NEW CENTRE PUTS THE INN IN INNOVATION
Humber’s new Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation will be a place for faculty, students and industry to tackle real business challenges and find innovative solutions.
As a way of preparing students to tackle these real business challenges, students from three Humber programs are working together on user experience of a hotel suite within the Barrett CTI.
Manolya Chalkiotis, final semester interior decorating student at Humber College, along with teammates Jenna Basnett, Laryssa Peceniski, Sha Lalapet, Dan Pham and Pardeep Dhoat — were the six students selected to be part of this exciting opportunity.
“This was real-life experience — though it was challenging at first, we managed to all work together on tight time lines and under great pressure,” says Chalkiotis. “We used the skills we learned in school on the entire project from start to finish.”
Chalkiotis says this opportunity has helped her produce a portfolio she is proud of, and she is thankful for the knowledgeable faculty in the program who helped her along the way. “I really appreciated the support from our faculty, which pushed us to always think outside of the box.”
The team of interior decorating instructors at Humber College are a valuable resource to students.
“Omar Rivera, partial load faculty with our design cluster, has over 20 years of interior design hospitality experience, which has been an incredible resource for our interdisciplinary team on many sectors,” says Vanessa VilicEvangelista, program co-ordinator for interior decorating at Humber College.
Vilic-Evangelista says Humber’s involvement in this project has been an invaluable opportunity for the students.
“The real client scenario/venture model is a true example of experiential learning,” she says. “What we teach them in the classroom brings them to the reality of how experience relates to the project dynamics and how we operate with other disciplines.”
With no traditional classrooms, the centre will redefine what higher education can look like.
The work taking place within the building relates to many industries, including advanced manufacturing, user experience design, media and more.
For more information about Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation, visit humber.ca.