EDITORIAL
The ReSMiQ management team is preparing the 2018 Annual Report, the annual symposium, the annual general assembly of the members and the annual meeting of the Board of Directors. These activities will allow us to take stock of the past year and focus on future directions.
Annual Symposium 2019
The program for this edition will be posted online in the coming weeks. It will be held on May 9 at Concordia. We can already announce the presence of the invited lecturers including Gabriela Nicolescu from Polytechnique Montreal, Hassan Rivaz from Concordia University, both members of ReSMiQ, as well as Keith Bowman from Qualcomm Technologies (USA), DL of IEEE SSCS, and Sorin Cotofana from Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), DL of IEEE CASS. See you there in large numbers.
As part of the poster competition, which will be presented during a special session, graduate students affiliated with ReSMiQ have until April 9 to send us their proposals for papers. Best presentation prizes will be awarded to the top three submissions selected by a special jury (more details).
New member
We are also pleased to announce that ReSMiQ has a new member, professor Pascal Giard from the electrical engineering department of the École de technologie supérieure. Its research interests are anchored mainly in 3 of the ReSMiQ themes, which are “Microsystems modeling, simulation and design methodologies”, “Microsystems implementation and validation”, and “Microsystems for information technology and telecommunications”. He applies his IT knowledge to these areas to quickly validate or verify ideas, develop simulators, generalize and automate design, or develop prototypes. He designed and optimized numerous algorithms, designed hardware architectures, and implemented hardware and software on several types of platforms including embedded systems. He has produced many demos, including software radios based on GNU Radio and USRPs. In addition, a real-time communication demonstration using one of the prototypes he developed which won the Best Technical Demonstration Award at the 2015 ReSMiQ Innovation Day.
NEWCAS
As the founding organization of NEWCAS, ReSMiQ is proud to support the organization of editions outside the province of Québec. After Strasbourg (2017), Vancouver (2016), Grenoble (2015), Paris (2013), Bordeaux (2011) and Toulouse (2009), it is up to the city of Munich to host this world-class conference thanks to the involvement of Professor Erkan Isa of the Fraunhofer Research Institute and his team. As with previous editions, ReSMiQ will provide financial support to all members and students attending the conference. More details will be communicated shortly. In 2020 the conference will be back in Montreal under the chairmanship of Professor Yvon Savaria of Polytechnique Montréal. A call for papers will be distributed during NEWCAS2019.
NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS
Achievements
– Dr. Martel from Polytechnique Montréal received the Pythagore Award from UQTR which celebrates the excellence of the graduates of the Trois-Rivières university.
More details
Daniel Massicotte, Sylvain Martel
– Dr. Pratte from the Université de Sherbrooke received the 2018 Radiation Instrumentatn Early Career Award at the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference.
More details
Jean-François Pratte
– Dr. Nabki and Dr. Deslandes from École de technologie supérieure who founded SPARK Microsystems, a Montreal-based company, were selected to win the 6th Nokia Open Innovation Challenge (NOIC) ahead of more than 300 companies from around the globe.
More detals: ETS News / Nokia.com / About SPARK
Frederic Nabki & Dominique Deslandes
Involvment
– Dr. Langlois from Polytechnique Montréal is co-chair of the DASIP conference to be held in Montreal from October 16 to 18, 2019.
More details
RESMIQ’S ACTIVITIES
Scientific poster competition – Call for porposals
Submission deadline: April 9, 2019
More details
ReSMiQ Annual Symposium
Date: May 9, 2019
Place: Concordia University
Registration: Contact marie-yannick.laplante@polymtl.ca
Detailed Program
NEWS FRON THE NET
A MEMS Device Harvests Vibrations to Power the IoT: Scientists in Japan have developed a MEMS energy harvester charged by an off-chip electret. More details…
The Ultimate in Personalized Medicine, Your Body on a Chip: One day your doctor could prescribe drugs based on how a biochip version of you reacts to them. More details…
Teeny-Tiny Bluetooth Transmitter Runs on Less Than 1 Milliwatt: Bluetooth Low-Energy data packets can now be sent by millimeter-size IoT motes. More details…
Hash Your Way To a Better Neural Network: Industry has been focused on speeding the many matrix multiplications involved, but a search algorithm may provide better performance. More details…
A Peek into the Future of Wearables: Mind reading glasses, goggles that erase chronic pain, a wristband that can hear what the wearer can’t, and more futuristic wearables are on the horizon. More details…
SIGNAL is the main monthly information medium of the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Québec (ReSMiQ). This newsletter aims to be an active link between the members of ReSMiQ and all individuals who have an interest in research and innovation in microsystems. We commit ourselves to promote in it our members’ research and increase ReSMiQ’s visibility.
ReSMiQ is a group of researchers in an interuniversity research center that can count on the support of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) and nine (9) Quebec universities involved in microsystems research whose mandate is to serve its members and to foster conditions for graduate student researchers to go to the end of their abilities to innovate.
Jean-François Pratte received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. He was a research engineer with the Instrumentation Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY, USA. He was a key designer of the Rat Conscious Animal PET scanner and was involved in the implementation of the first dual-modality PET and magnetic resonance imaging scanner. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Université de Sherbrooke. His research interests include microsystem design and integration for radiation instrumentation. More precisely, these microsystems are integrated vertically in 3D, where an array of single photon avalanche diodes is stacked over an array of CMOS readout circuits and digital signal processing, known as 3D digital Silicon Photomultiplier (3DdSiPM, see Fig.1). His contribution to the field was acknowledged by the prestigious IEEE 2018 Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Radiation Instrumentation Early Career Award, where the citation is “For Spearheading the Development of per Pixel Picosecond Timing with Single Photon Avalanche Diodes Three-Dimensionally Integrated to Custom Readout Circuits” (see "NEWS from our members"). This technology is currently developed for medical imaging (PET scanners), quantum key distribution for communication between ground and satellite as well as large-scale detector systems for particle physics. For instance, he is a member of the nEXO collaboration (150 international scientists, a 250M$USD project) which aim at 1) demonstrating that neutrinos are their own anti-particle, which would force a review of the particle physics standard model and 2) determining the neutrinos absolute mass. He is the author or co-author of three patents and several papers in journals and scientific conferences, including a contribution in the Journal Nature Methods. He also contributed to the start-up of a company. 
Fig. 2. 25 × 50 μm2 ring oscillator-based Vernier TDC built in TSMC CMOS 65 nm technology.
