A significant product of STARaCom’s current international mandate is the formation of the International Laboratory on Learning Systems (ILLS), established in 2022 for 5 years to 2027. ILLS is a French International Research Laboratory under the administration of CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). The participants are McGill University, ÉTS and Université Paris-Saclay. Quebec/STARaCom/FRQNT ILLS leadership includes Prof. M. Coates (McGill) who is the ILLS Co- Director. ILLS includes 16 professors and their research teams, with 3 being STARaCom members.

ILLS researches AI and associated applications, including computer vision, natural language processing, biomedical imaging, and robotics. A primary objective is to mobilize research collaboration between STARaCom’s AI research community and counterparts in France. To this end, 3 France-based researchers work full-time at ILLS in Montreal. Additionally, French professors visit (4 to date) for durations of 2 weeks to 6 months. Montreal (10 to date) and France (4) based HQP are also hosted by ILLS, with 3 (to-date) being co-supervised by STARaCom and France-based professors. STARaCom and U. Paris-Saclay pay research stipends to co-supervised students.
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