Since 2008, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has named Fredericton as one of its annual Top7 communities four times, including in 2024.
To reward the city, the ICF licensed the opening of a new institute through New Brunswick Community College’s (NBCC) Fredericton campus after the post-secondary institution proposed the idea.
Simon Potter, the director of NBCC’s college office of research enterprise, is excited about the opportunity and the potential it holds for the economic development of the region.
“It’s really important for us to benchmark ourselves internationally with a quality Canadian education, but it also enables us to advertise Canadian teaching methods to the rest of the world. Hopefully, it will shine a spotlight on some of the teaching work that we’re doing here,” said Potter.
The ICF is a network of communities and partners that provides research and training services with the goal of helping communities build innovative, inclusive and prosperous economies.
The annual Top7 communities are chosen through the results of detailed questionnaires that are submitted by communities around the world. According to the ICF, the chosen communities chart new paths to lasting prosperity for their citizens, businesses and institutions that offer lessons to other communities globally.
Laurie Guthrie is an economic developer and smart city strategist for the city of Fredericton. She said that the city is a stakeholder in the new institute and has been directly working through the process with NBCC.
“We refer to Fredericton as Atlantic Canada’s innovation hub and knowledge capital, we have Atlantic Canada’s highest concentration of intelligence workers here,” said Guthrie. “For the ICF, it really made sense to establish an institute here.”
This is just the third global institute for the nonprofit organization, with the first two being established in the U.S. and Taiwan.
NBCC held a launch event for the new institute on Oct. 28 and 29. Over 100 people attended the event which Potter said was a “really good turnout.”
“Government people, municipal people, right through to academia and industry were represented,” said Potter. “It was really well received, everybody has been raving about it.”
Potter said that the influence of the institution will be immediately felt. It will start offering courses developed by ICF on its smart city methodologies. The courses can be taken by people outside of NBCC.
The three main areas that the institute will be focusing on within the region are connectivity, accessibility and the sustainability of the intelligent community.
Guthrie noted that the emphasis on accessibility is an important initiative. NBCC is planning on increasing its accessibility for a wide variety of demographics, from neurodivergent people to those with physical disabilities.
“I don’t know of anyone else doing it,” said Guthrie. “I think it’s pretty groundbreaking and future-focused.”
The main action that is being done to support this initiative is the “digital twinning” of NBCC campuses.
Potter says the two NBCC campuses in Fredericton have been set up with sensors around the building that are going to be used to develop a way for people with neurodivergent sensitivities to navigate the building without having to enter it.
This was also the area of the institute that Potter said he was most excited for, due to a personal connection as his son is on the autism spectrum.
“I’m really excited about some of the accessibility work that we’re starting here. The digital twinning of the campus is a really exciting first step towards that,” said Potter.
