In 2013, leveraging its expert faculty and industry collaboration, Lambton College began partnering with SMEs on research projects focused on IT and digital technologies, including mobile apps development, cloud computing, and IoT. The growing demand for businesses to adapt to these advancements, along with regional efforts to expand the Sarnia-Lambton Digital Technology and IT Cluster, fueled this initiative.
To further this digital technology research, Lambton established the Information Technology Communication Research Centre (ITCRC) with support from an Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Innovation Enhancement grant. This funding transformed the center into a dynamic platform for digital transformation, enabling SMEs to benefit from collaborative projects in software design, cloud computing, VR, gamification, AI, big data, and data science.
The ITCRC has built a strong reputation for advancing digital technologies across various industries. In 2024, due to the success of ITCRC, the centre became a Technology Access Centre (TAC), and rebranded to be the “Digital Transformation Lab” (DTL) as part of the College and Community Innovation Program managed by NSERC in 2024.
