bank. Hosted by DC professor Lon Appleby, the panel discussion focused on shifting entrepreneurial mindsets to create businesses that will make a positive impact.

“Great things happen when entrepreneurship and social thinking go hand-in-hand,” said Dr. Elaine Popp, vice president, Academic. “We have seen so many incredible student entrepreneurs working with the FastStartDC team to develop products, brands and businesses. Now the next generation of students will be able to take advantage of all that FastStartDC has to offer but can do so while building a culture of social change through entrepreneurial thinking and action all thanks to SHIFT.”

SHIFT is the first FastStartDC service to support both students and social entrepreneurs from across Durham Region. FastStartDC is an extra-curricular entrepreneurship program housed within DC’s 360insights Entrepreneurship Centre in the Centre for Collaborative Education that offers DC students access to entrepreneurial services and training programs.