David DiPietro is on a mission to bring course-based research to a program near you.
The senior research associate with Niagara Research, Niagara College’s Research & Innovation division, is a dedicated liaison with co-ordinators and chairs in a wide variety of programs across the college.
In the winter 2013 term, DiPietro set a goal of bringing five specific projects to courses in the business division, but was pleased in the end to co-ordinate a total of seven.
Now, he’d like to see the pilot expand into other divisions, to reach other faculty and students.
“It’s great experience for students to be able to say they have completed a real-life project, and add that to their portfolio,” DiPietro says. “But’s it’s really a win-win-win, because the faculty and industry partner also benefit.”
Faculty can engage their students in something exciting, while finding ways to enhance lessons in other classes, he said, while the industry partner is able to have a full-service research and development experience at very little cost, beyond an investment of time.
Throughout the process, DiPietro acts as a liaison between students and faculty, and the industry partner, to make the most use of everyone’s time. Within each class, the students are divided up into teams to work on different components of one project. They are also given the opportunity to meet the industry partner before and after (and sometimes during) the project to touch base on developments. Once completed, the students have the opportunity to present their ideas to the industry partner.
“I believe these course-based projects make the Niagara College difference for students,” says Holly Catalfamo, Human Resources program co-ordinator, and faculty who has participated in course-based research for six years. “As an educator, I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I know my students are well prepared for the career they have chosen.”
Past projects co-ordinated through Niagara Research have included developing a human resources plan for a sole proprietorship; a marketing plan for a new image search engine; an international marketing plan to help a software company find appropriate overseas markets; and a project that investigated green-roof irrigation.
“Four incredible student teams presented for us and we couldn’t have been more blown away by the amount of research put into each and every project,” notes Cassidy Fenton, marketing and sales co-ordinator, Ultimate Kiosk Inc. “As a young company, the value we received from the students and Niagara College is priceless and we’re excited to take what we learned and apply it to our global expansion goals in the coming years.”
For the winter term, each of the businesses was also an industry partner with Niagara Research, on funded projects, he noted. The course-based projects were components that enhanced the original, funded one, or were elements beyond the timing or scope of the original.
For example, with the company Chocolate Concepts, a Niagara Research business team worked on a business and marketing plan, but there wasn’t the resources to take on the human resources component of the project. DiPietro found a strategic human resources class and developed a course-based project to be able to deliver the HR plan to the client.
To learn more about course-based research opportunities through Niagara Research, contact David DiPietro, [email protected], or visit the website at NiagaraCollege.ca/NiagaraResearch.
