Lambton College is celebrating funding for its three Technology Access Centres (TACs).
The Lambton Manufacturing Innovation Centre (LMIC) received $657,000 in partner cash contributions, the Bio-Industrial Process Research Centre received $920,000 and the new Digital Technology Lab received $515,000.
Across the three TAC's over 400 projects have been completed and more than 200 students have engaged during this fiscal year.
Lambton College Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation Dr. Mehdi Sheikhzadeh said the students are paid.
"Almost $2-million in investments has been extracted from the industry to do these projects," he said. "The model of the TAC, it's not only enhancing the innovation but also stimulating the innovation within the industry, invest into the research and the outcome goes back into the industry."
The newest TAC at the College is the Digital Technology Lab.
It was established in 2024, and during the first year took on 69 projects and hired 73 student researchers.
"That just shows the high demand for digital technology and development adoption," said Sheikhzadeh.
He said the college has been doing research in digital technology for years.
"We have expanded in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning and data science," Sheikhzadeh said. "We have attracted so many companies to us that they are interested to adopt digital technology or develop digital technology."
The college established the new centre because of the high demand and the federal government endorsed it.
"The researchers and the students are working together and they are utilizing a variety of resources, whether they are hardware resources, whether they are software resources to develop those technologies," Sheikhzadeh said.
Students in both the Sarnia and Ottawa campuses use this lab because the school offers digital technology and IT at both.
He said students are reacting positively to this new lab.
"We are actually engaging all of the students from both campuses in this research. Our manager for that centre resides in our Ottawa campus, so that helps to engage many students from that campus, so we are quite excited about this," said Sheikhzadeh.
Lambton has become one of the only colleges in Canada to operate three TACs.
The milestone will enhance the school's capacity to support industry partners, drive technological advancements, and foster economic growth.
"These centres serve as a hub for innovation, enabling companies-particularly small and medium-sized enterprises -to access expertise, cutting-edge facilities and customized technical solutions," said Lambton President and CEO Rob Kardas.
The funding for the TACs was made through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.