Developing 'Innovation Literacy' Skills

At Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone (DMZ), students and graduates can develop digitally-based ideas into consumer products with help from mentors and industry. At Centennial College, students team up with industry to develop innovative new products, including an intelligent controller for small re-newable energy systems.

Both are examples of the innovation taking place at college and university campuses across the country.

"Innovation complements invention," says DMZ associate director Hossein Rahnama. "A lot of people think invention is the equivalent to innovation. Invention is the outcome of curiosity-driven research but making it tangible and adapting it to the needs of the community and the industry-that's innovation."

Industries looking to be internationally competitive will need graduates to help them identify new ways of solving problems implementing new technologies and increasing efficiencies to enhance competitiveness, George Brown College notes in its 2010-2011 annual report.

Colleges Bring Market-Pull Innovation to Canada SMEs

Collaborations in applied research between Ontario (Canada) colleges and businesses are stimulating new R&D activity and spending by businesses—
and leading to actual innovations— that would not have occurred without college expertise and funding, according to a study by The Conference Board of Canada.

Moreover, the Board reports, “Ontario colleges are helping businesses and other organizations create new and improved products, services, and processes much more quickly, and with greater quality, than they otherwise would have been able to achieve without college support.” Currently, 20 out of 24 publicly funded colleges in Ontario incorporate a network of innovation centers called CONII–Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (http://www.conii.ca). The centers provide one-stop assistance for innovators. Their unusual innovation model was described to CIMS Sponsors at their Fall 2010 meeting by Trish Dryden, AVP Research and Corporate Planning at Centennial College, one of CONII’s founding colleges.