Research project title
AI for intelligent electronic medicine
Education level
All education levels accepted
Director/co-director
Director: Marco Bonizzato
End of display
June 1, 2025
Areas of expertise
Electrical and electronic engineering
Unit(s) and department(s)
Department of Electrical Engineering
Department of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal
Conditions
The objective of the sciNeurotech Lab is to provide the cornerstone demonstrations for the next generation of intelligent neurostimulation technology for movement rehabilitation.
We develop new neurostimulation therapies, aiming at restoring sensorimotor function after neurotrauma, translationally from discovery in rodent to application in human medical technology, tailored and personalized to each user by artificial intelligence.
This project is open to engineering students, as well as mathematicians, physicists or related disciplines.
Candidates are required to have strong Python or Matlab coding skills, top experience in data science / ML / AI or in neurotechnology.
To apply, please send us CV and grades. Send to marco.bonizzato institutional email @polymtl.ca
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The sciNeurotech Lab is committed in training students and postdocs with interdisciplinary backgrounds, biomedical and control engineering, to neuroscience and neurosurgery, to medical technology and AI. This pluralism makes the sciNeurotech Lab a unique environment, characterized by rare intervention models, a strong orientation to discovery and collaboration.
We are convinced that a strong, diverse, and interdisciplinary team is the ultimate enabling factor to help each member achieve their very own education goal, whether that involves a future as a professor, a medtech/AI industry leader or an entrepreneur. We are committed to offer you tailored mentorship for your career choice.
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Detailed description
You will develop a new generation of AI system to control neuromodulation*.
This development will require an algorithmic framework to handle optimal treatment delivery, a problem too complex to be managed manually.
We are developing AI tools notably based on Bayesian Optimization. Our AI innovation consists of a combination of:
- theoretical contributions to machine learning
- optimization with real-time autonomous control of neurostimulation delivery.
You will study how optimization can generalize across different types of neuroprosthetic problems, and tune machine learning strategies to the requirements of specific clinical problems and neuroscientific applications.
You will develop clinical tools - which we want to test with our neurosurgery partners! - that can radically change the way we do neuromodulation today and improve neuromodulation treatment for thousands of individuals.
This project will allow you to develop multiple cutting-edge neurotechnology skills:
- be at the forefront of Neuro-AI, an emerging discipline of AI. Work on theoretical and applied AI novelties.
- recording and decoding brain signals
- develop and deliver the most advanced brain stimulation interventions
- discover and implement new neuroprosthetic and BCI technology.
What science should you expect? Check out some of our previous publications:
*, Neuromodulation is one of the most rapidly growing neurosurgical interventions, consisting in implantable devices delivering electrical microstimulation to restore brain function.
Financing possibility
The positions are fully funded with a guaranteed bursary of 28,000$ (PhD) and 23,000$ (MSc). Postdocs are guaranteed 55,000-65,000$ gross salary (depending on experience), and with up to +10,000$ through bursary programs, and international postdocs can benefit from a provincial tax exemption program.
Tuition fees (MSc, PhD): Study Costs and Financial Aid | DESS, Master's, PhD (polymtl.ca). In brief, tuitions are 3,500 to 3,900$ per year for Québec, French and Belgian francophone students at MSc and PhD, and for international non-francophone students at the PhD level only having an exemption (see next paragraph). International non-francophone MSc level tuition is instead much higher. Our lab cannot consider compensating for these tuition fees.
Tuition fee exemptions: Polytechnique Montréal offers international students registered in a doctoral program an exemption from differential tuition fees. With this scolarship the student ends up paying the same amount of tuition fees as Québec’s students. Maintaining this scolarship after the first year requires successfully completing at least 9 credits of courses (at Polytechnique or at a Québec university) during the first year, with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0/4.0.
We offer extensive support for you to obtain your own bursaries. Students rewarded with competitive bursaries receive a bonus to further increase their salary.
For non-francophone students: mandatory and optional classes in French/English.
The case is different for students in Biomedical or Electrical Engineering.
Throughout a doctoral program, students in Biomedical Engineering can select courses taught in English, except for two mandatory courses, one of which is given at the first year: Bases du génie biomédical | Programmes d'études (polymtl.ca). Although the final evaluation is bilingual, and several non-francophone students succeed every year, the lectures in French may prove to be more challenging to non-francophone students. The other course in French is seminar-based and can be taken at the second year.
Students in Electrical Engineering have only one mandatory course in French, which is seminar-based: Séminaires | Programmes d'études (polymtl.ca). This course can be taken at the second year, allowing more time to improve their French. Courses in English can be selected in all other cases, if desired.
The lab team -as well as Polytechnique- will extensively support your efforts to become proficient in French during your studies.
Attachment(s)
Marco Bonizzato
Assistant Professor
