**NORTHERN COLLEGE NEWS RELEASE**

Northern College is proud to announce that our Innovation Hub has received praise from Colleges Ontario for Empowering Women to Excel in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

The Higher Education Summit is an annual event that serves to both celebrate post-secondary achievements and discuss the issues facing colleges across Ontario. Serving to inspire meaningful dialogue across all facets of college life, the organization selected Northern College’s program as one of 10 initiatives showcased for unique innovation.

“The Northern Innovation Hub prides itself in facilitating the training of students to become highly qualified professionals while also supporting economic development and growth in the region,” stated Amy McKillip Manager of Applied Research, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “We are delighted that we were one of the few colleges that have been invited to display one of our projects that includes both an industry driven technology and demonstrates our dedication to women in trades.”

Northern College encourages the creativity and innovation of its students by fostering the environment required to push concepts into ideas and ideas into fruition.

The Innovation Hub and its students displayed a project they’ve been working on for some time, called the Gold Sniffer, the device is designed to identify specific minerals in any given rock sample using high-speed photos and unique light patterns.

“The gold sniffer is a potential alternative to assaying which is a great asset to the world of mining. This device uses high-quality pictures to determine the presence of minerals in a rock,” stated second year mining student Krisma Charlton. “The benefits this device brings are portability, cost savings, and accessibility to your results in hours as compared to weeks.”

Northern College takes the role that education plays in fostering the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs very seriously, remaining committed to not only offering students the training they require to succeed in the working world, but the support and encouragement needed to bring new innovations to market.

“The exposure this project received at a recent provincial conference serves to demonstrate the unique application of applied learning to address real-world challenges within industry; and in doing so affords our students an invaluable opportunity to participate in leading edge innovative practice,” stated Northern College President and CEO, Dr. Fred Gibbons.

Filed under: Local News