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Napier
University Electronics Design Support Centre
"The
work we have done for Canan is a good example of the breadth and scope
of the services available from the Electronics Design Technology Support
Centre for Scotland," notes Doug Houliston, Support Centre Manager.
The Support
Centre, co-located with the Scottish Advanced Manufacturing Centre at
Napier University, has been able to help many tens of companies throughout
Scotland to adopt new technologies and design methodologies. Its success
is in no small part due to its networking skills and the range of support
services it can offer in partnership with organisations such as Scottish
Enterprise, Local Enterprise Companies and Independent Business Counsellors.
These are often the first port of call for small companies, such as
Cànan, which have specific requirements.
Cànan
Ltd was set up ten years ago as a spin off of Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the
Gaelic-speaking College of the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Initially, the company's work focused on providing Gaelic subtitles
for television. Over the years, however, it has extended its reach into
the development and publication of educational materials for the growing
Gallic-speaking market, as well as into related fields such as copywriting,
translation and design services. Its most recent project has been the
development of a multimedia studio and it was in the conception of this
major addition to the company's resources that Napier entered the picture.
Donella
Beaton, Managing Director of Cànan, recognised that if the company
were to realise its ambition of providing interactive language courses
over the Internet, it would have to adopt new technologies including
software programming and other skills. Napier helped the company to
apply successfully to the government's TCS (Teaching Company Scheme)
programme whereby a suitable graduate is provided for a two-year period
to transfer new skills into the organisation, under the supervision
of an academic monitor. With graduate Euan Brown now in place, Cànan
has taken on a number of new projects on behalf of LearnDirect Scotland
to produce Gaelic language courses and in the longer term, to create
more compehensive on-line language materials using a dedicated methodology
which could be adapted for use in teaching other languages.
The Support
Centre has also benefited from the collaboration and is currently exchanging
ideas with the University of the Highlands and Islands about distance
learning and other means of technology support for the far-flung reaches
of the area.
Cànan
is by no means an unusual client for the Centre. Its projects reflect
many of the diverse economic activities of the country, and range from
helping to develop a seismic recording system for a company involved
in oil and gas exploration to applying image processing techniques to
improve the fickle eating habits of farmed halibut.
While the
take-up of the TCS scheme is increasingly popular, the Support Centre
as often as not, provides other services that range from a simple second
opinion, to project management and support, to advising on funding sources
and ultimately to helping with effective routes to design and manufacturing
of new products. The Centre also sponsors regular training in new technologies
and more information on current courses can be found at www.e-design-scotland.org.uk/
Cànan
have now been awarded a TCS
Certificate of Excellence for its work.
