Momentum - Stronger together

Pictured: Front: Bobby Sagoo, President & CEO, Enertics Mohawk EPIC: Mariano Arriaga, General Manager, Patrick McInnis, Technical Lead (back), Joshua MacDonald, co-op student (sitting)

Mohawk, one of Canada’s leading applied research colleges, is now embarking on collaborations that will overlap layers of expertise to answer complex problems.

“We are leveraging our strengths and deep expertise in our five research centres of excellence to deliver comprehensive skill sets to our partners,” said Jeff McIsaac, Dean of Applied Research. “What I am most proud of is how we have come together as a research team to share our services and funding, and to combine our knowledge to provide the best value to our partners.”

Mohawk realized a strategic goal to rank among the country’s top 10 research colleges when it reached Number 7 in 2019. It was second among large colleges in industry research income.

Mohawk is home to two federally funded Technology Access Centres in the mHealth and eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC) and the Energy and Power Innovation Centre (EPIC).

MEDIC and EPIC, along with the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre, the Medical Technologies Innovation Centre and the Centre for Climate Change Management are undertaking joint projects to benefit partners.

“They are coming to us with challenges that are broader than a single area of expertise. When we work together, we wrap around our industry partners and give them one-stop solutions,” said Mariano Arriaga, General Manager at EPIC.

For instance, EPIC and MEDIC provided critical testing and validation for Enertics Inc.’s technology to monitor and maintain electric motors, says President and CEO Bobby Sagoo.

“Our ongoing association with the EPIC and MEDIC centres has been very productive and has helped us accelerate the commercialization of our technology into the global market.”

Turning ideas into prototypes “requires teams that are cross-functional and able to work in a highly collaborative and dynamic environment,” said Andrew Norgate, General Manager at MEDIC.

“We’re trying to find solutions to complex problems that the industry hasn’t been able to solve or is too costly and high risk for them to take on.”

Marc Hickling, laboratory manager at ENA Electronics says working with Mohawk has resulted in prototypes that the company may never have had the chance to complete due to time constraints. It’s like outsourcing work while keeping it in-house and affordable, he says.

“More than anything the thing we have enjoyed the most is the relationships with Mohawk and we look forward to nurturing this relationship further in the future.”

For students, applied research allows them to work alongside industry and faculty, using the latest technology, in a hunt for real-world solutions while demonstrating their value to potential employers.

Working on the Enertics project as a joint co-op student through MEDIC and EPIC has been a journey in gaining a whole new skill set, says Julian Yates, who is in the Network Engineering and Security Analyst program.

“This was a real opportunity to upgrade my knowledge and skills during my final co-op placement before graduation. The experience working on this project was invaluable in that it required accelerated learning of skills and tools that were not explicitly in my program of study.”

Joshua Macdonald says working as an EPIC co-op student on the ENA project gave him the chance to develop his skills in using printed circuit board design software and 3D modeling.

“Furthermore, it provided me with experience in developing a functional product; from learning to design and test a prototype, all the way through to a final product."

To learn more, visit Mohawk's Ideaworks