Solution Driven Education, Where students eat sleep and drink education

University of Waterloo students at the Velocity Lab. They are part of a team that was commissioned by a top Canadian firm to invent gloves that can change colour upon touch. {PHOTO: HELLEN MISEDA/STANDARD}

Imagine this. Instead of walking around with your staff identification card to go through security checks in your building, you have a smart armband that has a chip programmed with the rhythm of your heart beat.

So to go through security checks, all you need is that magic band that recognises your heart beat and because every heart beat is different, if it is stolen, it cannot be used by anyone else.

Sounds like some far-fetched technology in a Sci-Fi movie? The fact is, it’s happening. And the genius behind this innovative idea is a student at the University of Toronto, one of Canada’s top universities.

This innovation is among numerous others that visiting journalists from East Africa, on a tour of the country’s institutions of higher learning sponsored by the Canadian High Commission, recently got a chance to sample.

We learned that the student, who holds the armband’s patent, is one of the new millionaires in Canada. This is after MasterCard, the global electronic payments processing firm, ‘borrowed’ the idea with plans to use it on some of its smart cards.

It is also worth noting that the idea for the Blackberry phone was conceived at the University of Waterloo, in Toronto by students, and it went ahead to become an established mobile phone brand.

And at the same university, which has an unparalleled engineering programme where students think in the realm of impossibilities, there is a one-of-a-kind Institute of Nanotechnology where students are performing ‘magic’ using the smallest of particles.

“We have a clean room, where students do their solution-seeking experiments. Because they deal with the smallest of particles, not a single speck of dust can be spotted in the clean room. Students have to be sanitised before they enter the room,” explains Tony Munro, the manager of international recruitment at the University of Waterloo.

It would appear that such innovations are the order of the day in Canada’s universities and technical colleges.

Even more fascinating is the fact that technical colleges could soon outdo universities in churning out innovators due to massive investment of qualified teaching staff and availability of cutting-edge research facilities and infrastructure.

“At the rate we are churning out new innovations, the next Bill Gates might just come from a college,” says Stephen Andrews, a director at the Canadian Independent College.

For instance, at Algonquin College, a student is currently working on a camera that has temperature sensors, a technology that will be useful during winter to check which points of the building have a leak in heat. This is expected to help seal energy loopholes.

“Once this technology is perfected, it can be replicated on a large scale. Because it is a camera, it will be stationed at various points of the building where it can pick up on temperatures. This way, we can save on energy,” explains Alexander Young of Algonquin College.

At Centennial College, students are working on an energy-conservation plant that will ensure water is not heated for too long during the winter.

“The key word is energy conservation. With this plant, cold water is first pumped to the ground where it becomes a bit warm and is then pumped back before it goes through the heating system.

Doing this saves energy because the water does not go through the heating system at negative degrees, which would require a lot of energy to heat,” Centennial College’s Arunangshu Hor explains.

At the same college, a student established an application that helps autistic students in their learning.

“One of our students came up with a brilliant app that helps autistic children in their learning process. With this app, teachers have an easy time teaching certain concepts that may appear basic to normal kids. It makes teaching autistic kids fun and easy. The idea has been commercialised and the student is reaping big from his innovation,” says Purnima Tyagi, the college’s innovation programme manager (Health).

One thing that stands out in this teacher-student interaction is the fact that while the students shine and take all the glory, professors who helped them perfect their innovations are satisfied to stay in the shadows.

“While doors and opportunities open for our students, we do not benefit in any way. But we are not complaining, our joy is to see these kids excel,” says Professor Hor who has some admirable chemistry with his students.

Another unique feature is the proximity of industries to the campuses, which we are told is because these players, being aware of the intensity of research going on at the campuses, want to ‘scoop’ these innovations before their competitors do.

And these companies do not just position themselves near universities for the breakthroughs but also to hire the best brains.

“Here we work very closely with industries and are in constant consultation with them. We cannot produce graduates with skills that the industry does not need. So we also ask them how many graduates they need and what kind of skills should they have,” says Rafiq Goubran, dean of faculty (Engineering and Design).

As part of this synergy, universities also offer solutions to industry and help them upgrade their systems and machines.

“They bring their troublesome machines to the engineering department where students are tasked with coming up with a solution. Sometimes this includes dismantling the machine and coming up with a more efficient and upgraded version,” says Professor Goubran.

Students who participate in such assignments are almost always guaranteed jobs in those industries once they finish school.

The partnership between universities and industry is so watertight that graduates’ absorption into the job market is more than 90 per cent.

With an education that trains students to be innovators, creators and entrepreneurs, startup hubs are common place.

One such hub is the Digital Media Zone (DMZ) based at the University of Ryerson in Toronto. It is ranked fifth in the world on the University Business Incubator Index.

Opened in 2010, DMZ is one of the country’s largest incubators for technology startups, helping entrepreneurs succeed by connecting them with customers, advisors, influencers and fellow entrepreneurs.

This kind of education, as we learned, does not come cheap with tuition fees being about Sh1.7 million per year. Add onto this living and travel expenses and this figure goes up by hundreds of thousands.

Nonetheless, the benefits far outweigh the costs and one can understand why well-heeled Kenyans are willing to pay an arm and a leg to ensure their children have access to this world-class university education.