Looking back, looking forward: Ontario Tech University in 2022

Ontario Tech has carved out a powerful niche in Canadian post-secondary education. The university’s more than 25,000 degree-holders (undergraduate and graduate) are making their mark in the modern workplace. A strong team of academics hailing from around the globe call Ontario Tech home as they advance knowledge and discovery and contribute to the university’s impressive research imprint.

As the university reaches the midpoint of its 20th academic year, we look back at a few highlights from 2022:

High energy on campus

• Convocation is one of the most celebrated Ontario Tech events. This year, the university began a new tradition—hosting the ceremony outdoors on Polonsky Commons.
  
  
• Ontario Tech’s Brilliant Energy Institute gained momentum as it builds upon the energy research and expertise at the university to meaningfully contribute to Canada’s leadership in reducing carbon emissions, and to strengthen energy sector outcomes regionally, provincially and nationally, here at home. 
  
  
• The Chancellor’s Challenge 5 km event brought the campus community together to raise funds to support students. This year’s challenge raised almost $80,000 which is matched by the Board of Governor’s Matching Fund, creating $160,000 for student scholarships and bursaries.

Ontario Tech: Where students want to be

• A key indicator of the university’s growing strength was the year-over-year percentage increase in the number of applications. Leading the entire provincial system by a wide margin, Ontario Tech applications jumped more than 33 per cent during the 2022-2023 recruitment cycle, along with a 28 per cent increase in Ontario high school students selecting Ontario Tech as their first-choice university.
  
  
• Ontario Tech’s growing reputation and influence continued to shine as it was named one of the world’s Top 200 youngest universities (under the age of 50), and demonstrated strong results in the Maclean’s magazine rankings and various international rankings.  
  
  
• The university again earned a gold rating in the North American Sustainable Campus Index, and the newest campus building Shawenjigewining Hall won an urban design award from the City of Oshawa.
  
  
• The Faculty of Education’s move to Charles Hall helped consolidate the university’s strong imprint at its downtown Oshawa location. Ontario Tech also acquired a parcel of land from the City of Oshawa at 154 Bruce Street, which reaffirmed the university’s long-term commitment to growth in downtown Oshawa.

Research activities and appointments

• Ontario Tech’s research portfolio continued its upward trajectory for earning new funding for collaborative projects with government, industry and community partners; breaking new ground in such areas as dementia care, nuclear science research, sodium intake, technology to determine optimal routes for snowplows and waste-collection fleets, and aviation research; and advancing well-established work in community wastewater sample testing for traces of COVID-19, biological monitoring in freshwater, and applications for deploying technology solutions for health care in remote communities, including space travel.
  
  
• A team of three researchers representing three faculties shared their expertise and innovative findings in the nation’s capital at the Science Meets Parliament Showcase. Numerous new provincial, national and international research appointments and grants were received by Ontario Tech experts, including a UNESCO Research Chair, funding for studies focused on race, gender and diversity, and connections to the Gulbenkian Foundation Prize for tackling the biodiversity and climate crisis. 

Community connections through partnerships

• Throughout 2022, special top-secret research took place inside the Innovation Garage at ACE, where experts were developing Project Arrow, a national endeavour to create the prototype for a made-in-Canada zero-emissions electric vehicle. Ontario Tech is the lead academic institution for Project Arrow. The creation will be unveiled to the public Friday, January 5 at the Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
  
  
• To bolster startup success rates and create sustainable businesses, the Brilliant Catalyst incubator and experiential learning hub forged a new partnership with Whitby’s 1855 Technology Accelerator.
  
  
• Furthering its commitment to improving lives and the health of the planet, the university launched a facial recognition technology partnership that could have a significant impact on the future of policing.
  
  
• Ontario Tech’s and ACE’s partnership with FEL Motorsports entered its second year, connecting students to hands-on practical experiences and co-op placements in the auto-racing industry.

Student success and creativity

• Through their embedded experiential learning opportunities, students continually demonstrate their knowledge, skills and savvy in the community and beyond. Among the many standouts of 2022, Master of Health Sciences (Kinesiology) student Emmeline Meens Miller not only won Ontario Tech’s annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) title, but also went on to become the university’s first-ever provincial 3MT champion.
  
  
• Bachelor of Commerce students Hannah Oegema and Colleen Linton won the Human Resources gold medal at a major business competition hosted by Queen’s University. Health Sciences PhD candidate Jackie Brown was named the university’s first-ever recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Research Scholarship.
  
  
• Donor-funded initiatives at the university flourished through gifts such as one from the Herman Kassinger Foundation, and such programs as Women for STEM, which matches women students with community mentors and industry partners, to help them succeed in a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The university joined the national Indigenous and Black Engineering and Technology PhD Project to provide financial support and foster a supportive, equitable and inclusive research and academic environment. Ontario Tech also established an international emergency bursary, to support students from countries experiencing war or environmental catastrophe.

Thinking globally, acting locally

Upholding its tradition of uncovering community-based solutions to societal challenges, and promoting technology for ethical purposes, Ontario Tech hosted a substantial number of workshops and roundtables including:

• An International Atomic Energy Agency Collaborating Centre global workshop on integrated nuclear and renewable energy systems in the spring, followed by a nuclear hydrogen workshop in the fall.
  
  
• An Opioid Crisis Symposium brought researchers and community groups together to tackle stigma associated with opioid use.
  
  
• The Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, in association with Meta Canada, hosted a four-day, live and asynchronous virtual symposium exploring online hate.
  
  
• The university held fall roundtables that brought researchers, industry leaders and government together to talk about economic development and the rapid changes and opportunities unfolding in the automotive industry.
  
  
• Ontario Tech’s Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research became a founding member of the World Health Organization’s World Rehabilitation Alliance and also organized a series of international virtual speaker discussions on the topic of advancing disability rights around the world.

Special 2022 milestones

• The university honoured and acknowledged the estate of Nicholas Sion, a founding donor of the Brilliant Energy Institute (BEI), for a transformational investment of more than $3.5 million that was instrumental in helping launch BEI at the university. It marks the university’s largest-ever donation from an individual.
  
  
• Ontario Tech earned a Moose Hide Campaign Ambassador designation in support of a nationwide Indigenous-led grassroots movement to end violence against women and children.
  
  
• On the Athletics front, the Ridgebacks men’s soccer team compiled a stellar record en route to a first-place finish in the Ontario University Athletics East division. Star midfielder Chris Campoli was named U SPORTS men’s soccer player of the year, becoming the first Ontario Tech athlete in any sport to be named a national player of the year.
  
  
• The highly anticipated arrival of the ACE Moving Ground Plane ushered in an exciting new era of innovation and pushed Ontario Tech into new automotive engineering territory. On the outer wall of the iconic ACE Climatic Wind Tunnel, the university installed its largest solar panel structure to date, the latest component of the university’s pledge to meet greenhouse gas emission-reduction targets.
  
  
• Ontario Tech President and Vice-Chancellor Steven Murphy was appointed to a second five-year term that will commence in 2023, while longtime education executive Laura Elliott was named Chair of the university’s Board of Governors.

• University Chancellor Mitch Frazer was appointed to the Order of Ontario.