The Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE) opened their new office at Innovation Place today. DICE is Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s, and the province’s, first Technology Access Centre.

Sask Polytech’s Dr. Susan Blum describes it as a place where everyday problems meet reality and that could result in things like a needs analysis, a prototype developed or project development.

Director and Research Chair Dr. Terry Peckham says they can work on digital business challenges across the country but do focus on agriculture and mining. In Agriculture that could mean optimizing food processing systems to working with farmers to connect their machinery and sensor systems together. In mining, he says they work with everything from underground GPS sensors to using AI to control and optimize boring solutions at the mine face.

The goal is to make businesses more competitive in a global market.

Intellectual property for applied research projects at Sask Polytech is always retained by the industry partner, creating more incentive for future creative engagement and ongoing collaboration.