Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Continue To Dominate in the Toronto Montreal Corridor

Nearly two years ago we wrote an article in our sister site URTech.ca explaining that Machine Learning and AI companies are increasingly putting their resources in the area along Canada’s 401 highway through heavily populated area’s of Quebec and Ontario.  The so called Toronto – Montreal Corridor actually extends from Waterloo Ontario to Montreal, but no-one outside of the region knows where Waterloo is so we just say Toronto, Montreal.

Today we are astounded by the variety and quality of education, labs and people associated with Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence in general, that have take up residence in Ontario and Quebec.

There is no one reason for this expansion but there is good justification for this confluence:

1. A fantastic set of Canadian Universities that focus on Machine Learning have attracted some of the worlds foremost researchers and professors of Artificial Intelligence.
2. A dozen years ago Blackberry, based in Waterloo Ontario, bought a little Operating System company named QNX that produced a highly secure Linux operating system used by car manufacturers around the globe to run their infotainment systems.  QNX is now (one of?) the largest developers of machine learning, autonomous systems on the globe
3. Detroit based automobile manufacturers have their head offices, just across the US – Canada boarder from the 401, and they have more than a dozen production facilities along the 401
4. The investment climate is ripe.  Canada has free health care for all and low taxes.
5. That area offers the best of both cold and hot weather testing for devices that need to run outside (like cars and trucks)
6. Small cities like Stratford Ontario, just off the 401, have spent millions of dollars building out infrastructure for Vehicle to Infrastructure testing in real life environments
7. Large cities like Montreal and Toronto have aggressively promoted themselves as being “AI Hubs” , have opened more than one AI Centers of Excellence to attract startups and run frequent Machine Learning Conferences

It is common to see quotes like:

“Certainly, the Montreal ecosystem for artificial intelligence has brought us here,” says Siegfried Usal, Vice President, Strategy, Research and Technology at Thales and Director of CortAix. There is a concentration of talent, but there is also a culture of collaboration and sharing. Engineers, developers, scientists are predisposed to work together. They have the ability to pool their knowledge in an uninhibited way…

…There is a concentration of talent [in Montreal], but there is also a culture of collaboration and sharing. Engineers, developers, scientists are predisposed to work together. ”
SOURCE

and

Ottawa promised $213 million last September to fund AI and big data research at four Montreal post-secondary institutions. Quebec has earmarked $100 million over the next five years for the development of an AI “super-cluster” in the Montreal region.
SOURCE

While there is much notable Machine Learning research being done in Canada outside of the corridor, the focus of this article is the corridor so…. here are a list of some of the notable Companies, Universities and People working in AI along the Toronto – Montreal Corridor:

TOP 10 NOTABLE MACHINE LEARNING LABS IN ONTARIO & QUEBEC

1. Microsoft / Maluuba – Montreal (formerly Waterloo)
2. Google – Montreal
3. General Motors  – Toronto
4. Amazon – Montreal
5. Cisco – Toronto
6. Thanes CortAix (Center of Research and Technology In Artificial Intelligence Expertise) – Montreal
7. Adobe – Toronto
8. nVidia – Toronto (plus much investment in Montreal Universities too)
9. Uber – Toronto
10. Facebook – MontrealOk… there are so many notable companies with AI / Deep Learning / Machine Learning labs, we are going to list 20
11. Blackberry – Ottawa
12. LG – Toronto
13. Samsung – Toronto
14. Jimio – Montreal
15. SAS – Toronto
16. SCALE AI – Montreal
17. Dessa – Toronto
18. Renesas – Stratford
19. Elucid Labs – Toronto
20. CDL (Creative Distruction Labs) – Toronto

TOP 10 NOTABLE MACHINE LEARNING EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN ONTARIO & QUEBEC

1. University of Montreal has one of the best, if not the best, Deep Learning programs in the world
2. McGill University in Montreal has a large and expanding Machine Learning curriculum
3. Mila (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms) is the “Artificial Intelligence Institute of Quebec” that brings AI researchers together
4. University of Toronto has a very serious Machine Learning / AI program
5. York University (Toronto) offers a Machine Learning Certification for adult students
6. Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO) – Montreal
7. University of Ottawa has a lab for Defence and Security based on Machine Learning
8. University of Waterloo has a notable Machine Learning lab focuses on Deep Learning
9. Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute is a “portal for organizations to access the University of Waterloo (AI programs)
10. Vector Institute For Artificial Intelligence is a Toronto based non-profit focused on AI and Deep Learning

TOP 10 NOTABLE MACHINE LEARNING RESEARCHERS IN ONTARIO & QUEBEC

1. Yoshua Bengio is ‘the’ world famous Deep Learning Professor at the University of Montreal.  Read his story HERE.
2. Geoffrey Hinton has been called “Mr Robot” and works for both Google and the University of Toronto and is considered a “Pioneer of Deep Learning”
3. Richard Zemel is a Univerisity of Toronto Professor that has “foundational work” in Machine Learning
4. Julie Pineau is a McGill University Professor the co-directs the Reasoning and Learning Lab
5. Donna Precup is world famous for AI Reinforcement Learning at McGill
6. Christopher Pal is very notable associate Professor at Poly Montreal focused on AI with regards to pattern recognition
7. Alán Aspuru-Guzik works a the University of Toronto with “the integration of robotics, machine learning and high-throughput quantum chemistry”
8. Pascal Vincent is an associate Professor and the University of Montreal researches how human brain can be modeled with “novel machine learning algorithms
9. Jian Tang is a young Deep Learning and Natural Language researcher
10. Hugo Larochelle is a notable Deep Learning researcher for Google in Montreal