Sault engineering students solve issue at local sawmill

College students in Sault Ste. Marie are using technology to solve issues local industry partners are experiencing.

CTV News spoke to several electrical engineering students from Sault College who have created a way to simplify complicated jobs in a sawmill.

The model, created by the students, represents a solution to a real-world issue at Boniferro Mill Works.

An operator at the local sawmill constantly scans video monitors, looking for issues like log jams and the automation will help reduce the workload.

"This will be able to simplify the process a little bit and also able to maximize the fibre coming out of the Algoma forest," Nathaniel Boniferro, the general manager of the sawmill, said.

"Any kind of errors that are made means there is some kind of downgrade in the lumber or perhaps be brought down to chip form."

The automation features sensors that determine the size of logs and which mill they should be moved into.

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"We thought about a bunch of scenarios, the 'what-ifs,'" third-year electrical engineering student Joshua Rodriguez said.

"What if this happened? What if that happened? And based on all those what-ifs, we created programs for them so that if any scenario happened, we already had a plan for it."

The group of electrical engineering students visited the job site to understand the issue and worked with the company to find the best solution.

"Working with an industrial partner really gets you to know what it’s going to be like once you graduate and work in the field," said another 3rd-year electrical engineering student Ethan Bergamin.

"It’s completely different working with physical, existing equipment and there’s a lot more challenges that can arise from that that we may not be able to anticipate from working in the lab."

The project took four months to complete and sawmill officials said it will be operational within the next year.

Now, college staff are looking for the next challenge for their students.

"Sault College is actively looking for dirty and dangerous jobs that we can help automate," said Paul Larsen, the automation project manager at Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology.

"We are always looking for opportunities where our students can apply what they’ve learned to the betterment of Canadian industry.”

Not only does this project benefit Boniferro Mill Works, but the work done by these students will also be used on their resumes once they graduate from the process automation program.

Staff at the college said graduates are hired in short order and they believe this real-world experience plays a factor.