Red River College (RRC) faculty and students will benefit from $97,500 to conduct innovative research projects in 2011 and 2012.

The Research Innovation Fund (RIF) is provided by Applied Research & Commercialization (AR&C) to encourage faculty, staff, and students to engage in research activities at the College.

“The intent is to develop and build internal research capacity,” says Ray Hoemsen P. Eng., director of AR&C. “This year’s award winners came forward with several original, yet practical applied research project proposals.”

AR&C awarded funding to 13 applicants from several College programs: Aboriginal Education, Applied Commerce & Management Education, Automotive Transportation, Business & Applied Arts, Civil Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, Electronic Engineering Technology, Graphic Design, Health Sciences & Community Services, the Language Training Centre, and Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Past notable RIF projects include Mechanical Engineering Technology’s Rapid Prototype Composite Tooling (featured on netcomposites.com) and Electrical Engineering Technology’s GPS Wildlife Tracking Collar (featured in ACCC’s January 2011 issue of Accelerating Innovation on p. 9).

“The RIF program has proven very successful in providing research opportunities and resources to the staff, faculty, and students who need them the most,” says Hoemsen.

The award funds go into a special account created for each award winner for them to use on specific project costs.  The winners are required to submit a full report following the completion of their projects.

For information on this year’s award winning projects, download our 2011 RIF Summary Report.

Congratulations to all the award winners:

Bio-fuelProduction
Michael Myrowich, Automotive Transportation

Computerized Assessment of Natural Language Test
Laurie Cutrone, Business and Applied Arts

Crack Detection in Concrete Beam – Phase Two
Liting Han and Dave Bertin, Electrical Engineering Technology

Effects of Supplementng Aboriginal Post-Secondary Transition Programs with Traditional Aboriginal Cultural Activities
Karen Favell, Aboriginal Education

Gateway to Applied Business Research
Tatjana Brkic, Applied Commerce & Management Education

High-intensity Focused Ultrasound Monitoring Using Electric Impedance
Mohammad Aboofazeli & Haider Al-Saidi, Electrical Engineering Technology

Investigation of an Environmentally Friendly Solvent for use in Instrumental Chemical Analysis
Michael Judge, Health Sciences and Community Services

New Media – Design & Development for Layer App
Ilse Dyck, Graphic Design

Nutrients in Snow
Ian Halket, Civil Engineering Technology

Solar Ebike – Phase One
Leon Fainstein, Mechanical Engineering Technology

Traffice Situational Awareness System for the Visually Impaired
Liting Han, Dave Bertin, Electrical Engineering Technology

Ultra-wideband Antenna and Signal Design – Phase Two
Saleh Mneina, Electronic Engineering Technology

Stay tuned for the results of last year’s RIF projects and a call for applications for 2012 RIF projects.