Every single person here has an opportunity to contribute. Every person has something that they can bring to a project that makes it more unique and special. They give us facilities and resources and mentorship to help us start this program and business. For your co-op, I mean, you really want to use it as a learning experience, and that's really what IdeaWorks is all about.
Welcome to IdeaWorks, a Mohawk College initiative where students and faculty collaborate to solve real-world problems for a variety of organizations. On campus, it's a project center, but it's more than just a space. IdeaWorks is a research hub, a next-generation incubation space for the healthcare, energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors.
IdeaWorks labs mimic real-world working environments, bringing top-notch students and facilities together with training, applied research, and industry to solve the all-too-pressing challenges of tomorrow. We have an aging workforce. We have huge challenges in healthcare to reduce the cost of the delivery of healthcare.
We need more automated, efficient solutions. Duane Bender is the head of applied research in mobile and electronic health at IdeaWorks. So here in the Medic Center, we do applied research in e-health and mobile health activity. This is a place where we get things done. We actually roll up our sleeves and we write code and we make systems work.
A lot of the technologies that are used are the smartphone platforms, the tablet platforms, the cloud computing platforms. It's a great opportunity for our students to get up to speed on those platforms. Specifically, I think you'll see a massive adoption in the next few years of the mobile health technologies. And I think we're positioned really well right now to be leaders globally in the mobile health movement.
So this is my substation with all the control devices, with all the kind of circuit breakers, transformers, etc. So this is the way the power will be managed in the future? In the future. IdeaWorks Energy Lab Head, Nafia Almutweli, is a Mohawk College professor and the Chair of Energy Technology at McMaster University.
His IdeaWorks students are working on solving tomorrow's energy problems today. We are working mainly with utilities and energy companies. So with utilities such as Hydro One and local distribution companies such as Horizon, Norfolk Power and others, we are working on problems and challenges they have with their assets, preparing them for the future, preparing them for all these new technologies.
What will happen if I have 500 cars in one block of the city and everyone wants to have an electric car? That's what we are trying to bring to their attention in real data, not simulation. This is the future for the next 10, 15, 20 years. We are changing everything. We are changing the face of power. Totally. Collaborating with Mohawk students and leaning on the cutting edge research of the IdeaWorks teams, organizations solve today's problems while creating their future workforce.
This unique experiential approach means that students learn valuable skills while building relationships with future employers. I started with the program as a student researcher. As a student, I remember saying, wow, this was really challenging, but it was exhilarating at the same time. Justin Fyfe is the lead software architect at IdeaWorks.
When students arrive at our IdeaWorks program for the very first semester, we bring them up to speed on the tools that we use and that industry uses, building on what they've learned in the classroom. And for the very first semester, they're in education mode. We actually start giving them more and more responsibility.
They start interacting with the partners more directly, and they are put in charge of pieces of functionality that's required to deliver a project for an industry partner. Working with IdeaWorks was really a great synergy for us because we are a small company. We don't necessarily have all the skills available to us to be able to do everything we want to do.
And it worked out really well. We were able to meet with them on a number of occasions, and they developed a really slick-looking app for us. I started at Mac in '09 working in the nuclear industry, and I wanted to upgrade my credentials to the BTEC. And then the more I got to know the Mac facilities and the Mohawk facilities, I really started to get a feel for what IdeaWorks is trying to do.
And it was just something that's so cutting-edge and going to be so critical that I just wanted to be a part of it. So I jumped at the chance when it was offered. The Mohawk community is made up of people who are driven and passionate about learning. It's a place where innovation, applied research, and entrepreneurship intersect, bringing new ideas to life.
IdeaWorks is future-ready. Hamilton is really becoming a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. I'm feeling this real buzz and energy that the new Hamilton is going to be a great place for advanced manufacturing, for entrepreneurship, for how the arts and business and industry work together to create new companies. It's a very exciting time.
Everything you need or want for applied research is right here at IdeaWorks. It was really fun and challenging. It's very cutting-edge. And I think it's helped me grow as a person. I mean, it's actually work on a real project that's going to go into a real working environment. Knowing that you created something that's actually going to be used somewhere is really fulfilling. Students who come to IdeaWorks, I can guarantee them a job for the rest of their life.
