Top Quebec innovation success stories in AI

Montreal, April 10, 2024 - Mila is proud to announce a new strategic partnership with Osedea. Together, they look forward to combining their expertise to contribute to Quebec's technology ecosystem and promote companies’ adoption of AI.

This collaboration will provide Osedea with access to Mila's cutting-edge research, consolidating its place as a major player in digital transformation in Quebec. In addition, by recruiting interns from Mila's student and research teams, and by participating in hiring events organized by Mila, Osedea will strengthen its team and its commitment to innovation. Together, they aim to contribute to Quebec's dynamic ecosystem of technological innovation and AI talent development. This partnership underscores Osedea and Mila's shared commitment to innovation, excellence and the training of skilled workers in technology.

"We are delighted to partner with Mila in this move to stimulate technological innovation in Quebec," said Martin Coulombe, President of Osedea. This partnership will enable us to reinforce our leadership in software engineering while actively contributing to the advancement of AI to improve the productivity of our companies in the manufacturing, mining and healthcare sectors. Together, we are determined to create a positive and lasting impact in the field of technology."

“Mila is very pleased to welcome Osedea to its community of partners. With this partnership, we look forward to connecting Osedea with Mila’s world-class researchers and AI talent in order to work towards our shared goal of supporting AI adoption and innovation in Quebec,” said Stéphane Létourneau, Executive Vice President of Mila.

About Mila

Founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Mila is the world’s largest academic research center for deep learning, bringing together over 1,200 specialized researchers in machine learning. Based in Montreal and funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Mila's mission is to be a global center for scientific advancements that inspire innovation and the growth of AI for the benefit of all. Mila is a globally recognized non-profit organization for its significant contributions to deep learning, especially in the fields of language modeling, automatic translation, object recognition, and generative models.

About Osedea

Osedea is a Montreal-based innovation firm specializing in the creation of customized technological solutions for businesses.  Founded in 2011, Osedea distinguishes itself through its expertise in artificial intelligence, robotics, software engineering and user experience design (UX/UI), in addition to its approach focused on innovation and collaboration with its customers. To find out more, visit www.osedea.com.

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We had the opportunity to participate in the ALL IN event on September 27 and 28, 2023, the largest gathering dedicated to AI in Canada. Innovation is at the heart of the Canadian economy and our values at Osedea, and we were inspired by the innovative ideas of the companies present at this event.

Our famous robot, Spot, had the honor of meeting the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who even had the opportunity to pilot it. Service robots, such as Boston Dynamics' Spot robot, contribute to automating repetitive and low-value tasks for humans, which is a significant asset to the Canadian economy. They will enable businesses to overcome challenges related to labor shortages, increase their efficiency, and enhance their competitiveness in global markets.

We also had the opportunity to present the Spot robot during a 20-minute conference with Thierry Marcoux and Armand Brière. The goal was to popularize service robots and explain concretely the utility of the Spot robot.

We would like to thank Isabelle Turcotte, Patrick Ménard, Louis Deslauriers, M.Sc. , Charlotte BA and the entire ALL IN team for this wonderful opportunity. You have done an incredible job in organizing a world-class AI event.

Employees deserve more than the bare minimum dental plan and yoga membership to excel personally and professionally. That’s why, when it comes to taking care of our team members, we make it our responsibility to support them in reaching their life goals. We do this by putting our money where our mouth is to offer high impact, inclusive and equitable benefits.

One area where we’d like to help? Supporting team members who want to start a family, whatever that may look like.

Here are a few reasons why this issue is important to us:

• Québec–home of our founding studio–is ahead of most Canadian provinces in terms of parental benefits, thanks to the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP). But QPIP still doesn’t cover 100% of a parent’s salary during their leave.
• There are grey areas within Québec’s 2021 Medically Assisted Reproduction Program, which doesn’t account for the realities of many individuals. The program lacks inclusive benefits, especially for surrogates and same-sex couples.
• Due to financial concerns, a common issue for couples starting a family is that one parent may be reluctant to take much parental leave, meaning they lose out on precious time with their child from the very start.

A more equitable parental program

To give our employees the chance to start a family without having to make sacrifices, whatever their gender or sexual orientation, we created our latest benefit program called “Building Families.”

It’s designed to support Osedea families in their parenthood journey, and make that journey inclusive (regardless of gender or diagnosis). This new benefit fills the gaps left by government programs, promotes equality and gives choice, flexibility, and support in the journey to parenthood, which looks different for everyone.

“Deciding to start a family is a big decision, and an exciting one,” says Martin Coulombe, founder of Osedea. “We believe that anyone can be a child’s caregiver, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. That’s why we offer everyone at the company equal support to start a family, care for that family, and create a bond with their new child.”

Building Families is one of the first programs in Quebec that provides fertility, adoption and parental-leave perks to help employees build a family their own way. The initiative offers a range of benefits that provide support and flexibility to employees throughout the journey. And while government programs differ between countries, Osedea is offering this policy to employees who work out of any of our three international offices in Montreal, Nantes, and London.

Here are the details of our new program:

• 80% of fertility-treatment costs, up to $20,000 CAD, including:
• • Coverage of extra treatment cycles of ovarian stimulation
  • Coverage of extra treatment cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF)
  • Coverage of cycles of intrauterine insemination
  • Coverage of fertility preservation cycles for all genders, including storage for five years
  • Coverage of surrogacy-related expenses
• 80% of local or international adoption costs, including legal fees, up to $20,000 CAD
• Top-up of government parental benefits: 12 weeks paid leave at 100% of salary, paid by the employer, for any member of a parenting team, including biological or adoptive parents, common-law partners and legal guardians.

Our goal is to place the employee at the centre of our decision-making process, start the discussion around parental benefit plans that include the LGBTQIA+ community and also inspire other companies to take that step too, so we create a more equitable society for parents.

For the second consecutive year, I had the opportunity to attend Hannover Messe, the world's largest manufacturing and technology trade show. The 2024 edition presented some notable differences from 2023, namely Canada’s more prominent presence, with booths spread across four halls and plenty of promotion surrounding the nation’s upcoming role as partner host country for 2025.

Having learned from my experience at last year's show, I was better prepared to navigate the vast exhibition halls—where many exciting things take place at the same time—and make the most of my time. Here are my key takeaways.

Our project showcased on the world’s biggest stage

We’re proud collaborators on Promark Electronics’ intelligent KonnectAi project, an in-process and final visual quality inspection system powered by state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms and technology. To celebrate its monumental launch, our client Jarred  Knecht (president of Promark and KonnectAI) took center stage to champion AI accessibility and demo KonnectAi at the Google Cloud booth (the cloud partner driving the technology). It was a powerful experience and an unmatched opportunity for this new innovation to attract new business.

Go digital, become sustainable

ClimateTech and sustainability were ubiquitous themes at the event. Once again this year, Siemens spearheaded these efforts, showcasing an array of cleanTech and potential solutions throughout their space. Remarkably, they boasted the largest and most impressive booth at all of Hannover Messe. Here’s a fun fact: it costs Siemens a staggering 32 million dollars annually to assemble and maintain this booth, which also serves as a year-round fixed showroom.

Primarily, Siemens highlighted three key solutions to address the climate change crisis: their EcoTech products, sustainable factories, and comprehensive sustainability solutions. These initiatives align with Siemens’ vision of achieving carbon neutrality globally by 2030. From employing digital twins to recycling tires within a circular economy, a plethora of innovative technologies were displayed to support this goal.

A standout example of these sustainable solutions is PlantSwitch, a startup using Siemens technologies to transform plants into plastics. The beauty of this innovation is that all the end products are compostable. In total, Siemens has developed 37 EcoTech products, seven of which were featured at Hannover Messe.

AI and XR everywhere

This year again, AI was omnipresent. It’s clear that companies not currently investing or considering leveraging AI to enhance their efficiency will likely find themselves at a disadvantage in the future. As Jarred Knecht recommended, he urges all manufacturing companies to initiate their AI journey with a small project. Often this represents a minimal investment for companies, thanks to various support programs offered to manufacturing companies such as SIPEM, IRAP, and ESSOR, just to name a few.

One standout company at the event was iGus, who expertly melded AI with sustainability. By integrating technology and AI, they’ve succeeded in eliminating lubricants from engines—a crucial innovation since just one liter of lubricating oil can contaminate a million liters of drinking water.

I also had the opportunity to try the new Meta Quest XR helmets. Once again, XR technologies have taken a significant leap forward this year! It’s remarkable how user-friendly this technology has become for manufacturing and design companies. XR enables engineers and designers to prototype and visualize products in a virtual space, enhancing collaboration and expediting the iteration process before physical production. This not only streamlines the design process, but also significantly reduces time-to-market.

Future unveiled

In conclusion, if you have a keen interest in industrial technology, automation, R&D, and want to be blown away by future possibilities, Hannover Messe is an unmissable event. For Canadian companies, the 2025 edition holds particular significance, as Canada will be the honoured partner host country. This special role will feature a central pavilion showcasing over 200 leading Canadian organizations, alongside daily conference programming that includes product and technology presentations on stage. This will be a prime opportunity for Canada to highlight its industrial and technological innovations, fostering new partnerships and shaping future industries.

See you in 2025!

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Have you met Spot? This groundbreaking quadruped robot, manufactured by American engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics, is a new addition to our technology roster. We continue to be impressed by the innovation and agility Spot brings to a variety of industries. In this article, we want to share a bit more about Spot and why we partnered with Boston Dynamics.

Innovation is at the core of Osedea

We’ve been in the field of custom software development for the past 10 years. Our goal is to always best service our clients and be a strong partner for their digital needs. We invest in our own innovation, so that we can accelerate the innovation of our clients and bring them value faster. Typically, this means that we devote internal resources to learn and play with cutting-edge technology (much like we did in 2015 when React Native first emerged). We undergo training to get familiar with the technology and gain a strong sense of its applications. And, if it has legs, we choose to offer the innovation as a service offering to our own clients.

Why invest in robotics

We are observing a context of labor shortage and our innovation is focused on leveraging robotics to remedy this. By combining our expertise in software engineering to robotics, we can build autonomous automated solutions for the core markets we service.

Boston Dynamics - the ideal partner

Boston Dynamics is one of the most advanced companies in the robotics field. The Spot platform they have built has a proven track record and is being used in hundreds of companies across the globe. The commercial robot comes with an out-of-box controller but, thanks to its developer-friendly API, the robot can be extended with new customizable features via development on Spot’s Software Development Kit (SDK). That’s where we come in!

As an official Boston Dynamics solution partner for Canada, we’re launching the advanced autonomous robotics segment to help our clients automate their routine inspection tasks and capture data safely, accurately and frequently. For example, our solutions can be particularly useful for the manufacturing and construction industries.

How can Spot help companies?

Spot excels specifically where there is a risk for workers’ safety and security or where tasks are routine and repetitive. A great example of this is automated autonomous inspections where the robot can move by itself, gather data (such as temperature or gas presence), take photos, etc. We’ve also observed Spot take part in a variety of tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic like disinfecting public spaces, welcoming patients at the hospital, and monitoring construction site progression.

Here are some other cool things Spot can do (we suspect you’ll be as wowed as we were):

• Carry up to 14kg of inspection equipment
• Programmable to perform repeatable autonomous missions to gather data consistently
• Navigate terrain and avoid obstacles as they appear, thanks to its 3600 perception points
• Cruise over loose gravel, grass, curbs and stairs
• Attach and integrate unique outside hardware

See Spot in action in our video, and contact us for a demo or to discuss your business opportunities.

Photo credit: yakari pixel

Original article in Le Devoir by Alain Mckenna.

Final stop. Spot, the robot dog from Boston Dynamics, arrived at Bonaventure station this summer. The automated and autonomous quadruped was enlisted by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to detect anomalies in subway stations. And to signal when it encountered an issue, so to speak.

Between 1 am and 4 am for about ten nights spread out between May and September, after the stations were closed, Spot patrolled the Montmorency platform of Bonaventure metro station in downtown Montreal. Every ten meters, it took photos of the station. In the background, these photos were compiled to create a 360-degree portrait of the station. Custom software then identified the presence of undesirables: burnt-out lights on the ceiling, graffiti on the walls, garbage on the floor, and other elements that did not belong there.

To truly put the robot dog to the test, STM intentionally left waste lying around and sketched a few fake tags on the station walls. The STM’s goal was to determine if it would be possible to automate a portion of the surveillance and maintenance of its stations, so that its employees could quickly get to work when they arrive in the morning.

Almost perfect

This project came to fruition thanks to provincial financial support called "Support for Innovation Projects." This program assisted Osedea, a Montreal-based startup, and the mastermind behind this project, in covering half of the costs of this technological showcase. Osedea, which lent its Spot robot dog to the STM, received $48,000 from this program.

Moreover, through this exercise, Osedea was able to develop a software platform allowing them to use Spot with other partners across the province. The robot dog is equipped with a camera and an articulated arm with a gripper. This combination enables Spot to perform tasks that surveillance cameras alone cannot accomplish.

"In the event of an emergency, Spot could cut off an electrical circuit," explains Robin Kurtz, the Osedea developer responsible for Spot's proper functioning. "Spot can also perform readings other than visual, such as detecting high levels of CO2, which is useful for fire services and other departments..."

However, it was not Spot's role during its patrols at the Bonaventure station, as clarified by Osedea. In fact, certain limitations of the robot, such as its battery autonomy, affected its usefulness in the STM project. The robot dog could not open all the doors or operate the revolving doors, which would have allowed it to visit the entire station without human intervention.

Osedea estimates that Spot accomplished approximately 83% of what a human would have done in its place. It's not bad, but it's not the productivity gain that truly makes robots appealing to companies, whether private or public. Especially considering the acquisition cost of the robot, adds Martin Coulombe, the president of Osedea.

"If Spot cost four times less, it would make a huge difference," he says. Because inevitably, the shortage of workers creates a demand for automated and robotic solutions, but not all organizations have the means to invest in this technology. According to its manufacturer, Boston Dynamics, adopting your own Spot robot dog costs around $75,000 USD ($100,000 CAD).

A threat to risky jobs

The leaders of Osedea still see cases where such a robot can prove its worth, even today. In fact, one could say that the first jobs threatened by the arrival of robots are precisely the riskiest jobs.

"In situations where a human cannot perform tasks due to safety or accessibility reasons, a robot can be practical and even cost-effective," assures Martin Coulombe. "For example, a robot like Spot can carry out surveys in areas of a factory where occupational safety standards prohibit a worker from going."

Spot also has advantages over a simple surveillance camera system. There are already 2,000 cameras spread throughout the Montreal metro. However, their usage is regulated by rules that discourage the integration of computer vision capable of identifying people or objects, such as the AME system produced by Osedea as part of their pilot project in the metro.

For the STM, this test has primarily launched the discussion on future applications where a robot like Spot would simplify the lives of its approximately 11,000 employees. Without citing specific cases, spokesperson Philippe Déry indicated to Le Devoir that a more thorough inspection of the approximately 71 kilometers of tracks on which the metro operates could be entrusted to a keen-nosed robot dog.

"If Spot can perform more dangerous tasks; while it does so, humans can do something else", concludes Philippe Déry.