Last month, Centennial Applied Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services (ARIES) held our annual Research, Innovation, Scholarship, and Entrepreneurship Summit (RISES). The Summit, held on June 4, 2019, is an annual conference celebrating the ingenuity and dedication of the Centennial staff and students held in partnership with the National Sciences Engineering and Research Council (NSERC). RISES was held at the Centennial College Event Centre at Progress Campus. The theme of this year’s Summit was disruptive innovation and the new technology that has changed the way we live our lives.
The day started with opening remarks by Taylan Tatli, AVP of Research and Corporate Planning at Centennial College. Tatli addressed the nearly 200 attendees by highlighting the achievements that Centennial College has accomplished in the last year.
Jeremy Wang, President of The Sky Guys, delivered the morning keynote speech where attendees were given a glimpse of the future of aviation. Wang’s experience at the Sky Guys features extensive work on drone, rocket, satellite, and cloud projects. During Wang’s keynote speech, he delved into the topics of reusability, sustainability, and even flying taxis!
Attendees then “broke out” into the Breakout Sessions featuring the talented staff and students of the Centennial community who showed off the ingenious projects ongoing at the college. Groups were divided by topic: Research and Innovation, Scholarship, and Entrepreneurship. Staff and students presented their projects and were available for feedback and questions by the eager audience. Attendees were on hand for a number of topics such as, Aircraft Systems Design and Production for Energy Efficiency Using Additive Manufacturing, McCray Optical: A line image processing app, and Creating Interactive Videos on Infection Control Practices for Health Care Students, among many others.
The esteemed panel following the mid-day break featured a collection of experts of different backgrounds discussing disruptive innovation and the impact that new technology has on transportation, journalism, and other industries, and how these industries must adapt. The panel discussion, moderated by Tim Doyle, of the School of Communications, Media, Arts, and Design, featured Anita Li, Director of Communities at The Discourse, Kristy Mlakar, National Operations Manager and Project Lead at the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium, and Karel Vredenburg, Director of Global Academic Programs, IBM Canada.
The panelists discussed the emergence of new technologies that have universally impacted all industries including journalism and transportation. With a market more fragmented by the year and with more blogs entering an already crowded market, the margins are shrinking for journalists. According to Li, online publications are opting away from the traditional advertising model to generate revenue in favour of subscription and donation models. While Mlakar believes public transportation systems are learning to adapt to the emergence of ride sharing apps by creating a newer value proposition for travelers.
RISES continues to be a beacon for thought and discussion on how to prepare the next generation for the future. By exploring emerging trends, RISES looks to educate the students as well as the educators at Centennial College to collaborate on new ground in the expeditiously changing world.