St. Clair College students will have an opportunity in April to showcase their capstone projects to executives from Ford Motor Company, Air Canada and other local high-tech industries.
The One Ford Capstone Project event will be held virtually and will also feature networking opportunities, speakers and opportunities for mentorship with industry partners.
Students have until March 19 to submit their projects for consideration. The top 20 projects will go on to compete in the virtual event on April 27 and students will be able to present their projects to an audience of executives from companies like Ford Motor Company and Air Canada.
A capstone project is defined as any project demonstrating core skills and understanding of a particular field.
These projects can be anything ranging from engineering to mobility and even biomedical equipment. They can also come from student clubs, college assignments or other sources.
Susan Taylor, event organizer and supervisor at St. Clair’s Genesis Entrepreneurship Centre, said it helps students in numerous ways.
“It will benefit students by providing a unique opportunity to showcase their abilities and puts them in front of to high level potential employers. There is also a networking component where students can interact with the industry partners and receive mentoring. Students will additionally be refining their presentation skills and will be guided during workshops offered by the Genesis Centre specifically for this event,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the importance of partnering with industry leaders like Ford “comes down to creating relationships where both students and industry leaders win.”
“It’s a mutual partnership, so our students have the opportunity for potential employment and the industry partners have a chance to see some of St. Clair College’s best and brightest students,” Taylor said.
Sandy Ilievski, Global Powertrain Prototype Manager and co-chair of the STEM/STEAM subcommittee at Ford, is also helping to organize the event. She said aside from supporting local students and schools, there are a few other reasons behind Ford’s desire to be involved in these kinds of projects.
“Many of the employees at the Ford Windsor site attended St. Clair College prior to becoming a member of the Ford family. The Ford Windsor site has seen some new program launches over the last few years and is always interested in getting a preview of who the future job applicants may be,” Ilievski said.
Projects will be evaluated on criteria including innovation and technical content, as well as how the project was presented and the leadership shown in presentation.
Ilievski also said companies involved like Ford want to see these traits for a key reason.
“Being able to have a great idea and being able to sell it are both very important in our industry,” Ilievski said.
Groups or individuals interested have until March 19 at 5 p.m. to submit their registration form and a link to three-minute video pitching their project on YouTube, OneDrive, Google Drive or other video sharing apps to genesis@stclaircollege.ca
Registration forms can be found at www.stclaircollege.ca/genesis by clicking on the Ford Capstone Poster to download or by emailing genesis@stclaircollege.ca.