Fanshawe is celebrating the grand opening of the Canadian Centre for Product Validation (CCPV), one of Canada’s most unique product development facilities.
The 25,000 sq. ft centre houses leading-edge validation technologies and equipment, and is located at the Advanced Manufacturing Park where a 10-acre parcel of land was generously donated by the City of London to Fanshawe College.
The goal of the centre is to take the needs of industry and address them directly, while fostering homegrown, advancements in technology.
From an economic development perspective, it allows innovative companies to use London as a hub of science, innovation, knowledge and creation.
If you’re interested in looking at the $16.2M centre, Chief Business Officer, Dr. Ben Cecil, says you’re in for a treat.
“They can come in and take a look at some of the tools we have, some of our significant chambers whether its acoustic or EMI, thermal. Take a look at all of the opportunities we have here, the technology that we’ve incorporated into this building, as a living laboratory”
Although Fanshawe College, had all of those resources before the centre’s inception, they were small scale and student oriented, the centre is now able to take those to an industrial level.
$185,000 Mercedes in the highest performance acoustic room ever built at CCPV.
“Instead of having table top units we have room sized units, instead of having small applications that would be run on a old PC, we have state of the art computing facilities, back up server systems and tons of computational power.” said Dr. Cecil.
All of which, allows CCPV to do all of its simulations not just from a theoretical perspective but a practical and applied perspective.
Despite what some may think, this is more than just a test lab, unlike other labs that simply test the product and let the customer know if it passes or fails, Dr. Cecil says, CCPV works directly with their clients every step of the way.
“We help them design, review that design, we do a lot of engineering consulting and support around their product before it gets into production. We’ll help them with production analysis, then we’ll test those products that are produced, and make sure that they meet industry standards and specifications.”
According to Dr. Cecil, this allows clients to enter, regional, national, or even international markets, that otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to do, without that sort of assistance and help, hence their motto “innovation, validation, commercialization”.
Before CCPV, industry professionals had to take their testing elsewhere, some even as far as Singapore.
Now, those dollars, resources, engineering and design talent, are able to stay within and benefit our local economies.
Chief Business Officer, Dr. Ben Cecil.
“Most importantly it allows for future growth for those firms because they’re saving money, it allows the college to continue to support those companies, who in turn will be able to hire more college grads”.
When asked to describe the building in one word Dr. Cecil used “Disruptive”.
“This really is a change to the industry, it is a change to the direction, that the college is taking with regards to supporting our commercialization efforts, as well as, supporting our industrial partners. At the same time it is a place where new ideas come to life” said Dr. Cecil.
One such idea has already come to life, is patented, Canadian made and developed, right at CCPV.
It’s expected to be disruptive in its industry, despite experts saying it could never be done.
What that is exactly?… You’ll have to go and see for yourself.
