Seneca College - RED 2017 - 12

PRO
FILES

In May, Seneca received
a $1 million federal grant
renewal for professor Chris
Tyler's position as Industrial
Research Chair for Colleges.

Vanessa Williamson
Dean, Applied Research
and Innovation

What can students learn from the
successes and failures that come with
applied research and entrepreneurship?
Our students have come to learn that failure
isn't a bad word. Across the diverse applied
research projects at Seneca, they learn how
to deal with failure and that things don't
always work. They learn from their handson experiences. The role of Applied
Research and Innovation is to make sure
students experience that failure while still
feeling safe and secure. We want them to
understand that ideas won't always work
and that failure happens; it's OK, and it's
important to stay on the horse.
What will the new CITE building mean
for applied research and innovation at
Seneca? We firmly believe that the best
ideation happens when two conditions are
met: One, students, faculty and industry
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RED

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collaborate in close proximity and, two,
space is provided to let unplanned things
happen. With CITE, we meet these conditions. Having a larger, open space, a
dedicated makerspace, and having staff,
faculty and students work more closely
together-while opening our doors to
the community-will transform how
Seneca does business and supports our
local economy.
What is one of the ongoing applied
research projects you are most excited
to be supporting? Medical Confidence, a
York Region-based company that matches
medical specialists and patients, was
looking to scale their business, and they
came to Seneca for support. Under the
leadership of Seneca Professor, Dr. Sunny
Shi, our students are learning a leadingedge programming language, Python, and
collaborating with industry to solve operational and technological challenges. Our
industry partner has raved about working
with our students and faculty, and those
students are gaining skills and experiences
that may define their careers.
You have a background in entrepreneurship. How has it changed over
the last decade, and how do you see
it transforming in the coming years?
What you're seeing across a number of
different sectors is a major trend toward
embracing entrepreneurship and its
associated philosophies. Not only has
the number of people who are willing to
launch a business increased but organizations are encouraging "intrapreneurship," through which employees drive
changes within their own companies.
Entrepreneurship skills are proving to be
totally transferable and not just limited to
those looking to launch their own businesses. It's now about expanding horizons
and scaling up your business concept,
whereas previously entrepreneurs might
have only considered how their ideas could
apply to their local communities. Young
entrepreneurs will now be thinking about
how their ideas can be optimized to
compete in the global marketplace and
serve the largest possible number of
customers. The future possibilities for
entrepreneurs are truly limitless.

PHOTO: JOANNE RATAJCZAK

Q & A: On experience

Vanessa Williamson
possesses an unmistakable
tenacity and enthusiasm
that befits her mandate
to grow Seneca's applied
research portfolio. She
came to Seneca from
the Ontario Centres of
Excellence, where she
spent four years leading
their business development and commercialization initiatives. Vanessa
shares her insights on
the new Centre for
Innovation, Technology
and Entrepreneurship
(CITE), intrapreneurship,
and the benefits of
unplanned business ideas.

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