University of Waterloo in Ontario opens an Artificial Intelligence Institute

The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has opened its Artificial Intelligence Institute. The institute will concentrate on foundational artificial intelligence (AI) and operational AI.

Foundational AI includes research on statistical learning, deep learning, game theory and data science. This is research that advances the whole technology industry. Operational AI research develops scalable, secure and transparent solutions for a wide range of applications.

Officials praise new institute

Feridun Hamdullapur, president and vice-chancellor of Waterloo University said: “The launch of Waterloo AI enhances Canada’s leadership in foundational and operational AI as it brings together world-renowned researchers with industry to accelerate innovation and prepare for future disruptions. By connecting research talent with industry expertise, Waterloo AI will identify problems and produce solutions that will actively benefit our society.”

Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development said that as a world leader in AI, Canada's talent and expertise attract millions from foreign investors each year. AI is expected to contribute up to $15.7 annually to the world economy by the year 2030.

Waterloo AI will pursue new areas of research that have important societal and business effects. The areas include healthcare, environmental protections, urban planning, manufacturing, autonomous systems and human-machine interaction. It will provide access to expertise by individuals and industry.

Waterloo AI is a joint venture between the two faculties of science and engineering. However, it will also include researchers from other departments including arts, applied health sciences, environment and science. It is also affiliated with a number of existing labs and institutes at the university.

The University of Waterloo

UW or UWaterloo is a public research university with its main campus in the city of Waterloo Ontario. It has a large main campus if 404 hectares or 1,000 acres of land besides the uptown of Waterloo and Waterloo Park It has academic programs in six different faculties and ten faculty-based school. It also has three satellite campuses plus four affiliated colleges.

Waterloo is a member of a group of research intensive Canadian universities called U15.

The university is famous for its cooperative programs. These programs allow students to integrate their education with applicable work experiences. The university claims to have the largest coop program of this kind in the world with 17,000 undergraduate programs and over 140 cooperative programs.

According to Wikipedia: "The university operates and manages 41 research centres and institutes, including the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research, the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing and the Institute for Quantum Computing. Official recognition and designation of all centres and institutes requires the approval of the university's Senate."

As discussed in a recent Digital Journal article the university has partnered with China in research on autonomous electric vehicles.

Previously published in DIgital Journal

University of Waterloo to partner with 2 Chinese institutes to research autonomous vehicle technology

The University of Waterloo located will become partners with two leading institutes in China to pursue research in connected and autonomous vehicle technology.

The university will partner with the Qinqdao Academy of Intelligent Industries (QAI) and the State Key Laboratory for Management and Control of Complex Systems (SKL-MCCS). An agreement was recently signed by all three parties.

The nature of the research

The Waterloo center's research activities will involve automated vehicle testing, human-like autonomous driving, applied artificial intelligence and deep learning in automated driving.

A number of initiatives are included in the agreement, including a shared research center for automated driving, faculty and graduate student exchanges, plus a Waterloo PhD program that will focus on autonomous vehicles, and the potential for Chinese startup companies to establish research and development facilities in the Waterloo region.

University of Waterloo taking a global view of research in the area

Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of the university said: “Waterloo is committed to taking a global view on research and development and this partnership represents a significant step in our goal of advancing the world’s understanding and use of new technologies. Our dedication to innovation and these types of partnerships will help us to continue to shape the future of Canada and the world’s technologies and economy.”

Yanchen Gao, senior vice-president of QAII for Intelligent Technology Research and Development and Incubation also stressed the international aspect of the research saying: "The Waterloo collaboration is another significant step to strengthen QAII's international profile, and we are committed to make it a great success. Parallel driving for intelligent vehicles is one of our hallmark technologies and we hope our joint venture with Waterloo brings networked autonomous driving to reality."

Funding of the research

The Chinese partners are committed to contributing up to one million dollars Canadian each year for five years. The university will provide $4 million to build a new autonomous lab in 2018. It is seeking matching funds from the government to support its initiative. Funding from other external sources will be pursued by all partners. The partners expect that many university-industry partnerships will be created using this joint research platform.

President of China's QAII and director of SKL-MCCS praises partnership

Fei-Yue Wang claimed:"I have been in close academic collaboration with Waterloo Engineering for 30 years in control, robotics, and intelligent systems and I am glad to witness this exciting opportunity to bring our cooperation to a new and much more grand level. Waterloo has been a world leader in engineering and computer science education and research and the Waterloo mechatronic vehicle research program has provided a solid foundation for the success of our collaboration.I am confident our joint effort will make Waterloo, QAII, and SKL-MCCS the leader and best in research and development of artificial intelligence and intelligent technology for autonomous driving. I also hope our joint effort will lead to the world's first PhD program specializing in intelligent vehicles and make Waterloo the hub of innovation and incubation in intelligent vehicles and technology."

The University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is a public research university. Its main campus of about 1,000 acres is located in Waterloo next to Waterloo Park. The university has six faculties and ten schools faculty-based. In 2016 the university had 30.600 undergraduate and 5,300 graduate students.

The university is a member of the U15 a group of research-intensive Canadian universities. It is famous for its cooperative education programs that allows students to integrate their education with relevant work experiences. It claims that its program is the largest post-secondary coop education program in the world with more than 17,000 undergraduate students in more than 140 coop programs.

In 2001 the university announced the development of the Waterloo Research and Technology Park in the north campus. The park was designed to house many high-tech industries in the area. It has the support of the university, Waterloo Regional Municipality, the provincial and the federal government. The aim is to provide businesses with access to the university faculty and co-op education students, and the university's infrastructure and resources. The project was started on June 2002.

The university has also worked in partnership with the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai. It even had a Dubai campus that opened in 2009 and provided degrees in chemical engineering, civil engineering, financial analysis, risk management, and information technology management. However in October 2012 the university's board of governors decided to close the Dubai extension.

Waterloo's research in the field of engineering has been ranked 43rd in the field in the 2011 URAP rankings and second in Canada. The engineering program has been rated as among the best in the world. It is often ranked second or even first in Canada although it has a much lower ranking on the world scale.

Published previously in Digital Journal

Study shows that tech students may be going to US rather than staying in Canada

A study by two students at the University of Waterloo shows that in the fast growing tech market many tech graduates are deciding to go to the US rather than stay in Canada.

Atef Chaudary and Joey Loi are graduates of the Systems Design Engineering(SYDE) program at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. The small study of 82 graduating students to which 77 replied showed that many in the program went straight to the US rather than stay in Canada. This appears to show a brain drain from Canada at least in the tech area. However, the two who did the study warned against its being extrapolated. Yet the study does give at least some evidence for a potential brain drain in the restricted area of technology graduates.

The tech area is the fastest growing market in North America and so there is fierce competition for graduates. Each student in the SYDE program had to take six co-ops in which they were required to work for companies to obtain experience. These co-op experiences are what drove many graduates to decide to work in the US. By the end of the term fully 40 percent of the students did co-op work in the US. Students working in the Waterloo area started out at 30 percent but declined ever since. Toronto jobs also fell precipitously from 70 percent to 30 percent. As their skills increased, it would seem that students found better co-op positions outside the country..

The reason for the migration south is that the US jobs pay better among other pluses. In advising Canadian companies how to compete Loi said: “Co-op replicates a realistic job search process. Make the internships in Toronto or other areas more enticing. One of the ways to do so is matching pay. We need it for tuition and also almost as a status symbol.” Average hourly pay for a US co-op job was $49.40 an hour. In contrast, the average pay on co-op jobs in Canada was only $25.40 per hour. Obviously, US pay is much superior. Fully six out of ten students who had a full time job at the time of graduation were working for a company that they had done a co-op with. Many students want to migrate to places such as San Francisco and Seattle where there are large innovative companies such as Tesla, Apple and others who are innovative and are attractive to new grads.

Loi said: “There’s a mentorship aspect. The perception exists that if you go to these bigger companies you’re going to get exposure to better people to network and get more opportunities for you, which is not the same for Canadian companies. If there were more high profile hires in Canada, engineers or others coming from the valley that would an attracting point.”

Obviously, if the Canadian tech companies are going to hire top people from Silicon valley in the US it would need both to up salaries and provide special incentives to lure them away. Neither may be practical. The least Canadian companies could do is to compete on the salary level. No doubt many would prefer to stay in Canada if the salaries came close to matching those provided in the United States. It may be that Canada is able to attract more from overseas as the political situation in the US appears threatening to some tech students from some countries. This may help Canada attract some foreign tech workers and students who would have otherwise gone to the United States.

At a global level, it would appear that China is also on the cutting edge of advancing technology and wants to become a global leader in artificial intelligence development as discussed in a recent Digital Journal article China is offering more to entice top researchers compared to competitors in US or Europe.

Chaudhary also notes that Canadian tech companies are not doing the right things to keep Canadian graduates here particularly on the salary level. Of 50 markets for tech start-ops Vancouver was the cheapest with Toronto and Montreal also faring well as competitors, but unless Canadian technology companies start to to compete with salary levels in the US they will fail to keep and attract the top talent they need.

Heather Galt, of Communitech said that many hope that students will study abroad and then return to start companies or contribute to developments in Canada: “I encourage my students to go and have that opportunity for international experience. It benefits the individual and Canada.I actually believe that going and having those expat opportunities is a fantastic part of how we as a country will build opportunities internally within our own country. The Canadians that I talk to in the Valley and Seattle, they have an incredible sense of pride. They miss home and love Canada. We need to encourage our companies, our schools and our students to share stories with one another to get excited. It shouldn’t be out of a sense of duty—in my mind it should be that you really believe and really want to be a part of what’s coming.” The small study is not in any way a definitive study showing that there is a brain drain. Indeed there are studies that show the opposite which is not surprising given the political uncertainty in the US at present. However, the study does show the need for Canadian tech companies to offer salaries that are competitive to those in the US. The Canadian government and investors have been promoting tech industry in Canada as discussed in a recent Digital Journal article. This investment will be in vain if top tech talent in the country decides to move south.

R