by Erica Scoville, Senior Reporter
Daryl Dominique, Innovation and Commercialization Coordinator here at Laurentian, is breaking down the new Cliff Fielding Research, Innovation, and Engineering Building on campus and explaining how he and his team are working hard to promote it as interdisciplinary and of use to all students.
“My goal is to try and encourage a culture of innovation on campus amongst our students” Dominique said.
“[I’m] trying to encourage those [who are] thinking about entrepreneurship, making their own projects or products, or learning skills that might not necessarily be within the confines of [their] degree, and to provide a space where we can encourage that.”
One of the main goals of the new building was to enhance the Engineering programs here at Laurentian and create labs and student spaces for Engineering students at both the Undergraduate and Graduate level.
“The bottom floor of the building is almost entirely engineering labs, which if you’ve seen any of the labs in the basement of Fraiser, are sorely needed” Dominique said. “The second floor is mostly engineering student spaces, club spaces, and graduate student spaces.”
“The top floor, [however], is actually an exception to the rule; [it] is our Innovation Facility, [which is] not just for engineers. That is something I really want to enforce…it is not just an engineer student space.”
Dominique explains how he and his team are working to offset the fact that the word ‘engineering’ is on the building.
“We have a lot of people that walk by and say ‘Oh look, an engineering lab,’ and then continue walking and I’m just like ‘No, wait! It’s for you too! I promise!”
“We really have to work hard to [promote] the fact that this centre is interdisciplinary. We want social innovation, we want humanities, and we want arts.”
Dominique shares that they currently have an entrepreneur ,who is also a poet , and whose company is doing poetry and creative writing for other companies.
“[This] is something we really want to encourage” he said.
“We want those disciplines here, so we have to work pretty hard to get passed the word ‘Engineering’ on the front of the building.”
Dominique highlights a few of the many resources available for all students, which are found within the Jim Fielding Innovation and Commercialization Space, a space which they call The Foundry/La Fonderie.
“Our challenge was [that] the Jim Fielding Innovation and Commercialization Space is a great formal name for the centre, but it’s not particularly catchy. We wanted to have an all-encompassing name.”
“[It] is supposed to be the central hub for innovation and entrepreneurial activities for our students” Dominique said.
“We’re going to be hosting a regular program called “Office Hours”, where we’ll pull in people from around Sudbury-ranging from graphic designers, IP lawyers, and project managers-where for that time period [they become] a resource to our students.”
“If you have questions about your career path, or if you have a company you want to start up and you want some advice, that’s a regular thing we’ll be lighting up for all students, and we’ll have those [hours] posted on our [online] calendar.”
In addition to this, Dominique shares the details on a workshop series that they will be calling ‘Crash Courses’ that are designed in a way that require no previous experience covering the basics of skills such as 3D printing, project management and even public speaking.
“These workshops will allow students to develop a variety of skills that are fantastic for an entrepreneur but also very valuable in today’s job market.”
Dominique is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Laurentian who was largely inspired by his time at the university along with his experience starting a prototyping company with two other students in his third year. He had the privilege of getting involved with projects in Sudbury and contributing to the growth of Sudbury’s innovation industry.
“I’ve been fascinated with [the] question: how do you create a culture of disruption? How do you create a culture of innovation?”
“It’s been very exciting to watch Laurentian not only step up to the plate and do this, but step up to the plate and do it justice.”
Dominique shares his advice to students who may have a passion for innovative projects like this or otherwise.
“Come visit. Don’t let it just sit as an idea that you keep telling yourself ‘I’ll revisit in three years’ [or] ‘I’ll revisit it in a year’. Explore why you have that idea, explore what skills you would need to make it happen and then try and actually figure out how you can start implementing those.”
Dominique encourages students to experience The Foundry/La Fonderie and the existing resources which are available inside.