The teaching city: Oshawa partners with schools

NRU
June 7, 2017
By Sarah Niedoba

In an effort to build a reputation for urban research excellence, Oshawa has entered into a new  partnership this week with Durham College, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the University of Toronto and the Canadian Urban Institute. The initiative - which dubs Oshawa a “teaching city” - aims to allow the schools’ students to use the city as a case study for their research.

The idea was conceived a year ago in a conversation between Oshawa city manager Jag Sharma and UOIT energy systems and nuclear science chair Dan Hoornweg. Hoornweg had previously written about the concept of a teaching city, modelled off of existing teaching hospitals - if medical professionals had a place to practice their craft, why shouldn’t city builders?

“We spend three or four times as much on urban infrastructure as we do on health care, and there’s about 1,300 licensed teaching hospitals in the world, and yet there weren’t any teaching cities,” Hoornweg told NRU.

With the memorandum of understanding establishing the partnership signed, a steering committee made up of representatives from each institution will develop areas of interest for students to explore.

“What we’re looking to do is leverage the knowledge and talent pool we have in our backyard, and see what urban solutions we can come up with,” Sharma told NRU.

Those solutions could range from car-sharing programs, to new energy-saving watershed procedures.

“For us, a huge priority is walkable communities - improvements in how we look at transit, redesigning our trail network, and really anything we can do to make our communities more accessible is key,” Oshawa mayor John Henry told NRU.

Students working on research related to the city will be given access to relevant city data sets.

“We’re looking at longer-term internships between the academic institutions and the city,” Hoornweg explains.

“Student’s capstone projects will actually be related to issues found in the city itself.”

In the event that a student’s research is deemed relevant, the Canadian Urban Institute will work to smooth the transition between research implications and actual policy.

“We’ll be able to say to both the students and the city, here is how you get this to work in a municipal setting,” Canadian Urban Institute executive director Peter Halsall told NRU.

According to Hoornweg, this process, if successful, will create an atmosphere of innovation in Oshawa.

“More than anything I think it’s an attitude change,” he says. “You can actually feel the difference between a teaching hospital and a regular hospital, and that’s what we’re hoping for on a city-level. We want residents to be proud of the fact that this is a city where new things are being tried.”

Hoornweg says that he expects the partnership to outlast him, and span decades into the future. Henry agrees with him, saying that he hopes it will signal a shift in the Oshawa’s reputation, from an automotive city to one invested in pushing boundaries.

“Some of the most innovative research is happening in these schools, and by the time it gets to us, years have passed,” says Henry.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be on that leading edge of design and development?”