A ride fit for royalty, a champion for Chinatown, plastic roads, and more

Catch up quarterly with NAIT’s online magazine

Throughout the year at techlifetoday, we share well over 100 stories, covering student and alumni successes, news about NAIT, innovative research projects, and more. Each season, we round up the best of the best so you’ll never miss out.

Welcome to Volume 1, Issue 2 of the techlifetoday Anthology. You’ll find stories about a baking grad’s reality-TV win, a historic vehicle that once transported royalty and was recently restored by auto body apprentices, a study on using plastic to make roads, and much more.

It’s just a sampling of the great things that happen in our communities because of NAIT grads, as well as on campus through student projects and applied research. For even more stories like these, sign up for our monthly newsletter. Thanks for reading!

Best in baking

Priya Winsor (Baking and Pastry Arts ’19) thought she was being pranked when the producers of Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship reached out about being on the show. But they were serious – and, as it would turn out, so was she. The owner of Compass Chocolates took the show’s top prize, which she plans to use to expand the business.

Read about Priya Winsor’s win

Car for a queen

In 1951, future Queen Elizabeth II made her inaugural visit to Canada, riding through Edmonton in a Lincoln Cosmopolitan convertible. After ending up in Calgary, the car was later purchased by Edmonton-area collector Ron Lyons. Would NAIT Auto Body Technician apprentices be interested in restoring it? he wondered. The result is a ride fit, once again, for royalty.

See the restored car

Champion of Chinatown

Growing up, Linda Hoang (Radio and Television – TV ’11) spent much of her time helping at her family’s restaurant in Edmonton’s Chinatown. But the neighbourhood has struggled since then. Now Hoang is using her talents and skills as a social media strategist and influencer to help lift it back up.

See how Linda Hoang is promoting Edmonton’s Chinatown

Forestry: A family affair

In 2023, Cassady and Darren Spencer (Forest Technology ’25, both) decided to answer the call of the wild. It sounded different for each but led them to one place: as father and child studying the same program at NAIT at the same time.

Read about the Spencers’ experience of studying at NAIT together

Chef for a day

When Owynn Lopatynski began suffering from complications caused by Crohn’s disease, his love for cooking went on the back burner. But after becoming healthier recently, the high-schooler was eager to rekindle his passion. NAIT, the Alberta Dreams Foundation, and Chef Sean O’Connor (Culinary Arts ’06) of Fox Burger cooked up a unique way to help.

Read about Owynn Lopatynski’s day at NAIT

Just like the real thing

When the staff at NAIT’s Centre for Advanced Medical Simulation were emailed images of a digital twin students made of the facility, they wrote back to say they were sent photos by mistake. No mistake, replied the students – their renderings were that good. Here’s a look at how and why the aspiring animators and designers created a spitting image of one of NAIT’s most technical facilities.

Check out the students’ work

And the winners are …

NAIT offers no higher award than an honorary degree. This year’s recipients were recognized at the polytechnic’s Convocation ceremonies in June for contributions to the fields of mining and energy, education and business, arts and culture, and trades and diversity.

Meet Jim Carter, Brent Hesje, Carol Moen and Holger Petersen

Plastic roads

Can plastic be diverted from landfills as an ingredient in asphalt? NAIT set out to answer that question in partnership with local municipalities and Ontario-based GreenMantra Technologies. The answer involved the equivalent of 415,000 plastic bottles that did not end up in the trash.

See the results of the study