FedNor is funding two new three-year positions in AI, software development and computer programming at Confederation College. <\/p>\n
THUNDER BAY \u2014 The federal government is providing Confederation College with nearly $378,000 in funding to support technological innovation.<\/p>\n
Marcus Powlowski, Liberal MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, announced the funding from FedNor \u2013 the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario \u2013 Friday at the college.<\/p>\n
With $337,745, FedNor will help the college create two new three-year positions: business development manager in applied research and lead researcher in computer science.<\/p>\n
A news release from FedNor said the funding \u201cwill help provide new and expanded knowledge to Confederation College\u2019s office of Applied Research and Innovation in the areas of software development, artificial intelligence (AI) and computer programming.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will also help the college office \u201cin the field of research, commercialization and development services\u201d to foster small and medium-size businesses in the region, the release said.<\/p>\n
The funding is timely and important as \u201cthe world is rapidly going AI,\u201d said Powlowski, who made Friday\u2019s announcement on behalf of Thunder Bay-Superior North MP and Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s taken a lot of us by surprise. It didn\u2019t exist a few years ago and suddenly it\u2019s, like, changing the world. You Google something and you get an AI answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, really, I think it\u2019s a fundamentally important change that\u2019s occurred in the world and it\u2019s important that Thunder Bay and Canada be part of that transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powlowski said FedNor\u2019s funding \u201cis an investment in helping Confederation College to be involved in research in computer science and AI here in Thunder Bay, but also (to) teach that whole new generation of kids that are going to be entering the workforce the kind of necessary skills to work in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The funding is provided through FedNor\u2019s Regional Growth Through Innovation Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthern Ontario grows stronger when local partners bring new ideas and build lasting partnerships,\u201d Hajdu is quoted as saying in the FedNor release.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo build on this strength, Canada is investing in projects that spark creativity across industries \u2014 helping businesses tackle today\u2019s challenges while preparing for tomorrow\u2019s economy. A resilient northern Ontario is one that keeps building for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very excited, and it\u2019s very important to us because we provide a lot of support to small businesses who want to develop and innovate, and they can\u2019t do that necessarily on their own,\u201d college president Michelle Salo told Newswatch.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it also really helps our students in terms of being able to use the skills that they\u2019re learning in the classroom (in) real-world projects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FedNor is funding two new three-year positions in AI, software development and computer programming at Confederation College. THUNDER…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,68022,61],"class_list":["post-122713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fednortechnologyconfederation-college","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}