STUDENT RESEARCH SHOWCASE
Open to the public!
Date: Thursday, April 6, 2017
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Location: Building C hallway outside the library, Notre Dame Campus. Map here.
Upward of 28 applied student research projects will be on display during the Applied Research & Innovation showcase.
Judges will be reviewing all of these projects, and the top 4 will be competing to win over $3,000 in cash prizes during the Quick Pitch Competition.
Here are the listings of student project that will be on display this Thursday:
Read More →

We are excited to announce our guest MC and judge panel for Applied Research & Innovation Day this April 6, 2017!

Ace Burpee will be our MC for the luncheon! He is currently the host of The Ace Burpee Show on 103.1 Virgin Radio.
Ace is a recipient of an Honorary Diploma from Red River College, a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his service to our community, he is the recipient of a Hero of Mental Health Award from the Canadian Mental Health Association, he has received a Volunteer Manitoba Award for Outstanding Community Leadership, was recognized as Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Manitoba and also named a Manitoba Hero. He is proudly from Cooks Creek Manitoba. 

 
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Concurrent Forum Descriptions

We are excited to welcome you to the afternoon concurrent forums taking place on April 6, 2017, as part of Red River College’s first-annual Applied Research & Innovation Day. Read on.
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Register Now! Applied Research & Innovation Day Taking Flight

Dozens of industry leaders, students, instructors and researchers will be gathering at Red River College’s (RRC) first-annual Applied Research & Innovation Day on April 6 to celebrate student applied research and research partnerships.
The day will feature keynote speaker Todd Burns, President of Cypher Environmental Ltd., along with a showcase of student work, tours of cutting-edge research facilities, a networking luncheon and forums on pressing topics of the day.
Read More →

Register now for this March 17 event to learn about award-winning technologies for mobile video collaboration by Winnipeg’s Librestream Technologies. Its Onsight Collaboration Mobile Platform allows companies to bring their experts to field situations virtually, from anywhere, at any time.
The results are:

• Dramatically improved response times
• Significantly increased equipment uptimes
• Compelling cost savings and productivity improvements for manufacturers’ service organizations

Organizers of this session will also announce details of a six-month demonstration installation of the technology at Red River College’s MotiveLab, which companies can access to see the technology at work.
This session is geared towards service organization managers, engineers and technicians, as well as executives and technology integrators.

Event & Registration Details

• Friday, March 17, 2017 (8:00 am – 10:00 am)
• Prairie Lights Meeting Room, Red River College – 2055 Notre Dame Ave., Winnipeg
• Breakfast will be provided.
• There is no cost for this session, but registration is required.
• Deadline for registration is March 13, 2017. 
  Register via email or telephone:
  Email: nestor.dudych@gov.mb.ca Tel:  204-945-8467

Speakers

Marieke Wijtkamp is the VP of Marketing and Client Services at Librestream, with 15 years of senior leadership experience. Marieke has held prior positions in strategic planning and corporate leadership in several technology companies. Prior to Librestream, she was the President & COO of OMT, serving global radio broadcasters and retail chains. Before that, Marieke was VP, Strategic Planning at Norsat International Inc., a global satellite technology company.
Dave Baxter is the Director of Sales for Midwest at Librestream, with over 20 years’ experience in sales, sales leadership, and strategic customer initiatives. Dave has a proven track record of success in a variety of verticals including the aerospace, manufacturing, and automotive industries.

About the Technology

For manufacturers of high-value equipment for transportation, aerospace, agriculture, mining and other  industries, the quality of after-sale support is a key differentiator and critical to a company’s competitiveness.
Customers’ demand for increased asset uptime and for rapid response times to service mission-critical equipment are fundamental challenges faced by teams providing in-field service.
This is made all-the-more challenging with increasing product complexity, an aging workforce and a requirement to manage or reduce costs.
Best-in-class companies are facing these challenges with technologies that leverage the “Internet of Things” to offer efficient tools for mobile video collaboration, bringing experts into the field virtually to rapidly and efficiently respond to customers’ service needs.
Presented by Vehicle Technology Centre & Red River College.

After a long wait, the ACE Project Space moved to its new location at 321 McDermot right at the heart of Winnipeg Innovation Alley.
Allow the Chair of Applied Computer Education at Red River College, Haider Al-Saidi, to introduce you to the ACE Project Space.
“It seems like a dream come true!” writes Haider. “A year ago we were struggling with the space to host the increasing number of students taking the project term […] Now we have this beautiful 5,500 sq.ft. space where we can do great things.”
Click here to read on.

Tech-Access Canada, the national network of Canada’s 30 Technology Access Centres (TACs), last week announced its Advisory Board members for 2017.
Red River College is home to two of Canada’s TACs:
The Building Envelope Technology Access Centre (BETAC)
The Technology Access Centre for Aerospace & Manufacturing (TACAM)
Among the Advisory Board members are Ray Hoemsen, Executive Director of Research Partnerships & Innovation at Red River College.
About Tech-Access Canada
The newly appointed nine-member Advisory Board is made up of representatives from the member Technology Access Centres across the country, and is responsible for setting and adjusting the strategic objectives for Tech-Access Canada.
David Berthiaume, Executive Director of OLEOTEK, was elected Chair of Tech-Access Canada.
Technology Access Centres are specialized applied R&D centres affiliated with Canadian colleges or Cégeps.
Demand-driven TACs help Canadian businesses – especially SMEs – advance their products, processes and services by:

• Conducting applied research and development projects focused on company problems
• Offering specialized technical services and objective advice
• Providing training related to new types of equipment and processes

Tech-Access Canada is the national network of Canada’s Technology Access Centres (TACs).
The network enables the TACs to serve any company, anywhere in Canada, and help them access the expertise, equipment, and facilities they need to solve their innovation challenges. The network’s members provide clients and partners from across Canada with access to:

• Expertise and experience of over 1,000 business innovation and applied R&D experts;
• Over 2.4 million square feet of innovation and applied research space; and
• Over $250 million worth of highly-specialized equipment and facilities.

Read the full press release here.

CTV Morning Live reporter Rachel Lagacé hung out with Baxter the robot this morning during Red River College’s Open House.
“The new paradigm in robotics is what we call collaborative robotics,” said Oyedele Ola, Manager of the Technology Access Centre for Aerospace & Manufacturing. “The essence of that is to get robots to work alongside human beings.”
During the CTV interview, our collaborative robot Baxter can be seen picking up Easter eggs and placing them into appropriate baskets by matching the egg’s colour to the basket colour.
Jasvir Bharj, an Instructor in Manufacturing Engineering Technology, says that he and others work to teach students how to program robots, how to run those programs and apply them to things like welding, cutting and handling materials.
CTV Morning Live were on campus as part of Red River College’s Open House, which continues this evening and on Wednesday.
You can watch the interview here.

Organizers of the Red River College inaugural Applied Research & Innovation Day on April 6 are now accepting student project submissions, giving students an opportunity to share their work, network with industry participants and win cash prizes!
The student registration deadline is March 3, 2017.
Student Registration and Submission Details Here.
Why should students participate?

• Showcase your capabilities to industry and community stakeholders
• Exposure to potential employers and partners
• Over $3,000 in cash prizes for top projects
• Any project in which a student was meaningfully involved can qualify (accepting projects by current students or graduates from 2015 onward)
• Top projects selected by panel and some will have opportunity to present at our industry luncheon

CONTACT: If you have any follow up questions, please contact Brent Wennekes at bwennekes@RRC.CA.

The grain that goes into making this freshly poured beer can be put to good use. (Photo by Flickr user Adam Barhan, Creative Commons Licence.)

Manitoba is witnessing the emergence of a flourishing beer brewing market, and malt is a core ingredient of the brewing process.
Mashing malt is one of the first steps in the beer production process, and the resulting spent grains are typically used as animal feed.
But researchers at Red River College are exploring an innovative new way to use these spent grains.
In partnership with two local brewers, Torque Brewing and Farmery, the Red River College Culinary Research Program will explore the possibility of using these two sources of spent grains to create Miso, a traditional fermented bean or grain paste that has been around for over 1,000 years. Miso is widely used to flavour soups and broths in many Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea.

Tourque spent grain on the left and Farmery spent grain on the right. Can these grains help make Miso?

A warm soup with some miso flavouring. (Photo by Flickr user Stacy Spensley, Creative Commons Licence.)

From Breweries to Miso: Behind the Science
Miso develops a rich meaty flavour through a two-step fermentation process using molds and bacteria to break down the base-substrates into a rich cocktail of amino acids, free fatty acids and sugars.
The first step in the process is to create “koji” or “moldy grain” which provides a source of enzymes to the second step in the process—fermentation.
The typical starting material to make koji is polished rice, barley, or soy beans.
This research project aims to test the potential of spent grains (SG) from local brewers to act as the substrate for koji mold rather than using whole barley.
Unlike the traditional grains, spent grain is broken up and nutrients have been extracted during the wort production, so it is unknown if spent grain will provide sufficient nutrients for the koji molds to properly form or if suitable flavours develop.
As to how koji is traditionally made, the hydrated grains are inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae spores and allowed to grow for up to 48 hours to develop a thick white mat of mold, but stopped before spores develop. If spores develop, the koji has been left too long and may create flavour and safety concerns.

Putting it to the test: a microscopic view of the fomentation process, taken at the University of Manitoba, a partner in this research project.

The koji is then mixed in with cooked and cooled soybeans or barley and up to 12% salt, then inoculated again with a miso seed culture consisting of a mixture of beneficial yeasts and bacteria.
This mixture is allowed to ferment from a minimum of 2 months up to 3 years.
This process develops the rich flavours and colours associated with miso. Unpasteurized miso also provides a source of healthy gut bacteria or probiotics.
We look forward to seeing whether spent grains from local brewers can act as the substrate for koji mold rather than using whole barley.
You can follow the progress of this miso production trial @RRCResearch.
This project is supported by MAHRN and NSERC through Red River College.