Announcing the recipients of IVADO’s postdoc entrepreneur funding

In April 2024, IVADO launched a call for applications aimed at postdoctoral researchers for its program focused on creating businesses derived from doctoral research. This program provides two recipients with a unique opportunity to develop a marketable prototype based on their doctoral research. In addition to a salary funding of $105,000 over 18 months, the recipients benefit from a research budget of up to $30,000, two $5,000 scholarships offered by the Arbour Foundation to encourage the hiring of interns, as well as privileged access to the IVADO network to kickstart their entrepreneurial project.

IVADO is pleased to announce the names of the recipients and to present their projects below.

Annie Desmarais

Supervised by : Arnaud Saj
Université de Montréal

Flow is developing a SaaS platform specialized in the field of mental health diagnostic assessment powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The product, the result of doctoral research in neuropsychology, consists of an intelligent supervisor that will help professionals to sort out signs and symptoms in the context of differential diagnoses. It is the first conversational assistant powered by cutting-edge algorithms connected to scientific mental health literature and the patient’s electronic medical record, to support the professional in his or her clinical reflection.

The project will be developed in the research laboratory of Arnaud Saj, professor of neuropsychology at the Université de Montréal.

Arthur Ouaknine

Supervised by : David Rolnick
McGill University

Rubisco AI is developing a disruptive technology based on drone imagery combined with artificial intelligence, to monitor plantations hundreds of times faster and more accurately than manual methods. This technology can detect, segment, identify species and estimate the carbon stored by each tree to ensure large-scale monitoring, transparency to eliminate fraud and demonstrate the positive impact of forest restoration.