Projets novateurs réalisés

All-photonic architectures for the generation of Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill states

Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2009, with headquarters in Toronto, Canada, the company has grown to 250+ employees, many of them scientists, researchers and engineers, working across all disciplines (hardware, software, applications, algorithms) to achieve this goal.
Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) states [1] are a promising candidate for encoding qubits for quantum computation in photonic modes due to their ability to be deterministically entangled into cluster states, the resource states for performing measurement-based quantum computation, by simply interfering them at beamsplitters [2, 3], and due to their inherent error-correction capabilities, notably their ability to correct for photon loss [4], the main source of noise in photonic systems. A promising protocol for generating GKP states from simpler non-Gaussian resource states (squeezed cat states) is known in the literature as the cat breeding protocol [5-7]. In this protocol, squeezed cat states are iteratively combined pairwise at beamsplitters and measured with homodyne detection such that they are distilled into a GKP state. The objective of this project is to generalize the cat breeding protocol for generating GKP states to include arbitrary linear optical transformations, and to include post-selection and feedforward between intermediate rounds of the protocol. The project will combine analytical techniques and numerical simulation/optimization to determine good settings for the interferometer and homodyne settings, as well as co-optimizing the Gaussian boson sampling-based (GBS-based) source of squeezed cat states [8] and the feedforward function between rounds of the protocol to optimize performance and benchmark it against the current state of the art [9].

La communication stratégique au service de la diversification des publics du MNS2

Ce projet de stage vise à soutenir les activités de communication du Musée de la nature et des sciences de Sherbrooke (MNS2), notamment dans le contexte du lancement de sa nouvelle exposition permanente Sève. Les musées de sciences jouent un rôle essentiel dans la diffusion des connaissances scientifiques et dans la démocratisation de la culture. Toutefois, ils doivent continuellement adapter leurs pratiques pour rejoindre des publics plus diversifiés et susciter l’intérêt de personnes qui ne fréquentent pas habituellement les institutions muséales.
Le projet s’inscrit dans une collaboration déjà bien établie entre le MNS2 et le Département de communication de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Des recherches récentes ont notamment permis d’identifier certains freins à la fréquentation du MNS2. Ces résultats montrent l’importance des stratégies de communication pour mieux rejoindre différents publics et valoriser la richesse de l’offre scientifique et culturelle des musées.
Dans ce contexte, une étudiante à la maîtrise en communication stratégique réalisera un stage de 18 semaines au sein du musée. La personne stagiaire contribuera à analyser les pratiques de communication existantes, à élaborer la planification stratégique des activités de diffusion liées à l’exposition Sève et à produire divers contenus destinés au site Web, aux réseaux sociaux et aux infolettres du musée. Elle participera également aux relations avec les médias et au suivi des performances des communications numériques.
Le stage permettra ainsi de renforcer la visibilité du musée et de favoriser la participation de nouveaux publics à ses activités. Il contribuera aussi à transférer les connaissances issues de la recherche universitaire vers le milieu culturel. Plus largement, ce projet participera aux efforts visant à rendre les connaissances scientifiques plus accessibles à la population et à soutenir la vitalité des institutions culturelles.

Vision stratégique à Saint-Henri-de-Taillon

La municipalité de Saint-Henri-de-Taillon est située en bordure du nord-est du lac Saint-Jean. Son accès à l’eau lui donne accès à des attraits comme la plage, la marina, un camping et parc national. Depuis 2025, le village accueille une nouvelle mairesse. Avec son équipe d’élus, elle souhaite explorer les enjeux, les orientations et la vision de la municipalité. Le projet prend ainsi une approche ascendante. Les enjeux, les orientations et la vision d’abord élaborés par les élus seront retravaillés par les citoyens, en plus de pouvoir proposer de nouvelles idées. Cette initiative permet à la fois aux élus de mieux connaitre la réalité de la diversité d’utilisateurs du territoire (villageois, villégiateurs, milieu communautaire et corporatif) et de mobiliser ces membres de la communauté dans les projets à venir. Le projet comprend ainsi trois objectifs : (1) redéfinir une vision commune pour la municipalité qui soit inclusive de la diversité d’usagers sur le territoire; (2) cocréer une feuille de route permettant d’alimenter une planification stratégique en lien avec la nouvelle vision, et ce, avec tous les membres de la communauté (monde municipal, villégiature, rang, corporatif, communautaire); (3) élaborer des stratégies de mobilisation dans la mise en œuvre des projets.

Analysis of whole body vibrations for bus operators

The Bus Design Innovation Program (BDIP) is an applied research and innovation initiative led by the Toronto Transit Commission in partnership with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU International and Local 113) and Centennial College. Launched in 2023, the program aims to reimagine bus design to improve operator safety, passenger experience, and overall system resilience. The BDIP focuses on advancing next-generation bus design through the following key objectives:
• Enhancing operator safety and security, particularly in response to rising incidents of workplace violence
• Improving health outcomes for operators and passengers, including whole body vibration and air quality
• Elevating customer experience through better vehicle design and functionality
• Establishing new industry standards for transit vehicle design across North America
The program follows a collaborative, iterative design model, combining labor, industry, and academic expertise to co-design with operators to ensure solutions reflect real-world needs; prototype development and testing of multiple design concepts and field demonstrations and roadshows to gather feedback from transit professionals.
As part of this project, the TTC is seeking to research and design enhancements to the operator cabin that meaningfully improve health outcomes for bus drivers. These improvements offer a range of interconnected benefits spanning physical health, cognitive performance, safety, and overall workforce sustainability.
From a physical health perspective, improved cabin design can significantly reduce exposure to whole-body vibration, awkward postures, and repetitive strain. Enhancements such as advanced seating systems, optimized ergonomics, and better isolation from vehicle-induced vibration can help mitigate musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in the lower back, neck, and shoulders, that are common among transit operators.
In terms of fatigue and cognitive performance, a well-designed operator cabin can reduce both physical and mental strain. Improved visibility, intuitive control layouts, and reduced noise and vibration levels help lower cognitive load, enabling drivers to maintain focus and situational awareness over extended periods. This can lead to fewer errors, improved reaction times, and safer driving performance in complex urban environments.

Arts Junktion Crafting Kits

The project focuses on expanding ArtsJunktion’s community impact by building partnerships with other organizations across Winnipeg, including school, community centres, and social service groups. The creation of craft kits using donated materials to assemble and deliver to partner organizations. The assembly and delivery will be carried out by volunteers. The goal is to strengthen ArtsJunktion’s volunteers base and their capacity to serve more community members.

Harvest Manitoba Education Materials

This project aims to aid Harvest Manitoba in their goals of alleviating hunger, advocate for meaningful support for anti-poverty and food insecurity initiatives, as well as to create material and tools used for educational workshops and activities about food insecurity and other issues to the broader community. The intern of this project will be working closely with Harvest Manitoba’s Education and Advocacy Department to assist in the completion of the following objectives: bi-weekly on-site food banks, Harvest Voices Report 2026-2027, create new and update existing educational materials. The intern is also responsible for maintaining the organization’s on-site community garden.

MQIM BSI

Vestcor, Atlantic Canada’s largest in-house investment manager, specializes in systematic quantitative investing and risk management to optimize portfolio performance. Vestcor faces problems from innovation to broaden the sophistication of international countries security selection and improving in growing fields of systematic derivative trading (options). Risk management and modelling of these strategies are needed to properly relay risks to stakeholders and realize problems in models before they materialize. Vestcor needs to enhance its quantitative models, statistical approaches, machine learning, risk assessment techniques, and advance financial modelling to improve portfolio management strategies. To remain on the front on innovation in the industry, the Quantitative Investment team requires empirical research and development of new techniques to improve team efficiency, decision-making, optimize risk-adjusted returns, and ensure long-term financial sustainability for its clients by allowing improvements by added ingenuity.
The project helps the partner organization (Vestcor) beyond day-to-day business operations by building long-term analytical capacity and strengthening the foundation of future innovation. Developing new quantitative techniques and more robust frameworks for international stock selection and systematic derivative trading help enable Vestcor to explore opportunities typically outside scope of routine portfolio management. These enhancements support strategic decision making, allowing Vestcor to test new innovative investment ideas.
The expertise required to solve this problem must involve strong foundations in math and statistics, skills with data science and manipulating data. The individual will also require deep understanding of quantitative finance with prior knowledge derivatives theory, understanding of capital markets, portfolio management, volatility modelling and scenario analysis with the ability to translate investment hypothesis in a testable framework.

AI-Assisted Document Intake and Logging Automation for Marine Warranty Survey Operations

The proposed project will improve Global Maritime Canada’s document intake and record-keeping process by developing an AI-assisted workflow that streamlines how project documents are reviewed, organized, and logged into an existing internal environment. By reducing repetitive manual steps and standardizing the information captured at intake, the project aims to improve operational efficiency and the quality of documentation used for project delivery and reporting. Global Maritime Canada is expected to benefit from less administrative time spent on document handling, fewer filing/logging errors, and faster retrieval of information needed to support ongoing work.

Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation

Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation serves the needs of community development, participation, and well being within an inner-city neighbourhood in Winnipeg. One of the challenges that Chalmers faces is that there is lower awareness and participation in their programs. Most of the residents do not have comprehensive knowledge of the available programs and services, and therefore, may not attend events or fail to access all the community-support opportunities available. The ways that Chalmers communicates with residents can also be enhanced in order to be more effective in reaching various group in the community.
This project will address these issues by enhancing event planning, communications planning, and outreach. It transcends everyday operations by coming up with more efficient and well planned methods of promoting / advertising events, attracting more residents and creating better community relations. To accomplish this, communications, event planning, social media management, and community development skills will be needed.

Hydraulic monitoring and analysis of wave–geotube interactions in Quebec, Canada

The objective of this project is to analyze hydraulic monitoring data to better understand how waves and water levels interact with geotube coastal protection structures in Quebec, Canada. The project focuses on the processing and interpretation of measurements collected from wave buoys, pressure sensors, and tide gauges to characterize the local wave climate, storm conditions, and nearshore wave transformation. By transforming raw monitoring data into meaningful hydraulic indicators, the project will help quantify wave energy dissipation, hydraulic loading, and the potential for wave overtopping. The results will support the evaluation and improvement of geotube performance as an innovative and sustainable solution for coastal protection under increasingly severe climatic conditions.

Pulse-based quantum evolution kernel learning for molecular property prediction using graph-based embeddings

Accurate prediction of fundamental chemical properties such as bond dissociation energies and reaction barrier heights remains a central challenge in chemistry and materials science. Classical machine learning methods have achieved notable success, yet they often face scalability limitations and difficulty capturing complex, high-order correlations in molecular graphs. Quantum Machine Learning (QML) offers a fundamentally different approach by embedding molecular systems into high-dimension representational spaces. Most existing QML models rely on parameterized quantum circuits optimized variationally, which can suffer from trainability challenges and noise sensitivity on current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware.
Alternatively, kernel-based approaches within QML embed classical data into quantum states and evaluate similarity measures between data points, analogous to classical kernel methods. While such quantum kernels can be implemented using parameterized circuits, they can also be constructed within a Hamiltonian dynamics framework, where classical graph-structured inputs are encoded into many-body interactions and similarity is derived from quantum evolution and measurement statistics on the evolved state. Because the underlying Hilbert space grows exponentially with system size, these evolution-based kernels can generate similarity measures that are difficult to reproduce classically in full generality while remaining naturally compatible with NISQ platforms.
Pasqal develops programmable neutral-atom quantum processors capable of analog time evolution and pulse-level control. Building on this capability, Pasqal has demonstrated Quantum Evolution Kernels (QEK) for graph classification tasks. This project extends QEK to chemistry-driven regression problems, specifically molecular property prediction, while exploring physically motivated pulse parameterization to enhance kernel expressivity, hardware compatibility and execution time. The anticipated outcome is a validated quantum kernel regression pipeline aligned with neutral-atom hardware, positioning Pasqal competitively in scientific machine learning applications and contributing to advances in catalyst design, reaction optimization, and materials discovery.

Pragmatic Investigation of Artificial Intelligence for Symptomatic Venous Thromboembolism Prevention: PRISM-VTE Study

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, is a common and potentially life-threatening condition affecting 1 in 10 people during their lifetime. Many cases occur during or shortly after hospitalization. Although hospitals aim to prevent these events, accurately identifying VTE using routine hospital data remains challenging, as diagnostic codes alone are often inaccurate.

This project will develop and validate a more reliable way to identify VTE using a combination of diagnostic codes, medical imaging records, and treatment information from The Ottawa Hospital Data Warehouse. Suspected cases from 2023–2024 will be reviewed and compared with expert clinical adjudication to determine how accurately the algorithm detects true VTE events.

By improving VTE identification, this research will support better prevention strategies, enhance hospital quality monitoring, reduce unnecessary treatment, and strengthen patient safety. The project will also train undergraduate students in applied clinical research and health data analytics.