Kevin Quinlan
Kevin Quinlan serves as the Principal, Truro Campus, Nova Scotia Community College. Over a span of 33 years in post-secondary education, Dr. Quinlan has worked at a number of colleges and universities, and currently is a p/t faculty member and mentor in Walden University’s Doctor of Philosophy programs in Community College Leadership and Adult Education Leadership, and an Adjunct Professor in the University of Prince Edward Island-Holland College’s certificate and degree partnership programs in adult education.
At the Nova Scotia Community College, Kevin is a member of the Senior Leadership Forum, Chair of the college’s Research Ethics Board, and serves on the Applied Research Network of the Atlantic Provinces Community College Consortium. On the national level, he is a member of an Association of Canadian Community Colleges Working Group that established a partnership with the Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA). RCCA represents the interests of U..S. colleges serving rural communites.
Dr. Quinlan is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Toronto, and his interests lie in the theory and practice of adult education and training, community education, community/sustainable development, and learning theory.
CVA Report – November, 2010
A previous article presented a profile of the Atlantic Provinces Community College Consortium (APCCC) and its mandate in Atlantic Canada. This newsletter provides an overview of APCCC’s Applied Research Network www.apccc.ca and its mandate from the APCCC. Each college has representatives on the Network who lead and/or are engaged in research activities at their respective institutions. As the site shows, the network:
In the pursuit of these aims the Network operates as a working group in helping each other build research capacity, and in working collaboratively to develop proposals and secure research funding from agencies like the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Rural Secretariat, Springboard Atlantic, and others. The Network recently as awarded a consulting contact focused on compiling an inventory of college capacity and identifying industry and university partners who are willing to work with our colleges on applied research projects.
Following are some overviews of selected projects from each college. Anyone interested in details on the projects can call the respective colleges.
Holland College
Holland College/The Culinary Institute of Canada and Lean Machine Inc.
In February, 2009, Holland College’s Industry Liaison Office initiated a partnership with Lean Machine Inc., a full-service vending operation, to develop a line of Maximum Nutrition snack foods for the local, regional and national educational institutional markets. This project was funded through the PEI Discovery and Development fund. In collaboration with other PEI Bioscience cluster service-providers, Canada’s Smartest Kitchen at Holland College developed a line of four snack foods to serve the marketing requirements of Lean Machine Inc. whose target markets are school vending machines and educational institutions.
Learning Policy Directorate of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
Holland College's Applied Research division prepared a report, Can Learning Disabilities Explain Low Literacy Performance?, for HRSDC on the need for a substantial change in the policy development, planning and implementation of strategies to help learners with low literacy levels. The report was based upon data collected through the International Adult Literacy Survey, a large scale study of 22,000 Canadian adults, 1,300 of whom identified themselves as having a learning disability. The survey results also suggest that the provision of remedial resources based on the diagnosis of a learning disability may not be as effective as previously thought. The study also revealed that students with learning disabilities were more likely to choose to continue their studies at a college rather than at a university, and recommends encouraging school staff to promote college as a worthwhile post-secondary option.
New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)
Loch Lomond Villa
The New Brunswick Community College is working with Loch Lomond Villa, a local Saint John nursing home, and WorkSafe New Brunswick, on the development of a new patient transfer belt design. Engineering and Nursing students at NBCC Saint John worked cooperatively on this project to draft and test a first prototype, followed by modifications for a second prototype. The second, modified prototype is now under construction and will be soon be ready for testing trials at both the Loch Lomond Villa and throughout the Horizon Health Network. An industry partner is presently being sought for production of the prototype for testing.
The Loch Lomond Villa has been involved in a wonderful initiative with NBCC Saint John Campus. The students and college facilitators have provided support for the development of a new design for a safer resident transfer belt in nursing homes. With the eager response from the students, it is our hope that we find a more efficient and safe piece of equipment for the transferring of residents in nursing homes.
Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB)
Software Evaluation Tools
CCNB has co-written a proposal with the Université de Moncton for submission to ACOA. The project proposes a unique university/college collaboration that would result in a suite of software evaluation tools tailored to address human resource issues in the Atlantic Canadian trucking industry.
Biorefinery and Technology Scale-up Centre
In August, 2010, CCNB was notified by NSERC that the college was the recipient of a $2.3 million College and Community Innovation Program (CCI). This funding will be used to further expand the research capacity of Kevin Shiell and his group in Grand Falls, NB, by establishing a Biorefinery and Technology Scale-up Centre where industry and academic researchers can scale up their technologies prior to commercialization.
Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC)
Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG)
AGRG continues work on their 5-year Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF) project which is studying various contaminant sources and how they impact water quality management. AGRG and their industry partners are developing a water quality forecasting and infrastructure optimization system to address this challenge. With Rural Secretariat funding, AGRG has a team working on a web-based GIS application for sustainable assets in several counties. The group continues its work related to the renewable energy field and is involved with Nova Scotia Power Inc. to develop geographic models of sustainable biomass based on airborne LIDAR and calibrated by Permanent Study Plots (PSPs). In the area of environmental impact, the team has been funded by NRCAN (Regional Adaptation Collaborative) to investigate the impact of climate change on coastal processes in Nova Scotia. This research incorporates airborne LiDAR, ground-based LiDAR, and environmental monitoring.
Centre for the Built Environment (CBE)
The Applied Engineered Technologies Group has expanded their operations with the opening of the new Design and Innovation Centre located at the CBE. Projects such as one with Northwood, a long-term care provider, have provide an opportunity for NSCC students in mechanical engineering to work on developing a device to assist with slouching and repositioning of individuals in wheelchairs, as well as developing a device to improve the workplace safety of facilities staff involved in garbage disposal. NSCC and Northwood are working to develop projects that provide cross-disciplinary opportunities for students in the Schools of Trades and Technology, Health and Human Services and Business. The Design and Innovation Centre was created as a space where industry and the college can work collaboratively on finding innovative solutions using state-of-the-art equipment and expertise. For example a student in Electronic Engineering Technology is working to develop a ‘Smart Bed’ sensor system that can be used to help quantify a qualitative clinical test developed by a geriatric medicine research unit. This project is supported by a ‘Proof of Concept Pilot’ award from Springboard Atlantic.
The Renewable Energy Research Group also operates from the Centre for the Built Environment. This building, opened in the fall of 2010, is a living laboratory for the renewable energy research group. Funding was received through NSERC’s CCI Start-up program to partner with Green Power Labs on a project aimed at understanding how frost, salt-spray, fog and other regional weather conditions affect the use and performance of solar technology. Using various local test sites, including the solar panels installed on NSCC's Centre for the Built Environment (CBE), researchers will explore how solar technology responds to a range of climate conditions.
College of the North Atlantic (CNA)
Go Green
The College of the North Atlantic is developing an innovative technology that aims at conserving water and energy usage in homes, businesses, hospitals, etc. Instead of manual adjustments, this next generation water tap system will require simply setting the values of temperature and flow rate on the front panel.
Ocean Technology
A new underwater propeller system that is superior to state-of-the art analogues has been developed by CNA. The new system will revolutionize underwater vehicle technology by providing high degree of maneuverability and cost effectiveness to the next generation of remotely operated vehicles.
Summary
The foregoing is but an insight into some of the innovative applied research projects we are involved with here in Atlantic Canada. A more comprehensive list of projects to 2009 can be found in The College Advantage edition by Roger Fisher.
As well, an interesting typology for applied research in colleges by Jim Madder can be found at http://www.accc.ca/ftp/pubs/studies/201002researchbackgroundpaper.pdf
The typology is useful in helping to determine the readiness and capacity of your college to engage in research.
Kevin Quinlan, Ed.D.
Principal, Truro Campus, NSCC
Chair, APCCC Applied Research Network
December, 2010
