A true multi-university project, the Club de la Prochaine génération de Technologies (CPGT) currently consists of 17 students mainly from the Université de Sherbrooke yet also from McGill University, Concordia University, the Université Laval, the University of Toronto, the Hanoi University of Science in Vietnam and the University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, without forgetting those from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique and the Cégep de Limoilou. These students, who all saw a need for a better exchange of knowledge between governments, industries, scientists and student communities in order to stimulate innovation both here and elsewhere, thus hoped to help provide a clear and precise vision of the geomatics industry and of Earth observation. In order to do so, the members of the CPGT, which was founded in May 2003, among other things, established and managed a discussion forum on the application of innovative technologies, developed a Web site (www.ngtc.cpgt.net) and published scientific articles for a targeted media. Concrete action which advocates the development, convergence and fusion of ideas and new technologies in the geospatial industry.
For more information >>>

If you look up to the sky one day and see a drone, it will no doubt be because of group of some thirty engineering students from the École de technologie supérieure de Montréal are hidden somewhere in the vicinity. For two years now, the latter have been developing the famous drone, a small reconnaissance plane without pilot and completely autonomous, which they have baptised Typhoon. Club DronoLab’s ultimate objective was to present its prototype at the International Aerial Robotics Competition held in July 2003 in the state of Georgia. Two years of preparation enabled the participants to rapidly become acquainted with the highly complex autonomous aerial systems. The future engineers thus had to learn how to master, both individually and as a team, the various aspects of this technology, such as in-flight control of an object, image recognition, and the reception and transmission of data by the aircraft. Furthermore, the ÉTS team impressed the crowds at the competition in Georgia by being the only one to present an aircraft completely designed and built by students, all the other teams having chosen to install their autonomous system on a pre-existing remote-controlled helicopter.
For more information >>>

It was following an invitation from the European Space Agency, sent out to all universities throughout the world in October 2003, requesting the elaboration of a design project in the field of aerospace that a team of four students in computer engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke chose to try its luck and launched the Funambule project. Motivated by the prospect of being able to test their design during an experiment in weightlessness which was to take place in Bordeaux and also, just like astronauts, feel the effects of microgravity, the team devoted five months of efforts to developing its project. And their efforts paid off. With their nanosatellite prototype, the quartet became the only Canadian team selected by ESA for the experiment, which took place in July 2003. While respecting the standards of quality of the Canadian Space Agency in regard to design, construction and testing, the prototype developed by the Funambule team also had the unique characteristic of remaining free in the air. That is to say, it was designed to stay motionless in a state of weightlessness and keep the desired direction, a feature that may just take it a long way.
For more information >>>