Polytech cracks Top 10 of research colleges

By Lethbridge Herald on December 9, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Polytechnic continues to climb the ranks among Canada’s top research colleges, rising one spot from 2024 and ranking ninth this year. 

According to a report by Research Infosource inc. the polytechnic reached ninth among the top 50 institutions in the country. 

Andrew Dunlop, associate vice-president, research said it is very exciting to be ranked among the top 10 two years in a row and it is something everyone very proud of.  

“We’ve been very deliberate in how we built our facilities, our expertise and our capacity, and the rankings actually prove that. The fact that we’ve gone from 11th to 10th to ninth proves that plan is a good plan and it’s paying off,” said Dunlop. 

He said the polytechnic has worked to diversify their research capabilities, develop relationships with stakeholders and leverage the strengths of their researchers to solve challenges and problems.

Applied research began with Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Aquaculture Centre of Excellence in 1999, leveraging global expertise and talent to meet the evolving needs of agriculture in southern Alberta. 

Since then, the Centre of Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CARIE) has expanded research operations significantly to encompass five themes: agriculture, food and environment, business and technology, health and wellness, justice and public safety, and sciences, social sciences and humanities.

“We are a new Polytechnic and polytechnics are defined in part by applied research and the ability to do applied research. We’re trying to put that brand out there and get people used to the idea that this is a different kind of institution now,” said Dunlop. 

As part of a three-year College Spotlight, Research Infosource also ranked the polytechnic fourth in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Partnerships and AI Completed Research Projects.

“By using AI tools in our research, such as analysis and modelling, we’re re-evaluating what’s possible from new, non-destructive crop-testing methods, to analyzing the ethical decision making of first responders with real-time conversational AI,” said Dunlop. 

He said students at the polytechnic have access to high-end equipment and they get to work in interesting projects that provides them with skills they can use in their field of study once they graduate. 

“Real projects for real industry needs and they can do it here. It’s not just a poster that they may see of a student working with some high-tech piece of equipment, that can be them in a year and it really does appeal to students,” said Dunlop. 

Throughout 2025, researchers at Lethbridge Polytechnic have been working on, or completing, research projects in various fields, including the greenhouse lighting trials with research scientist Seyed Hashemi, development of youth-focused virtual reality public safety exploration experiences, with Dean Kolebaba, principal researcher at the Centre for Public Safety Applied Research (CPSAR), a collaboration on non-destructive crop testing methods with Chandra Singh, Results Driven Agriculture Research chair and director of the Advanced Post-harvest Technology Centre and the completion of VR training scenarios for an industry partner with Tyler Heaton, industry liaison and research advisor, Spatial Technologies Applied Research and Training Centre.