Imtehaze Heerah, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Camosun College, Victoria BC, Canada
The LCAMP 2024 conference in Aalen, Germany, was highly informative for our team from Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It offered incredible networking opportunities and unexpected collaborations. Shortly after presenting The Canadian Learning Factory: Approaches and Aspirations, I was approached by Izaskun Kamiruaga Bilbao (Head of Innovation) and Maier Amor Ondarra (teacher in the Higher Vocational Education Program) from CIFP Tartanga LHII in the Basque Country. Although their institution was not one of the LCAMP partners, both Izaskun and Maier were very interested in collaborating. I welcomed the opportunity to engage and proposed that, once our robotic platform for the Collaborative Learning Factory (CLF) was fully developed, we would share all relevant design files and documentation to support their team’s participation.
The Camosun College team spent the Summer of 2024 adopting the work accomplished to date by the LCAMP partners. Improvement opportunities were identified within the design, and a complete and fully functioning robot was developed. By the Fall of 2024, our team had updated the robot design, completed the electrical systems, and presented the new completed robot version to our EU partners. Following the completion of our robot prototype, we held a virtual meeting with our Tartanga colleagues to formally introduce the project and lay the groundwork for collaboration. This was followed by a subsequent session that brought together four students from the Electronic Maintenance Higher Vocational Education Program at Tartanga: Maiber Coimbra Lijeron, Eider Fernandez-Llamas del Rio, Christian Garay Salinas and Mario Gonzalez Fuentes, along with their teacher, Roberto Fernandez González.
The plan we collectively decided upon was for the Tartanga team to assist with the electrical wiring along with part of the control system. As a first step, the Tartanga team successfully built a simplified version of our robot and developed a mobile application that allows for Bluetooth-enabled remote control; this represents a meaningful addition to our own development work and is a great example of student-led innovation. During our last virtual update meeting, it was evident from the student interaction that the project was very well received and offered a rewarding challenge.
At the 2025 LCAMP Conference in Sweden, the team from Tartanga was able to compare the Camosun robot with those built by our German colleagues and consider what other opportunities exist for ongoing partnerships. This collaborative undertaking by the Camosun and Tartanga teams highlights the positive impact of the LCAMP project on an ever-widening community of colleges within the European Union (EU) and around the world. It provided an enriching experience for students and faculty in Basque Country, in British Columbia, in Germany, and indeed across the LCAMP network and Alliance members.
Our team at Camosun is currently engaged in a technology and knowledge transfer with our colleagues Prof. Ralf Steck and Prof. Klaus-Dieter Rupp from DHBW, Heidenheim and their team. We are undertaking a CLF robot exchange over the Summer of 2025 and look forward to learning from each other’s findings. This complements the already established partnerships with colleges across the EU.
These initiatives clearly showcase the value of international collaboration, broadening the impact of the LCAMP project and expanding the potential for real innovation preparing students for jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector. We look forward to deeper ongoing connection and cooperation with LCAMP partners, LCAMP Alliance members, and other training centres committed to new ways of learning, teaching, and working together.
