The Fanshawe Product Testing team at ABIS is collaborating with academic schools to create unique signature learning experiences and exposure to job skills for future opportunities. Two recent examples of collaborative activities include:

Photography program

Philip Bell, professor in the Photography program, has routinely used the ABIS facility as an off-campus photography location for his level four graduating students. In keeping with this practice, the students recently experienced their first in person, off-campus field trip in almost two years. All fourteen students had the opportunity to practice their skills and put their knowledge to the test by producing creative photography (see photo below of Rob Fox, Technical Support, Fanshawe Product Testing) and taking professional headshots using product testing staff as models. 

Professor Bell says, “The students were very excited to practice their skills at a location outside our studio and online classroom. We thank Candace and Fanshawe Product Testing for providing this opportunity.”

Composites and Advanced Materials Aerospace Manufacturing program

The collaboration between Fanshawe Product Testing at ABIS and the Composites and Advanced Materials Aerospace Manufacturing program provides students with an excellent, hands-on learning experience in a working product testing facility. The collaboration also demonstrates how academic and non-academic teams at Fanshawe can work together by sharing resources and avoiding duplication of equipment costs.

Tom Bruce, coordinator of the program takes his students to ABIS three or four times a year as part of their Advanced Design course. While on-site, students perform tensile and 3-point bend testing on composite samples designed and created by the students themselves. Fanshawe Product Testing provides the data and graphs for analysis in the same format they would to outward facing clients. This process gives students a better understanding of how the test system is set-up and the nuisances of performing mechanical testing and the considerations needed to obtain accurate results.

“The learning experience at Fanshawe Product Testing helps the students by both familiarizing them with the application of everything they learned throughout the program, to the practical process of design and manufacturing parts,” says professor Bruce. “They will also have developed the confidence of knowing they are more than capable of performing the design through manufacturing stages independently and professionally.”

If you are interested in additional SILEx opportunities for students at ABIS with Fanshawe Product Testing, please contact Candace Miller at cmmiller@fanshawec.ca.