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By Linda White
24 Hours Toronto - 25 Oct 2010 - Special to QMI Agency
He describes the trip as “ life changing.” Rodney Schnarr was dispatched to Haiti to erect temporary shelters his mechanical engineering technology class helped design. Haiti had been selected as a testing ground for the prototypes, which were designed to withstand forces of nature like monsoons and hurricane-force winds.
The 16-foot (4.8 metre) version of the HousAll Shelter System, designed with the help of Algonquin College students, withstood the 7.0magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January.
A few months later, an earthquake left a devastating trail of destruction and despair. But the temporary shelters survived and served as triage hospitals and the temporary office of Save the Children, whose headquarters had been condemned.
They are but one example of the work made possible by Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII). The network of 20 colleges connects businesses to the applied research and commercialization expertise of Ontario’s colleges.
“Our mandate is two-fold: to help Ontario-based business become more competitive in a global environment and to expose college students to realworld problems and challenges,” director Vanessa Williamson says. As students help companies develop solutions, they gain practical experience that allows them to hit the ground running upon graduation.
Ottawa’s Algonquin College has been a member of CONII since its inception four years ago, reports Mark Hoddenbagh, director of applied research and innovation. Last year, it completed close to 50 research projects, including one with HousAll Systems, also located in the nation’s capital.
Its chairman and founder, Miles Kennedy, had developed temporary structures for use as family shelters following the 2004 Asian tsunami. He approached Algonquin to resize that structure upon the request of Save the Children , which wanted to use the buildings as classrooms.
“There was a good match between what we were doing and Algonquin’s school of mechanical engineering technology,” Kennedy says. “We saw an opportunity to do things faster and cheaper by working with the college. Every company has a limited set of resources and here was a way to extend our resources.”
Redesigning the structure presented unique challenges. “Much to Algonquin’s credit and to the students’ credit, they got it done on time and on budget,” Kennedy says. “It allowed us to get to market at least a year earlier than we would have normally. The revenue generated in our company as a result of this relationship was quite outstanding.”
Schnarr landed a full-time job with HousAll upon graduation in April 2009. While in Haiti, he was moved by the extremely poor quality of buildings and concerns that if the country ever experienced an earthquake, it would be devastating.
Images of the earthquake’s aftermath reinforced the importance of the structure. “I still consider the 16-foot (4.8 metre) HousAll to be my baby. I spent nine months working on it,” Schnarr says. “It was an incredible feeling to know that it was used as a first triage hospital after the earthquake.”
http://career.jobboom.com/career-planning/education-training/2010/10/27/15850226.html
