Innovative Projects Realized

Can deep learning algorithms be trained to automate the classification of information held in historical and repeat photographs?

Repeat photography is a valuable tool for evaluating long-term ecological change. Historical photographs used for repeat photography often predate conventional remote sensing data by decades, and the oblique perspective of the photographs capture details of the landscape absent in nadir imagery. To date, most approaches to quantifying landscape change using repeat photography have involved manual classification techniques (i.e. demarcating land cover categories by hand), which are time-consuming, expensive and difficult to reproduce consistently. The objective of this proposed research project is to develop a new approach that automates the classification process using deep learning models. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning in artificial intelligence, and has previously been used to dramatically improve the performance of tasks such as speech recognition, visual object recognition, and object detection. This project will configure and train a deep learning model to classify photographs, and assess the accuracy of these results using existing land cover data.

Advanced Recommender Systems for Ecommerce

Numerous studies have recently proposed and highlighted novel techniques for recommendation, motivating the project of building the next generation of recommender systems for ecommerce platforms. This proposal aims at experimenting with one high-potential technique for modelling the recommendation problem, that makes great usage of the complexity of ecommerce data: Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). GNNs are increasingly used in recommender systems. However, much work remains to develop versatile and robust GNNs for ecommerce data, since the data is large-scale (often millions of users and thousands of items) and heterogeneous (mixed types of data, including images, textual description and categories of items, as well as sociodemographic and behavorial data of users).
The partner will benefit from transfer knowledge in this nascent domain and a strong scientific approach on GNNs for recommendation tasks.

Impact des modifications de la politique d’aide sociale sur la santé des nouveau-nés au Québec

En 2013, le gouvernement du Québec abolissait le supplément d’aide sociale pour contraintes temporaires à l’emploi chez les familles biparentales d’enfants de moins de 5 ans. Ces familles déjà assez vulnérables (avec un revenu se situant nettement sous le seuil de pauvreté) perdaient ainsi 12% de leur budget habituel. Cette recherche vise à évaluer l’impact de cette mesure sur la santé des nouveau-nés issus des ménages ayant subi les coupures. L’hypothèse de travail est la suivante : la santé des bébés (faible poids à la naissance, prématurité et retard de croissance) qui naissent dans des familles biparentales visées par les coupures à l’aide sociale est relativement moins bonne après les coupures qu’à la période pré-coupure, comparativement aux enfants issus de ménages non concernés par les coupures, notamment les familles monoparentales et les familles biparentales d’enfants plus âgés. Cette hypothèse sera testée sur base d’analyses statistiques portant sur deux bases de données administratives couplées: le fichier des naissances et celui des prestataires de l’aide sociale de dernier recours au Québec.

Guidance and Control of a Tandem-rotor Helicopter Landing on a Moving Platform

The development of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a growing area of interest. An important step in the creation of a fully autonomous flying vehicle is the ability to precisely and smoothly land on a target. The goal of this research is to develop a UAV landing system that is able to track and land on a moving platform. The project will involve developing a guidance and control system that can plan a descent trajectory and track it down to the platform. The proposed system will be robust to strong wind gusts and still provide a smooth touchdown to avoid damage. The advantage to NGC is that this autonomous system would expand the capability of their UAV platform. This system can be applied not only to the current project. but to a variety of different aerospace vehicles and applications.

Of Wine And Roses. La France et le Québec anglophone, 1919-1989

« Vive le Canada français ! Et vive la France ! »

Avec cette déclaration tonitruante du général de Gaulle, lancée depuis le balcon de l’Hôtel de Ville de Montréal en 1967, s’amorçait la plus longue période de froideur entre Ottawa et Paris. Elle ouvrait cependant la voie à toute une tradition historiographique y voyant « l’abandon de l’abandon ». Autrement dit, avec De Gaulle, la France aurait retissé une relation spéciale avec un territoire historiquement français : sa principale émanation serait une diplomatie culturelle vigoureuse, portée par la francophonie.
Un tel discours est problématique : d’une part, il écrase non seulement la complexité des liens franco-canadiens et franco-québécois noués tout au long du XXe siècle. D’autre part, il ne tient pas compte de la diversité des carreaux constitutifs de la mosaïque canadienne tout autant que de la mosaïque québécoise. En effet, une partie significative des élites provinciales, qu’il s’agisse d’élites économiques, financières, culturelles, voire diplomatiques, sont anglophones – et ce depuis le traité de Paris (1763). Elles font donc office d’interlocuteurs privilégiés lorsque le Quai d’Orsay est amené à déployer une politique étrangère vis-à-vis du Québec comme vis-à-vis de la Confédération, y compris jusqu’à aujourd’hui.

Advanced interconnects manufacturing toolbox for the Integrated Innovation Chain for Digital Prosperity

The ever-increasing complexity of integrated circuits and systems, induced by ubiquitous portable electronics, internet-power applications and artificial intelligence (AI), necessitate to increase the number interconnections between the chips in a package level like never before. These advanced packaging approaches in turn require novel patterning technology to define the connecting lines between the microelectronics chips. Thus, we propose to develop processes for an advanced interconnect technological toolbox enabling the fabrication of reliable high-performance metallic interconnections at the device/circuit level and at the system/packaging level for microelectronic chips, molded wafer chips and organic substrates for the next generations of computing systems.
This proposal will leverage the “Chaine d’Innovation Intégrée: Prospérinté par le Numérique” newly acquired state-of-the-art tools located at C2MI and 3IT: a molding system for wafer reconstruction, metal plasma etching tools, a nanolithography e-beam writer and a maskless aligner for direct laser writing. This tool box will be used to target applications such as superconducting devices for quantum computing and neuromorphic chips for efficient AI-based edge computing.

Doggy Bathroom – Digital Marketing Manager Intern Application

The project is to plan an integrated digital marketing strategy for the remainder of the year. Through analyzing sales and advertising data, I will translate the results into insights for future campaigns. Working with the photographers and graphic designers, I will schedule and execute the campaigns accordingly. Following execution, success of the campaigns will be measured by key metrics which I will analyze in order to continuously improve strategy.

Miistro

The project that Miistro would delegate to the intern would be based on the strengths/interests of the intern in order to leverage their skills to gain experience and bring value to its users. In terms of user engagement, the project would include conducting questionnaires with current Miistro users, strategizing outgoing marketing campaigns, and cultivating strong relationships with our users. In terms of accounting, the project would include reviewing our numbers, conducting reports in order to gain insight into growth and expense saving opportunities, and to also polish our already robust system processes.

EaseCare/Mitacs Internship

As we are focused in the area of mental health, we want to ensure we get a clear understanding of the competitive landscape in general telehealth both nationally and internationally. We seek to further understand the current methodologies and platforms that exist and explore how we can best position our offering. As we further launch our services, we want to clearly articulate our value proposition and how we can
help Canadians in need. We need assistance in terms of marketing strategies, client cultivation, creation of a community, brand expansion and general analysis of opportunities and risks. This is a high paced, rapid growth start up in a high demand industry.

Momentum Development Support

The intern would write a business strategy for expansion into other jurisdictions and a review of Momentum’s existing internal structure and identify a) if any new roles or organizational changes are necessary to support growth and expansion into multiple jurisdictions, and b) what roles should be prioritized in development of the other service streams in the business strategy. This project would inform a critical element of the long-term growth and sustainability of Momentum Development Support Corporation. It would also provide an opportunity for Momentum to work with other jurisdictions to address their service delivery needs and provide persons with I/DD with necessary opportunities, and supports where required, to meet their individualized needs in the community.

Respiratory Health System and Pandemic Early Warning System

The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost ventilation system which accurately detects and records both patient treatment data and environmental data is in great need. Further, such a system will allow to create a global health map. This research and resulting hardware and software will not only benefit the current research of COVID-19, but also assist in the long term identification and management of potential respiratory pandemics.

Sustainability Framework for Junior Mining Companies

This project seeks to develop a sustainability framework for junior Canadian mining
companies that identifies and reconciles core sustainability obligations in the mining sector.
The scope of this framework will include governance, transparency, health and safety,
environmental performance, climate mitigation, project financing and engagement with
communities. The project will help to determine which standards, practices and processes
should be adopted to improve their sustainability performance. This framework will help this
company to reduce risk and will help to bolster their sustainability performance and
reputation. It is our hope that the project will resonate with other juniors and mid-tier
companies in the mining sector and thus also transfer these benefits to these firms, raising
the sustainability performance of the industry as a whole.