Two projects at Aurora College received a financial shot in the arm last week.

The school announced on Aug. 7 nearly $350,000 committed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The money will help the school address critical issues in the Western Arctic and enhance community engagement, according to a news release.

One of the projects to benefit is 'a remotely piloted aircraft systems platform for methane detection.' It received $152,140 that will go toward measuring methane emissions from things like beaver dams and other natural and artificial sources in the Western Arctic.

The NWT Makerspace ecosystem project is getting $195,543 to go towards micro-manufacturing equipment, including direct-to-film printers, heat presses, laser engravers, laptops and Adobe design software licences.

"These resources will be packaged into community kits that will rotate among Makerspaces in small NWT communities," it stated. "The project aims to foster creativity, innovation and small business development by providing artists, craftspeople and community members with access to state-of-the-art technology and training."

Jennifer Rafferty, the project's manager, said she actually knew about the funding in March. Despite how much time has passed, she's still very excited, she said.

"Putting together an application like this is a real collaborative effort," said Rafferty. "It takes a team."

It's a team of about six people, she said. They ended up writing an application that was a little more than 35 pages.

"I'm just really proud of the team that put this together," she said. "We're going to look at how or if natural materials, like bones or antlers, can be used on things like laser cuts, which allows artists to design faster and in greater quantities." 

The school is currently purchasing the required equipment, Rafferty added. She said they'd be delivering workshops for groups of about 10 come fall and winter. 

"This will allow people to expand their offerings and be more proficient in the amount of work they can produce," she said.