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By Ian Gustafson

student experiences

RDP shares highlights of 2025 impact report

Jan 29, 2026 | 11:20 AM

Red Deer Polytechnic held its annual impact breakfast, where the institution highlighted the progress made and challenges faced during the last academic year through its 2025 impact report.

RDP President Stuart Cullum said it means a lot to be able to share what the school has been able to accomplish every year.

“What we recognize is that RDP is a post-secondary of the community,” he said. “There are a lot of invested community members, industry members, and municipalities who all want to see RDP be successful because it’ll ensure the community is successful.”

It’s important, he explained, for RDP to report back on how they’re doing and what impacts they’re producing. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the work within RDP.

“I think the past year has gone great. We have a really clear strategic plan, and we know we need to continue to make steady progress on that plan, and we are,” he said. “We’re growing our domestic enrolment, our trades enrolment, our applied research, and our partnerships. Some of the infrastructure development that’s going to be needed to sustain that growth is happening. We’re seeing, I think, a lot of really good momentum and traction in terms of where RDP needs to grow to continue to have that impact.”

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In the impact report, they focused on four main areas, including advanced manufacturing, health care and health technology, energy innovation and social impact.

A big part of advanced manufacturing is the expansion of its Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing – Technology Access Centre, where they’ll add advanced equipment and spaces to increase applied research and partnership. This was made possible through a $12.9 million investment by the provincial government. They broke ground on the expansion in May 2025.

In healthcare, they highlighted their new and expanded healthcare programming, such as the new diagnostic medical sonography diploma, launched in the fall and the expansion of its practical nurse diploma.

In energy innovation, they reflected on plans to expand energy innovation programming. Through its Energy Innovation Centre and Alternative Energy Lab, they’ll install rooftop solar panels and combined heat and power units to achieve net-zero energy status by 2031. Within the Energy Innovation Centre, RDP established its new energy test hub through a $600,000 donation from RBC.

And through social impact, this past year, the RDP Alumni Association donated $100,000 to the RDP Student Industry Engagement Fund, which is meant to cover costs for students to attend conferences, forums, and events.

Meanwhile, RDP reported that they introduced five new credit programs, including those in artificial intelligence, advanced accounting, network administration, and healthcare.

Last year, they had 10,500 apprenticeship, credit and non-credit students to its campuses in over 80 programs. The institution also achieved a nine per cent increase in domestic credit enrolment, and 95 per cent of its learners obtained relevant employment.

Multiple students also shared their experiences in applied learning and research, including Mehika Arora and Kenzie Wylie, who presented their virtual reality training system for wheelchair curling used by para sport athletes in Curling Canada.

Through grant funding and partnerships with Curling Canada and the Canadian Paralympic Committee, they were able to create a real-world gameplay in VR.

Wylie, who recently graduated from the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Animation and Visual Effects program, said a team of five students took part in the initiative.

She told rdnewsNOW it started basic before adding more features along the way through feedback from Curling Canada and athletes.

“The tools they use currently to train athletes are very limited, and having a program in VR was really innovative and interesting,” she said. “They just wanted something their athletes could use to train at home because access to equipment and training facilities is just really difficult.”