Mohawk College receives $1 million for new research chair

Mohawk College announced the appointment of an Industrial Research Chair for IIoT Applications after being awarded $1 million in applied research funding as part of a national program.

Today, the Minister of Science and Sport, The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, announced funding of over $73 million through the College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program and the College-Industry Innovation Fund (CIIF), including $1 million in funding for Mohawk College over the next five years. This funding will support a number of projects at Mohawk College under the supervision of the college’s first Industrial Research Chair for IIoT Applications, Dr. Esteve Hassan, PhD, PEng.

Working with industrial partners, Dr. Hassan’s research will focus on a creating self-tuned, low-power, versatile wireless sensor devices for a large range of manufacturing applications and a wide spectrum of real-time processing capabilities. His winning application also proposed the development of energy harvesting solutions to extend battery lifetimes and the creation of configurable industrial sensor platforms that can perform on a wide variety of wireless systems without hardware changes.

In total, the CCI and CIIF funding will help 90 recipients at post-secondary institutions across the country partner with local employers to facilitate commercialization and transform the results of research and development into new technologies to help businesses expand and grow. It also provides specialized equipment to develop local solutions to pressing issues in their regions.

“We are grateful to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for its support. This funding will enable Mohawk College to continue to actively support our key partners in advanced manufacturing with leadership from Dr. Hassan and our talented faculty and students here at the college.”

– Ron McKerlie, President, Mohawk College

“It is fantastic to see this funding going to Mohawk College. Hamilton is a hub for research and industry in Canada; this funding will help give hands-on training to students so that our community can continue to produce world-class research and collaborate with new industry partners.”

-The Honourable Filomena Tassi, Member of Parliament for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas

“I am grateful to have the support of Mohawk College in my new role and am excited to receive CCI funding to allow our team to pursue research in industrial applications. This funding will enable us to move forward on applied research projects with 10 local industrial partners and will provide real-life research opportunities for more than 20 students to work alongside seasoned industry researchers. We are confident our projects will help our industry partners become more efficient and effective in their operations.”

- Dr. Esteve Hassan, PhD, PEng Industrial Research Chair for IIoT Applications, Mohawk College