Sheridan ranks high in research in Canada
STORY AND INFOGRAPHIC BY ELISE MORTON
When it comes to research, Sheridan is the tops.
Research Infosource Inc.’s annual study, which ranks Canada’s Top 50 research colleges by total income, ranks Sheridan first for total projects completed (225) by a large college in 2013-2014.
“The results are a testament to the creativity, talent and quality of our students and faculty,” said Darren Lawless, dean of Sheridan Undergraduate Research, who leaves this month for Humber College.
“They should be proud because this is sending the right message to the marketplace and it’s giving our students a great opportunity to do really wonderful things.”
According to Carolina Salcedo, project coordinator at Sheridan Undergraduate Research, 38 projects were funded by government agencies. Whereas, 187 projects were non-funded capstones and final projects done with community partners as a part of senior students classroom studies.
Although, the study names the Screen Industries and Research Training Centre (SIRT) as Sheridan’s main research facility, many projects were also completed at the three other centres of expertise.
According to Sheridan’s Undergraduate Research 2013-2014 annual report, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies (CAMDT) completed 21 capstone projects.
Working toward enhancing the life of older adults and their families the Centre for Elder Research, which celebrated its 10th year of research in 2013, completed 19 projects.
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“It’s a great opportunity because students get to work closely with the staff at small- and medium-size enterprises and understand the problems and challenges they have,” said John Helliker, director Strategic Partnerships and SIRT Centre, in an interview.
“They become familiar with problem solving and also have exposure to people who ultimately are hiring,” said Helliker. “There’s the opportunity to learn about problems and how to deal with them and also to work with industry so they have a better idea of what it’s like to work in the industry.”
Published in November, the study shows that Sheridan placed second in Ontario and ninth overall in Canada with a total applied research income of around $5.5 million in 2014.
Sheridan was also ranked second for completed projects growth, third for their number of partnerships (122) and fourth in partnership growth (67.1 per cent).
Despite, Sheridan’s overall rank in the country, Lawless is happy they remained in the Top 10, but he believes the two most important results are the number of research projects completed and partnerships.
“It tells our community and partners that Sheridan has the ability to complete projects, not just talk about it and shows that people want to work with us, which is very important when you’re in our industry,” said Lawless.
“The keys are being able to get projects done and being able to attract good partners with the best problems, which we can give our students the opportunity to work on and focus on their work problem solving.”
Research Infosource Inc., has only been publishing studies on Canada’s Top 50 research colleges for three years. When the first study was released in 2013, Sheridan College placed first in Ontario and sixth overall in Canada for 2012 with a total research income of $4,554 million.
