The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
There’s never been much debate over Sudbury’s status as a leader in mining technology in Canada and it seems that reputation is well established around the world, as well.
The three-day long MINExpo conference in Las Vegas wrapped up Wednesday with some 50,000 people checking out mining equipment manufacturers, job opportunities and higher education.
The Greater Sudbury Development Corporation organized a delegation from Sudbury that included city staff and Mayor Marianne Matichuk and representatives from 10 local companies that work in the mining sector. Ramesh Subramanian, the director of the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University, said he was blown away by the sheer scale of the conference.
“This was my first time there and it was simply amazing. The size of the whole thing. It was insane. I’m at an Ontario Universities Fair now and this is a pillow fight compared to what they have there. Almost 50,000 people there, it was amazing,” Subramanian said.
Laurentian was one of those 10 local companies or groups to join the city delegation. Subramanian was one of the few academic types to attend. He went to recruit students to complete their masters and doctorates in Laurentian’s mining programs.
“What I found was that I came across a lot of students from U.S. universities who want to come here to do their masters and PhD. Everybody knows about Sudbury there.
“These people were from University of Nevada at Reno and University of Arizona. They came specifically to see an event Mayor Matichuk hosted there, Sudbury Night. A lot of students came out for that, from University of Kentucky, University of Utah, Virginia Tech and more,” Subramanian said.
Sudbury is well-placed right now when it comes to attracting those students from the States. Schools with mining programs are experiencing declining enrolment and jobs are getting harder to come by.
“One of the complaints from the mining programs in the U.S. is that they are not doing too well in terms of enrolment. We’re doing fantastic in Canada. The numbers are through the roof. We have about 50 students in first-year mining engineering at Laurentian.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Sudbury Star website: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2012/09/29/laurentian-masters-phd-programs-popular-among-us-students