This text is part of the special notebook 55 years of INRS
Within the Center Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications (EMT) at INRS, research with a science fiction flavor is being carried out. Manufacturing of green hydrogen, artificial intelligence detector, quantum revolution… For the team working on these innovations, the future has already arrived.
To hear Ana Tavares, full professor at the National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS), speak, we understand why collaboration occupies such a central place in her daily life. “As we are divided into thematic centers, we are surrounded by people who have different profiles,” she explains. This allows for some really interesting multidisciplinary collaborations. »
A concrete example of his work: catalysts for lithium-ion batteries. “There is a lot of research activity to replace the noble metals used in current catalysts,” she notes. Would it be possible to find an equivalent to platinum, iridium, palladium or gold? “I have a project in collaboration with two Quebec companies to promote strategic metals that are extracted in Quebec,” says the researcher. In terms of energy, it can be used to produce hydrogen or fuels with a low carbon footprint. »
In this project, the collaboration of her colleagues at the Eau Terre Environnement Center is particularly interesting, she emphasizes. “Not only are we developing the electrochemical aspect, but we can also measure the environmental impact of the catalysts. »
See through the data noise
For his colleague Tiago H. Falk, also a full professor at INRS, partnerships are also essential to the implementation of research projects useful to society.
“I work with Laval University and the University of Sherbrooke to monitor bees and predict their state of health,” he sketches. Specializing in signal processing, he helps researchers at these universities distinguish relevant data collected by multimodal sensors placed in hives, such as bee sounds, temperature and humidity levels 24 hours a day, from others. noises. “The problem is that when it’s raining, windy or raccoons scratching on the hive, it affects the quality of the audio we record. We need to give our sensors more intelligence so that they know that it is rain and that the sound does not distort the data,” he summarizes.
More recently, it is in the company of Digital Trust Lab and Numana, a catalyst for technological ecosystems, that it contributes to the development of a tool capable of detecting hyper-falsified videos and audios (deepfake in English). “It’s an infinite problem: we develop tools capable of detecting fakes, which leads fraudsters to improve their tool, and so on,” sighs the researcher. Regardless, Tiago H. Falk, also scientific manager of the Multisensory/Multimodal Analysis and Enhancement Laboratory, continues to take advantage of human particularities — voice patterns or environmental sounds for audios; lip or tongue movements for videos — in order to perfect its algorithm.
Building the infinitely small
Still at the EMT Center, Emanuele Orgiu is interested in the materials of tomorrow. “I work on quantum materials,” he says by way of summary. His research objects are barely a few atoms thick. “The more we reduce the thickness of materials, the more new properties we discover. What interests me is finding those where charges, like electric current, move best. » In its field, silicon sits at the top of conductivity. The associate professor intends to find him a rival.
His research lies on the border between fundamental and applied science, collaboration requires. “We design devices that work, like photoreceptors and transistors, because we work with companies that want results,” recalls the man who is also scientific manager of the Molecular Physics and Devices Laboratory.
What could these materials be used for? “We are working on quantum computing. Our two-dimensional materials could also be found in the electronics of the future, such as optoelectronic devices. And we are interested in thermoelectric applications, to convert heat losses into electrical energy,” lists the researcher. All these promising avenues are concretely part of the Quebec Strategy for Research and Investment in Innovation, he believes. “What I do has impacts not just in Quebec, but also in Canada. »
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