By Brayden Solberg
Red River College was awarded with a silver medal at the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics in Melbourne, Australia on Oct. 9, 2018./ Brayden Solberg
Red River College has added another significant bullet point to its resume.
RRC’s Research Partnerships & Innovation (RPI) department was honoured by the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) with a silver at the organization’s Awards of Excellence in early October.
RRC was presented with the silver for Applied Research in Melbourne, Australia where Ray Hoemsen, executive director for RPI accepted the award on the college’s behalf.
“This award recognizes the work and effort of our faculty, students and staff engaged in Applied Research – and the support of our partners. And that what we do as a College is relevant to our community,” said Hoemsen.
Success in this program isn’t anything new, as Hoemsen and the program were presented with a bronze at the WFCP Awards of Excellence in 2014.
RPI actively looks to seek out more efficient ways to operate in our community and has come up with many creative to improve the simplicity of life in Winnipeg.
Projects such as, the all-electric transit bus and charging station, and working with Manitoba Hydro to create one of the most energy efficient buildings in North America, are just a glimpse of the department’s capabilities.
“We are involved in a range of different projects, in many different areas. We are just trying to benefit the students and the community as much as possible and to do that we have to be multifaceted,” said research manager Jose Delos Reyes
The award honours RPI’s last fifteen years of research with the most notable being the creation of the all-electric transit bus, but it is apparent that the success of the program is due to the contributions from many different areas of the faculty.
“I should emphasize that it is a team, not an individual, award and that I am privileged and proud to lead such a great team,” said Hoemsen.
RPI now looks to keep improving their research and continue to come up with new and innovative ideas.
“Going forward we will continue to grow and enhance our research Partnerships, work hard to engage more students and faculty, and build additional capacity and expertise – especially as new facilities such as MotiveLab, the Smart Factory, the Culinary Research Kitchen and the Innovation Centre come on stream,” said Hoemsen.
The department was created in 2004 and has since generated over $25,000,000 in capital investment for the college and over 50 research partnerships.
