FedDev Ontario Minister Goodyear Announces New Research Funding at Sheridan

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), visited Sheridan College on April 19th to announce ...

For Immediate Release: April 21, 2010
Oakville, Ontario

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), visited Sheridan College on April 19th to announce the Applied Research and Commercialization (ARC) Initiative. ARC is a pilot initiative aimed at addressing the gap between research and commercialization between small- and medium-sized enterprises and postsecondary institutions. It will provide up to $15 million in funding to eligible postsecondary institutions in southern Ontario.

The event was hosted by Dr. Jeff Zabudsky, Sheridan’s President and CEO, who welcomed Minister Goodyear, MPP Terence Young, and representatives from colleges and universities across southern Ontario. Dr. Zabudsky welcomed the announcement: “The ARC initiative will greatly enhance our ability to leverage the unique strengths of our institutions and ramp up our applied research and innovation activities to support economic development in our communities.”

The event was also an opportunity to highlight Sheridan’s own unique strengths in the field of visualization design, which has been a key focus of applied research at the college over the past decade. Over that period, Sheridan’s Visualization Design Institute has worked with a variety of academic, government and industry partners on a wide range of projects, including:

• Creating simulations for the City of Ottawa
  
  
• Creating an immersive simulation of a New Brunswick nuclear power plant to help engineers plan its retooling; and
  
  
• Creating an animated trip through a human cell for biology students using video game engine technology.

Minister Goodyear participated with Dr. Zabudsky in a demonstration of the Visualization Design Institute’s most recent achievement – the creation of the first glasses-free 3D game, which was showcased at Ontario House during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.