Regular members

Nicolas Bélanger, Director

Nicolas Bélanger is a professor of environmental science at Université TÉLUQ. He has studied nutrient cycling, foliar nutrition and productivity of forests and fast growing tree species plantations for over twenty years. He is particularly interested in the response of forests to climate change. He is a certified drone pilot and is interested in imagery in forestry. He has published more than 70 articles in internationally recognized journals. He is director of DOT-Lab, scientific co-director of Réseau reboisement Ligniculture Québec, which facilitates R&D and knowledge transfer in regard to reforestation and afforestation (2rlq.teluq.ca), and director of Laboratoire iForêt (teluq.ca/iforet). Finally, he is associate editor of Canadian Journal of Forest Research and principal investigator of several research grants.

Key words: Forest ecology, soils, biogeochemistry, soil-plant interelationships, fertilisation, climate change

Wassim Bouachir

Wassim Bouachir is a computer science professor at Université TÉLUQ. He holds a Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. The main objective of his research is to equip machines with intelligent functions to allow scene interpretation and understanding. Dr Bouachir’s expertise covers several application areas such as security, health care applications and forest management. His recent work in intelligent video surveillance resulted in technological solutions to practical problems, such as suicidal behavior detection through video surveillance, computer-aided medical diagnosis and forest management assistance using artificial intelligence. As part of his research activities at Dot-Lab, he is conducting several AI projects in collaboration with forestry experts to improve forest management using emergent imaging technologies. He also works with ecologists on analyzing the effects of climate change using a large network of cameras installed throughout Canadian forests.

Key words: Computer vision, Artificial Intelligence, Activity recognition, Clinical decision support, Precision forestry

Marc-André Carle

Marc-André Carle is a professor of information technology at Université TÉLUQ. He previously served as a professor at Université Laval, where he taught business analytics and operations management at both graduate and undergraduate levels. His research focuses on the design and management of sustainable value chains. Some of the mathematical models he has developed are used by large forestry companies in Canada. He is also a member of the FORAC research consortium, which works with the forestry industry in Quebec and Canada.

Key words: Sustainable Supply Chain Design, Advanced Planning Systems, Combinatorial Optimization, Forest Management Planning

Élise Filotas

Élise Filotas is a professor of environmental sciences at Université TELUQ. She is interested in applying concepts and tools from complex systems science to study forest ecosystems. In particular, her research activities focus on developing theoretical and applied models to determine the relationships between biodiversity patterns at different spatial, temporal and organisational scales and landscape transformations in forest ecosystems.

Key words: Complex systems, theoretical ecology, landscape ecology, ecosystem modelling, sustainable forest management

Daniel Lemire

Daniel Lemire is a computer science professor at Université TÉLUQ. He has also been a research officer at the National Research Council of Canada and an entrepreneur. He has written over 70 peer-reviewed publications, including more than 40 journal articles. He has held competitive research grants for the last 15 years. He serves on the program committees of leading computer science conferences. In February 2019, he was ranked in second position among the most popular developers on GitHub and most popular in C++ (ahead of Microsoft, Google and Facebook); GitHub has 28 million developers. He is a long-time social media user: his blog has thousands of readers and was featured on Slashdot, Reddit and Hacker News. He was one of the first Twitter users: @lemire.

Key words: Data Indexing, Data Engineering, Software Performance, Vectorization (SIMD)

Research Professionals

  • Simon Lebel-Desrosiers, Analyst, iForêt Laboratory
  • Raed Elferjani, Coordinator, Quebec Network on Reforestation and Intensive Silviculture
  • Christoforos Pappas, Coordinator, SmartForest Canada Network

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers

  • Clément Hardy
    • Doctoral candidate in biology at UQAM
    • Supervisor: Élise Filotas
    • Long-term and landscape scale effects of uneven age forest management on ecosystem services in forests of Quebec
  • Pierce McNie
    • Doctoral candidate in environmental science at UQAM
    • Supervisor: Élise Filotas
    • Metacommunity dynamics of spruce budworm and its parasitoids in new habitats
  • Koffi Eddy Ihou
    • Doctoral candidate in computer science at Concordia University
    • Supervisor: Wassim Bouachir
    • Modeling of visual content using machine learning techniques
  • Patrick Stafford
    • Masters candidate in computer science at Université TÉLUQ
    • Supervisor: Wassim Bouachir
    • Video surveillance and internet of things
  • Marina Lopez
    • Masters candidate in computer science at Université TÉLUQ
    • Supervisor: Daniel Lemire
    • Co-supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Development of a data lake for the Smartforests Canada network
  • Pierre Marie Ntang
    • Doctoral candidate in cognitive computing at Université TÉLUQ
    • Supervisor: Daniel Lemire
    • Understanding through visualization: application to vector programming
  • Simon Lebel-Desrosiers
    • Masters candidate in geography at Université de Montréal
    • Supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Effects of fertilization on germination and regeneration of red oak
  • Laurence Grimond
    • Masters candidate in geography at Université de Montréal
    • Supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Performances of three poplar clones on reconstructed soils in an abandonned asbestos mine
  • Rim Khlifa
    • Postdoctoral researcher at Université TÉLUQ
    • Supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Carbon and microbial dynamics in reconstructed soils of an abandoned asbestos mine
  • Carla do Nascimento Moraes
    • Masters candidate in biology at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
    • Co-supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Beneficial effects of tamarack on soils in coniferous stands in the Abitibi region
  • Hiba Merzouki
    • Doctoral candidate in environmental science at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
    • Co-supervisor: Nicolas Bélanger
    • Use of residues as soil amendments in boreal forest soils