About
// Place. Standard NBCC.ca Header here //
Contents
About
The New Brunswick Community College's Mobile First Technology Initiative (MFTi) provides applied research and development services to private and public sector entities in New Brunswick.
MFTi is supported primarily by an National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) – Industrial Research Chair for Colleges grant; and financial and in-kind support from industrial partners IGT, T4G, TVC, Mariner, Accreon, and Stellar Learning Strategies.
MFTi has received additional support through grants from New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), National Research Council of Canada – Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC–IRAP), PETL, Springboard, UNB, Knowledge Park, and TechImpact.
“In addition to having access to highly skilled instructors and students, NBCC is very flexible and can rapidly adapt to the needs of industry. This can be a benefit to all of the business community by helping to commercialize their product and service ideas in a very efficient manner.”
David Small, Director of Advanced Research and Innovation at IGT.
MFTi has completed many commercializable innovations through technology: Audio Adaptor & Method to improve the accessibility of text-to-speech apps on mobile phone calls (US PATENT APP. NO. 14/953170 GRANTED MAR. 2017); Custom hardware & software that enables BMM Test Labs to increase efficiencies in testing of electronic gaming machines; NBCC Wellbeing App for Android, BlackBerry, & iOS that provides emergency contact information for and authoritative information about mental health and mindfulness; and Apple TV app for the Abigail Massey At McAdam Station book series by NB author M. Walma. Broader impacts include development of highly qualified personnel through faculty secondments, student research assistantships, and knowledge transfer into the classroom.
Mission
Vision
Approach
Services
History
The Chair
William McIver, Jr., PhD (Bill) is the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Mobile First Technology at the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC). He conducts applied research in the practical application of mobile information and communication technologies to a wide range of industrial and social use cases. He also manages the NBCC Mobile Ideaspace, a physical and virtual laboratory spanning the NBCC's six campuses and designed to leverage NBCC’s competencies, tools, and infrastructure in support of early-stage innovation across the province. Bill has performed research in academic, federal, and industrial contexts. He has patented and licensed technologies. He is a former Senior Research Officer in the Institute for Information Technologies of the National Research Council (NRC) in Fredericton. He led research projects in NRC that designed and implemented Web-based video prototypes for remote health care use cases and a production system for automated vehicle location and next stop announcement for public transit. The latter project received the 2010 KIRA Award in the category Technology Advancement / Private with Redball Internet. His current research interests include interconnected user experience between mobile and television-based app frameworks, captology, and design thinking.