The BlackBerry Teaching and Collaborative Research Centre, opened on March 22, 2012, keeps Carleton engineering and industrial design students at the forefront of smartphone technology and design.
Thanks to support from Research In Motion (RIM), the centre is used for research, teaching, outreach activities, technology demonstrations and professional development for students and researchers working on mobile technology and wireless communication with health care and automotive applications. RIM equipped the centre with software, BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets on which students experiment and develop apps.
“Carleton is pleased to be working with RIM, one of the world’s leading technology companies,” says Rafik Goubran, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design. “This partnership further connects RIM to our world-class researchers and provides our students with the opportunity to experience and explore new possibilities in wireless communications and application development. Together we will train the next generation of leaders in this exciting field.”
Mobile technology is increasingly in focus at Carleton. Through innovative research projects and academic programs like those conducted at the BlackBerry Centre, students and researchers expand the applications for mobile computing and wireless communication. For example, the work of Carleton researchers is enabling the use of smartphones for more efficient delivery of health-care services. RIM has partnered with Carleton in a number of research projects in recent years.
“The BlackBerry Teaching and Collaborative Research Centre continues the mutually beneficial relationship established between Carleton and RIM,” said Dave Dietz, director of University Relations at RIM. “By working with Carleton’s outstanding students and researchers, we are finding important new opportunities, including innovations in industrial design, speech and audio processing, health-care applications and much more. We look forward to the opportunities ahead in this new centre.”
