Canada’s AI edge is human

Canada produces some of the best artificial intelligence researchers in the world. Shabnam Hazare's job is to make sure they stay here.

Growing up in Iran, her natural curiosity led her to study electrical engineering, even though those around her believed that “engineering is not really suitable for girls.” She still went for it.

“The ingredients are already there. All that's left is to put it all together.”

Shabnam hazare, mitahs

Today, as a senior advisor and national AI leader at MitaxHagzare helps pave the paths that she once had to walk herself.

She is leading efforts to connect Canada's brightest artificial intelligence researchers with the businesses that need them most.

Hagzare sees Mitacs as the organization she always wanted to exist: a nexus connecting industry, academia and the next generation of talent.

This liaison role is especially important in Canada, where the challenge is to retain AI talent rather than create it. Despite being home to world-class universities and internationally recognized researchers, Canada is facing a brain drain in artificial intelligence, as AI Minister Evan Solomon talks about I called recently “moment of crisis”

The risk is that skilled workers will leave for new opportunities elsewhere and Canadian companies will continue to be sold out. foreign giants.

For Hagzare, the solution is systemic. “The ingredients are already there. All that's left is to put it all together,” she said.

Mitacs connects businesses and researchers, providing access to high-quality talent and much-needed funding to accelerate innovation. The organization also provides support to researchers who want to start their own companies.

“Pre-seed and early-stage companies have difficulty accessing capital, in what is often referred to as the valley of death,” Hagzare said. “Mitacs works to support entrepreneurs emerging from academia with evidence-based ideas, helping them survive this stage, grow and ultimately raise capital at a later stage.”

Mitacs itself has been around for 25 years, but its influence has grown over the past decade. Since 2018, the organization has supported more than 11,000 corporate partners and 46,000 interns, resulting in more than 35,000 innovation projects and $1.42 billion invested in research and development. Of this amount, more than $174.4 million was allocated specifically to projects related to artificial intelligence.

Mitacs interns bring cutting-edge research skills and experience to help companies solve real-world problems. Each trainee is supported by a faculty researcher and an industry partner who needs their specialist knowledge to carry out the innovation project.

Projects typically last at least four months, but can extend throughout post-secondary school, and in at least 31 percent of cases, partners hire full-time interns.

“Capital support certainly helps; it's a value-add. But the real barrier to entry is attracting high-level talent, and that's what Mitacs helps stimulate,” Hagzare said.

According to Hagzare, when Mitacs places researchers in-house, everyone benefits. Businesses get the research they need to innovate. The scientific community evolves through new discoveries and published papers. And the interns themselves become part of the talent pool, which directly flows into Canada’s innovation economy.

Mitacs sees a clear fit between its own approach and Canada's broader AI ambitions. Pan-Canadian AI StrategyThe program, now in its second phase, is focused on bridging the gap between research and application by bringing Canadian ideas to commercialization and scale at home. Hagzare said Mitacs plays a critical role in making this vision a reality.

The results speak for themselves. Former Mitacs interns went on to lead entire departments at the very companies where they once worked. Others contributed to life-changing medical discoveries. Mahla Abdolahnejad, who joined a health technology startup Scinopathy Through his employment at Mitacs, he helped train the company's artificial intelligence model to detect skin cancer in people of color and now works there full-time as a data scientist.

In another initiative with Liquid AIMitacs supported a founding team of University of Waterloo students to develop an AI-powered bedside monitor that detects life-threatening post-operative complications in real time. This solution is now used in many regions of the world.

“Mitacs has a proven ability to attract, develop and utilize top AI talent, and help Canada retain it. By strengthening the talent pipeline and creating high-impact partnerships, we are accelerating Canada's AI program and global competitiveness,” said Hagzare.

Hagzare believes Canada's real opportunity lies in its people. If researchers are given the opportunity to stay and build here, their work could come out, she said.

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Feature image courtesy of FluidAI.