TeachingCity Hub opens in Oshawa’s downtown core

OSHAWA, ONTARIO — The City of Oshawa and its education and research partners—Canadian Urban Institute, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Durham College, Trent University Durham Greater Toronto Area, and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering—celebrated today the first year of TeachingCity with the opening of the TeachingCity Hub.

The TeachingCity Hub, located at 1 Mary Street in downtown Oshawa, is a dedicated space to facilitate TeachingCity projects with the City’s education and research partners, including students, faculty and staff.

The Hub provides opportunities for TeachingCity partners to share access to facilities, resources and equipment, and includes office, classroom and open lab space. The open-concept space will be used for TeachingCity partnership meetings, collaborative learning opportunities and co-design.

During the Hub opening, Trent University Durham Greater Toronto Area officially joined TeachingCity through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

TeachingCity brings together municipal government, City partners and academic institutions. The partners focus on and address urban issues facing Oshawa through innovation, collaboration, applied research and shared experiential learning opportunities.

The partnership facilitates:

• Developing practical, scalable and sustainable solutions to urban issues.
• Building research partnerships.
• Co-ordinating experiential learning opportunities, applied research and innovative educational activities.
• Developing new technologies.
• Sharing access to facilities, resources and equipment.
• Working toward the long-term positioning of Oshawa as a locally and globally recognized community of urban research and learning.

Learn more at oshawa.ca/TeachingCity and follow #OshTeachingCity on Twitter and Instagram.

Partner quotes

“The opening of the TeachingCity Hub represents a significant milestone for the City of Oshawa and TeachingCity. Together with our academic and research partners, TeachingCity is positioning Oshawa as a leading city of urban research and learning.”
- John Henry, Mayor, City of Oshawa

“Oshawa’s TeachingCity Initiative is a forward-thinking approach to prepare the community to thrive in the 21st-century economy. It will enhance the prospects for the City and be a model for others to learn from. The Canadian Urban Institute has been helping build capacity for achieving healthy communities since 1990 and we look forward to applying our experience to work with the City and academic partners to help connect the learning to policy and practice."
- Peter Halsall, Executive Director, The Canadian Urban Institute

"The opening of the TeachingCity Hub signifies the evolution of our partnership in this ground-breaking initiative. By providing a physical space for learning and exploration, we will be able to continue helping the City of Oshawa address urban challenges and issues while also creating even more opportunities for our students to engage in applied research and innovative experiential-learning activities.”
- Don Lovisa, President, Durham College

“Signing on as an official TeachingCity partner is important for Trent and Oshawa. With our rich history in the region, and our plans to expand our Trent Durham GTA campus, we are always looking for opportunities to contribute to the greater community. We look forward to collaborating with our post-secondary partners and the City of Oshawa to increase opportunities for students to engage with the community they’re living and learning in.”
- Leo Groarke, PhD, President and Vice-Chancellor, Trent University

“Teaching City is a powerful example of city-university ‘learning from living’ and demonstrates how engagement and integration with the community promotes quality of life. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology looks forward to the new knowledge uncovered by this partnership, and to working together on applying these technological discoveries in practical and exciting ways.”
- Steven Murphy, PhD, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

“This is a bold and timely initiative. With this innovative partnership University of Toronto Engineering students, working across the spectrum of urban issues, will be able to engage with Oshawa staff, residents and businesses to solve real-life problems facing urban areas today. This is a tremendous educational opportunity for our students and we are excited to begin developing our first activities and projects.”
- Brent Sleep, PhD, Chair, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto

Media contacts

John Henry
Mayor
City of Oshawa
905.436.5611 ext. 5611
jhenry@oshawa.ca

Jag Sharma
City Manager
City of Oshawa
905.436.3311 ext. 2259
jsharma@oshawa.ca

Peter Halsall
Executive Director
Canadian Urban Institute
416.365.0816 ext. 233
phalsall@canurb.org

Bryan Oliver
Communications Officer
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
905.721.8668 ext. 6709
bryan.oliver@uoit.ca

Melissa McLean
Communications Officer
Durham College
905.721.2000 ext. 2952
melissa.mclean@durhamcollege.ca

Kate Gennings
Communications and Media Relations Officer
Trent University
705.748.1011 ext. 6180
kategennings@trentu.ca

Keenan Dixon
Communications Officer
University of Toronto – Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering
416.978.0945
keenan.dixon@utoronto.ca

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