BC And High School Projects

British Columbia Institute of Technology's (BCIT) High School Projects, which coordinates the industry-sponsored research work of students, won the 2093 National Award for Excellence in Business-Education Partnerships from the Conference Board of Canada. In 2002, there were 182 projects, increasing to almost 200 in 2003.

One of them was Jan Borge's logic analyzer, a device that reads the bursts of light that make up a digital signal and stores them so that electronic hardware designers can look for bugs in their systems. Borge's device sells for $1,200-2,000 compared to commercial prices of $6,000-30,000. Sometimes the industry sponsor approaches BCIT for help in research, but more often the student comes up with an idea with a particular sponsor in mind then convinces that sponsor to join in. BCIT provides the lab space, equipment, and up to $2,000 for High School Projects, but does not guarantee the quality of the work.

Last year, a 25 - year - old BCIT microelectronics student built a device called a logic analyzer that could be sold for a fraction of the cost of a commercial unit, $1,200 to $2,000 versus $6,000 to $30,000.

That made it cheap enough for BCIT to buy 32 of the devices, which read the bursts of light that make up a digital signal and store them so that electronic hardware designers can hunt for bugs in their systems. There aren't many schools around that can have a logic analyzer on each bench," says its developer, Jan Borge, and the device -- a circuit board that fits into your central processing unit (CPU) and a graphic interface program that lets you see on your computer screen what's going on in your wire -- are put to good use.

All around the electronics lab where Borge works, students are working on similar, commercially applicable R&D projects. In fact, the student projects program that coordinates these efforts earned BCIT this year's National Award for Excellence in Business - Education Partnerships from the Conference Board of Canada. Borge's was just one of 182 industry - sponsored research projects done by BCIT students in 2002.

This year, there were close to 200. B.C. Transit, for example, sponsored some students who designed computer hardware and software to monitor mileage and fuel consumption on its buses.

The Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada backed the modelling of process technology -- "the pipes and everything," to use program coordinator Ernst Willmink's word -- that would cut down toxic emissions from pulp mills.