New ISS Graduate Training Program and Awards application deadline

For those doing sensors research, interested in developing a career in sensors, or curious about the sensing industry:

The NSERC-CREATE Training Program in Integrated Sensor Systems (ISS) will be accepting its first students this September.

The ISS training program has brought together teams from four Montreal-region universities: McGill University, Ecole Polytechnique, INRS and Université de Sherbrooke.  The program has been carefully designed to develop the next generation of Canadian experts in integrated sensor systems.

Sensing is inherently a multidisciplinary field, and those who seek to advance and exploit knowledge in this area have a wide range of backgrounds, including physics, chemistry, mechanical and electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and medicine. Although often well-trained in their own domain of expertise they are not always ready to transfer their skills to industry.

Most students have little exposure to other related research domains and do not appreciate that sensors are complex systems where a multidisciplinary approach is essential. The creation of functioning sensor systems requires biorecognition or chemical recognition elements, sample delivery components (e.g. microfluidics), transducing elements, signal amplification, signal processing and packaging.

Our program is designed to provide exposure to a wide range of key techniques and applications and to help students develop essential business and industry skills for a smooth transition into the workforce.

Students in the ISS program will receive a series of hands-on workshops in laboratory skills, an annual Sensors Summer School and a set of short-courses that will provide the trainees with professional skills that are valued and requested by industry, including communication skills, intellectual property protection and management, project management and ethics.

Students are also expected to participate in an interdisciplinary research program in integrated sensors, as well as internships in partner companies and international exchanges with leading laboratories worldwide (graduate students only),

The CREATE ISS program can provide qualified students with financial awards for students undertaking the program. These can cover travel and living expenses necessary to take full advantage of this multi-disciplinary, multi-university program.

The NSERC CREATE Training Program in Integrated Sensor Systems is open to students in any member university, in a department or discipline which has a strong interest in Integrated Sensor Systems, and has been accepted to work on a sensor related research project.  aculty members who are interested in becoming a mentor for a student in the ISS Program, or in nominating one of their students for the program, please contact administrator-miam.engineering [at] mcgill.ca .

For more information about the ISS Program, please visit www.mcgill.ca/miam/iss.