McMaster University students and faculty are working with Hamilton’s bus operator, Hamilton Street Railway (HSR), on a major research project to improve the system, which carries 21 million passengers a year. McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering and the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics are working with the transit company to engage with customers and other stakeholders to put the transit network under the microscope. The project aims to better understand what customers want and need from transit, and to recommend ways to make the system more efficient.

Researchers from the University of Windsor, Toronto Metropolitan University and University of Guelph have been partnering with the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology Network (SWIFT) in its ambitious project to build a broadband Internet infrastructure for everyone in southwestern Ontario. The universities have been contributing important research to the project, which had it origins in 2011 and is now moving forward to build an ultra-high-speed fibre optic network across southwestern Ontario, Niagara region, Simcoe and Caledon. In bringing a high-speed connection to every business, home and farm, even in remote areas, SWIFT will make huge contributions to improving the quality of life and sparking economic growth for all Ontarians in this vast region.

iCity is a major collaboration between three Ontario universities and the private sector to use advanced data analytics and visualization technology to find innovative ways to improve urban transportation systems and city design. The partnership, between researchers at the University of Toronto, OCAD University, the University of Waterloo, IBM Canada and Esri Canada is bringing together experts in fields such as big data, GIS systems, urban planning and 3-D design – as well as working with municipalities, transit authorities, and the provincial government to ensure the data and analysis they put together can make a real-life, practical impact.