Getting students to dive deeper into the data is what Malcolm Howe likes best about working with Niagara Research.

The professor in Niagara College’s business division has played a role at the institution’s applied research and innovation department in several different ways, including in-class assignments for his students, being a lead researcher for projects and helping young minds with ventures of their own.

A long-tenured staff member at the college, Howe has been involved with Niagara Research for nearly a decade, helping the team with his extensive background and experience in quantitative market research.

Some of his more recent work with Niagara Research includes an in-class project for his Marketing Management students, examining the benefits and implementation of shifting all of the college’s course evaluation surveys to an online medium and away from paper.

His students also recently began work with a new software application he’s calling Nform, which digitally records data on mobile devices like iPads.

Collected data from field surveys can be automatically uploaded from the devices to other computers for analysis, shifting away the need for paper surveys and making it easier to view trends.

His students recently took the program to the test during the college’s In Your Backyard open house, surveying guests as they came and went. Howe said the software could be used for everything from restaurant feedback to census collection in developing countries.

Other research projects Howe has worked on include an employee satisfaction survey for ingredient-manufacturer Puratos, a health-and-wellness program for Oxy Vinyls, a chemical company in Niagara Falls, a survey for Rumous Nightclub and exit surveys at the Niagara Food Festival.

He also helped the college interpret driving factors behind the scores of the Key Performance Indicator surveys, which rank the province’s schools in student satisfaction.

For Howe, the best part of working with Niagara Research is getting his students directly involved with the business community, applying their newly learned skills firsthand.

“The clients really love what the students do as well, so it’s good for everybody,” he said.

Howe received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brock University in 1987, doing his graduate studies in Business Administration at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School of Business, finishing in 1992.