A long-term collaboration with academic partners across France has culminated in a memorandum of understanding between the University of Waterloo and Inria — France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology.
The MOU was signed on April 26, 2023 by Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, Research and International at the University of Waterloo, and Cécile Vigouroux, Director of International Relations at the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. French Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau and Ambassador Michel Miraillet were also in attendance.
“I am delighted that the University of Waterloo has signed a memorandum of understanding with L’Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria),” Charmaine Dean said. “We take immense pride in our international collaborations and the MOU we are signing today outlines a framework for further cooperation between Inria and Waterloo in order to explore possibilities for collaboration on research activities.”
Delegation
from
France
and
Waterloo
senior
leaders
and
researchers
stand
together
after
a
memorandum
of
understanding
between
the
University
of
Waterloo
and
Inria
was
signed.
Photo
credit:
Office
of
Research
(both
photos)
Waterloo has strategically collaborated with the University of Bordeaux, also a partner of INRIA, for more than 10 years and has been growing relationships with research partners and institutions across France during the last decade. INRIA is an excellent partner for Waterloo and Canada given its focus on developing international collaborations and existing alignment with a number of French universities and mutual research interests in information and communications technologies, applied mathematics and computational modelling, along with artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, human-computer interaction, robotics, networks and security.
The foundation for this partnership can be credited to Raouf Boutaba, Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science (standing in photo), who recognized the benefits of collaborating and championing partnerships between researchers at Waterloo and French institutions.
Recently, Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Edith Law and Professor Hélène Sauzéon at the University of Bordeaux were awarded funding to create an associate team at Inria.
The research consortium — titled Curiosity-driven Learning Across the Lifespan, or CuriousTech for short — will be directed by CS Professor Edith Law and Psychology Professor Myra Fernandes at Waterloo, along with Professors Hélène Sauzéon and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer at the Inria Centre at the University of Bordeaux.
Learn more about the memorandum of understanding between the University of Waterloo and Inria on Waterloo News.
Waterloo–Inria Associate Teams and International Research Chairs
NetMSS
—
NETwork
Monitoring
and
Service
orchestration
for
Softwarized
networks
2018–2020;
renewed
2022–2024
NetMSS
is
an
Associate
Team
formed
between
Inria
RESIST
and
the
University
of
Waterloo
focusing
on
network
softwarization
and
network
security.
NetMSS
is
led
by
Jérôme
François,
Inria
Research
scientist,
and
by
Raouf
Boutaba,
Professor
at
the
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science.
Professor
Raouf
Boutaba
also
held
an
Inria
International
Research
Chair
(2017–2022)
attached
to
Inria
RESIST
at
Nancy
Grand-Est.
Loki
2018–2020
Loki’s
research
explored
original
ideas,
fundamental
knowledge,
and
practical
tools
to
inspire,
inform
and
support
the
design
of
human-computer
interactions.
The
late
Professor
Edward
Lank
held
an
Inria
International
Research
Chair
attached
to
the
Loki
team
at
the
Inria
Centre
at
the
University
of
Lille.
Symbolic
2022–2024
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science
Professor
Éric
Schost
is
the
Waterloo
principal
investigator
on
Symbolic,
an
Inria
Associate
Team
focusing
on
symbolic
computation
research.