Darius Inniss is a Mechanical Engineering Technology student at Sheridan College and is currently working with the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies (CAMDT).
With the SONAMI and CAMDT team, Darius helped small and medium businesses turn ideas into actual prototypes with the use of state-of-the-art technology.
We interviewed Darius to get to know him better as well as to understand what he does at CAMDT and how he helps businesses across Canada:
Why did you apply to work in Applied Research at your school?
I was first introduced to applied research by one of the lab technicians back in 2018, before then I was unaware of this type of work. I reapplied to applied research as an assistant because it allows one to work on a variety of projects. This large variety is allowing me to increase the scope of my capabilities and skills.
What is the best thing about working hands-on in applied research?
Working in applied research is just like working in the engineering industry. You have meetings with your research partners, design scopes to meet and timelines to make. In my opinion, the best thing about being in applied research is being able to see the project go from concept to a 3D design and then to a final working product.
What is the most surprising thing you learnt while working with your industry partner?
As I am a research assistant it allows me to get involved in different projects. Many things surprised me while working on them. The first surprise was how much time you’ll spend working on the 3D design.
After spending hours and hours in the 3D design it might not work and you’ll have to start over again. The most surprising thing was every successful project follows the same steps from beginning to end.
Would you recommend SONAMI for small and medium business entrepreneurs? Why?
My college’s applied research program helps their industry partners grow their businesses by giving them a well-equipped facility for projects. This lowers the cost needed to complete a project by allowing investments to go into parts and design instead of buying robots and equipment that would only be used once.
Having students work on their projects, decreases the stress on the industry partners’ warehouse/factory. This means that they can focus on their daily operations without worrying about their project falling behind.
Would you recommend SONAMI for small and medium business entrepreneurs? Why?
I would definitely recommend that small businesses and entrepreneurs use SONAMI. The amount of money one has and the tools/machines on hand are what will break or make a project. SONAMI changes that by allowing entrepreneurs to do more with what money they have.