High school students get a taste of tech at downtown campus

Templeton STEM high school students at BCIT Tech Hub

Grade 10 students from Templeton Secondary School’s STEM program visited our Downtown TEC (Technology Education and Collaboration) Hub last month to help launch their first applied robotics group project. Over three months, these 25 students will work on building a garbage-sorting robot. Sharing real-world insights BCIT Computing Instructor Carly Orr welcomed the group, and introduced them … Read more

Naval CIO: Challenges and rewards of tech careers in coastal protection

Commander Kristof Langland, of the Royal Canadian Navy, visited the BCIT Downtown Campus TEC (Technology Education and Collaboration) Hub this week to discuss the technical roles and technology tools present in a modern navy environment. Computing and Cybersecurity students and faculty learned about Commander Langland’s career path, which started as a programmer in Vancouver in … Read more

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: New Option for New Frontiers

We’re seeing them all around: stories of advances in computing that are enabling greater automation with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Machine Learning (ML), a subfield of AI and statistics, is one of today’s most rapidly growing technical fields. Machine-learning-based applications can be found in domains from healthcare to commerce. BCIT Computing’s Computer Systems Technology Diploma program … Read more

BCIT instructor helms College Chemistry Canada

BCIT instructor Jimmy Lowe has built a reputation for innovation in the chemistry lab, which makes him a natural to head a national association of his peers. Jimmy became head of College Chemistry Canada (C3) at its annual conference held at the University of Toronto this past spring. The conference is well into its fifth … Read more

Cloud Computing instructor aims to make BCIT the first Alexa-enabled campus in Canada

BCIT Computing instructor Dr. Bill Klug recently attended Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas and what he learned isn’t staying in Vegas. The event is one of Amazon’s largest cloud services gatherings, attracting over 30,000 attendees, including customers, partners, vendors, and users of AWS cloud resources and services.  Hundreds of technical … Read more

Apps that help cities be smarter

BCIT Computer Systems Technology (CST) Diploma program is in the thick of the data revolution and apps for helping cities – and their citizens – be smarter. Student Project Showcase Last week, 85 students showcased apps they’d created using New Westminster Open Data. The excitement was palpable as Computing students presented to New Westminster’s Mayor, three … Read more

The world is a team environment: career advice from a CTO/COO

Luke Lafreniere’s route to Founding Member/Chief Technical Officer at Linus Media Group wasn’t exactly traditional, but he knew he loved creating things from the start. There were early hints that he had potential as a how-to video star. In high school he gained some notoriety by submerging a computer in mineral oil in a fish tank, creating … Read more

BC shortlisted to the Supercluster Initiative as VR Hub Opens

BCIT representatives welcomed the formal opening of The Cube in Vancouver’s railtown last week. The 6000 square foot space is being billed as the ultimate environment to build a Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) company, and Vancouver’s first VR hub. This grand opening event played host to a very exciting announcement by the Honourable Navdeep … Read more

Computing instructor working to reduce tech gender gap

Mirela and research group image

As the Option Head of the Computer Systems Technology (CST) Diploma’s Technical Programming Option, Dr. Mirela Gutica grew concerned that while female students were doing well in the program, there weren’t many of them. Why the gender gap? The comparatively low numbers of women entering computing programs and going on to IT careers is a problem beyond BCIT Computing, and … Read more

Making new mobility advances in one weekend

VSW2017 hackathon

School of Computing and Academic Studies Dean Steve Eccles welcomed Vancouver Startup Week (VSW) to BCIT’s downtown Tech Hub this past Friday night for an all-weekend hackathon. The annual event kicks off a week that brings together diverse participants to celebrate and strengthen Greater Vancouver’s innovation and technology communities. Twenty-six teams of developers, designers, marketers, and entrepreneurs, helped … Read more