From the kitchen to the movie set
ROSANNA TAMBURRI
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 17, 2009
For the past two years, Scott Oddie, rural health research chair at Alberta's Red Deer College, has been trying to decipher the adverse effects of prescription drugs on seniors and their cognitive abilities. It's clear, he says, that as the number of medications that seniors are prescribed increases, their cognitive abilities decline. And it seems as though some medications, or interactions among them, could be contributing to the decline.
In the next phase of the project, Dr. Oddie and his team hope to pinpoint the drugs that are causing the adverse effects.
This is one of a dozen or so studies that Dr. Oddie oversees aimed at improving the health of rural Albertans. Other studies under way are trying to enhance the independence of people living with disabilities and reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS in aboriginal communities.
His are just a few of a growing number of research activities carried out at college campuses across Canada. According to the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, more than 100 of the 150 colleges, institutes, CEGEPs and polytechnics conduct applied research.
Not only is the amount of research activity increasing, but the nature of the work is also changing, says Jim Madder, executive vice-president, academic, at Red Deer College, who wrote a report about college research for ACCC. It's becoming more academic in scope, he observes.
The launch last year of the College and Community Innovation Program by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has helped spur research activities. The CCI program was established to provide $48-million over three years to fund up to 25 college research projects. Not only has the program helped to fund new research work, but it has also increased the profile of existing research under way and it has brought to the attention of other government funding agencies the significant work that colleges carry out, Dr. Madder says.
Smart maps
Take, for example, the Applied Geomatics Research Group at Nova Scotia Community College. Bob Maher and his team of researchers use remote sensing, GPS and other geomatic technologies to generate three-dimensional maps of the landscape which are then used to study various environmental and social issues such as climate change. Researchers and students at the centre, based in Middleton, N.S., have produced maps of parts of the Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick shorelines and have used them to generate computer models that assess the potential damage to the landscape as a result of rising sea levels. Using the computer models "we flood the landscape and produce a 3D map showing people where their properties are relative to the flood line," Dr. Maher explains.
Smart kitchen
Meanwhile, a new breed of chefs at Canada's Smartest Kitchen, a newly opened research facility at Prince Edward Island's Holland College, are making a name for themselves in the budding field of culinology, a blend of food science and culinary arts. The Charlottetown-based $4-million facility, which opened in March, has four research chefs who work with local food producers and food processors to create new culinary dishes, such as the frozen version of Oysters Rockefeller they recently developed.
The chefs also work alongside researchers from academia, government and industry on a project to breed new potato varieties high in carotenoids and other beneficial compounds. The research chefs at Holland College cook the new potato varieties in different ways and assess their flavour. They are also experimenting with ways to add bioactive compounds extracted from the new potatoes to other foods to boost their nutritional value.
Smart film
One of the recent recipients of a CCI grant is the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Ont., which was awarded $2.3-million earlier this year to establish a new Digital Media Centre for Real-time Production. The centre, which is to open in January, will conduct research on new digital image production technologies and techniques.
"We are looking at digital workflow and [developing] new technologies for image capture and for the production and post production process," says Sheridan professor John Helliker. He says the centre is a natural fit for Sheridan, whose students have already made a name for themselves in the field of animation.
The centre will be located in Toronto's film and studio district and will include a research motion-capture studio, sound stage and post-production lab. Sheridan faculty and students will work alongside production companies, industry technicians and craftspeople. "It's not just about academics doing research," says Sandy McKean, Sheridan's associate dean. The centre would be one of the first of its kind in Canada, he adds.
"A major studio lot with students, teachers, filmmakers, producers, directors, writers, actors, technical and production crews, animators, production houses and suppliers working side by side."