Service – PCCA

OUR SERVICES

CONSULTInG/ADVISORY

We provide consulting and advisory services with specializations in applied research and digital transformation, particularly in the areas of healthcare, environment and the arts/digital media. Our framework for digital adoption/transformation consulting/advisory builds on the individual experiences of our team, with the aim of cross-leveraging for new interdisciplinary projects.

CAPACITY BUILDING

We conceptualize, design, team-build, launch and or manage STEM/STEAM capacity building programs with partners in industry, community, non-profit, academia and government. Our goal is to narrow the digital divide between tech-related opportunities and marginalized groups through innovative, diverse and inclusive programs in education, training and upskilling

C4G ProJECTS

Interdisciplinary Computing for Good project development round out our services. We build the partnerships for impact programs and innovation projects. We take on leadership and delivery roles from ideation & strategy, partnership development to final delivery & evaluation, including funding (government, foundations, industry). Making it happen.

PROJECTS

EARTH DATA STORE & ANALYTICS

An interdisciplinary $1.6M 3-year project based at the University of Victoria with the National Research Council Digital Health and Geospatial Analytics Program.

STEAM, DaNCE & RT3D

Addressing the digital divide with remote paired learning to teach the teacher in creative and technical skills for hybrid performances.

MENTAL HEALTH & YOUTH

Seeking to build resiliency and mental/cognitive well-being among youth and students in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

EDUCATION | Strategic Initiative Spotlight

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR DIGITAL PROGRAMS

The PCCA mission to support capacity for digital programs has led to the formation of an initiative aimed at empowering youth or individuals that are re-training to master digital technologies for cloud computing, initially for applications using geospatial data and then broadening to include other types of data store including real-time 3d. These programs are in the midst of development for certification of educational credit.
In preparation for a Digital Supercluster call for capacity building projects, PCCA is continuing to evolve a model that aims to assist in the fostering of digital skills through paired learning, industry-university-and-community collaboration, and social/environmental impact or computing-for-good (C4G) projects. It is envisioned that participating students, both university and community, will be as paid internship, work-integrated-learning or scholarship positions. Support for the hardware and cloud resources will also be worked into the proposal(s).
To join the PCCA EDUCATION email list, please send Yvonne Coady an email at ycoady@coastalcomputing.ca. This email is low noise, and is where new programs/projects and requests for partners will be announced.

EARTH DATA STORE (EDS)

This initiative builds on the ongoing Earth Data Store (EDS) project supported by the Digital Supercluster and other partners. The EDS has an emphasis on geospatial data, but in reality, the parameters for the projects themselves are flexible enough to accommodate most student interests. As part of the work on the EDS project, we have developed tools and techniques for use on the Microsoft Azure platform for storing geospatial data, where the underlying techniques can apply to any cloud platform.

PAIRED LEARNING | STUDENTS

The initiative is designed as a paired learning experience. In previous summers, students from the VERNA J. KIRKNESS EDUCATION FOUNDATION program visited Dr. Coady's Lab at the University of Victoria. The program addresses the under-representation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students at Canadian universities. With scholarship funding, these high school students were visiting for a couple of weeks to get a taste of university life in an engineering program. The pairing with university students in the lab was a fruitful and exciting learning experience on both sides. In this new age of potentially-reduced social interaction, it is wise to consider what elements of a paired experience would apply to remote collaboration.

PAIRED LEARNING | PROFESSIONAL

As a paired learning experience, the target of this program is not (just) high school students. The goal is to develop cloud computing competency at a local level to enable development of the technological capacity to securely create, manage, backup, and control access to cloud computing applications and data sources. The implicit goal is to share the tools to enable a true data sovereignty built on top of commercial cloud services. As such, a mid-career professional looking to add a new competency is a great candidate for the program. The specific project will be jointly-designed, and to be conducted as hybrid or remote work. This synergy of pairing students and industry professionals benefits both.