🎤 Listen to the full podcast segment on Mon Carnet by Bruno Guglielminetti
Émilie Delvoye, Director of Communications at Prompt, interviews Benoit Gosselin, Professor, Researcher and Director of the Laboratoire de recherche sur les microsystèmes biomédicaux (LMBio-UL) at Université Laval, and Nathaniel Lasry, Founder and Scientific Director of Montreal-based iMD Research.
Benoit and Nathaniel led a collaborative project to design and implement a vital signs monitoring microsystem for the management of cardiorespiratory diseases.
Discover the podcast, in full text
Émilie: Nathaniel, can you tell us how you came to develop this innovation, this solution?
Nathaniel: It’s a rather unexpected story. We started working on research into a device to treat sleep apnea, but which was intended to be “intelligent” in the sense that it incorporated sensors capable of detecting the patient’s breathing rate, heart rate, temperature and head position, from which sleep phases and other such parameters could be inferred. This is a project we had started at McGill University, but which COVID put on hold. We were told that if we didn’t work on COVID, we’d have to stop. We thought we had enough technology in this device to measure things that were very important for COVID, such as respiratory distress and fever. But what we needed was a system capable of being truly miniaturized. So we sought out the greatest expertise we could find in Quebec in this field. That’s how we met Benoit Gosselin, who holds the Canada Research Chair in this field of expertise. It led to a pretty interesting collaboration.
Émilie: Benoit, can you tell us about what you’ve managed to develop on this project?
Benoit: Firstly, this project was a great opportunity for us to strengthen our expertise in the field of microelectronics for measuring vital signs. The project involved some good miniaturization challenges, so we had to implement all the circuitry needed to measure vital signs with fidelity, while respecting drastic power consumption limits to meet system lifetime specifications and to be able to reduce battery size to a minimum. The aim was to make a very small device that wouldn’t hurt the wearer. The system to be designed had many functions. In addition to vital signs, we needed to control where we put all the system’s intelligence to analyze data, measure, make decisions and detect problematic situations.
That’s all the TinyML we’re doing, all the embedded artificial intelligence we’re going to integrate into the system we have to design. And there are other modules that establish the connection with the Internet. All these different integrated systems have to work together. So there was a considerable miniaturization challenge. We worked with C2MI in Bromont, Quebec, a leading-edge microelectronics center, and with CMC Microsystems to develop very dense electronic boards. We’re talking about interposers here, which make it possible to interconnect very dense, miniature systems in an incredible way. We developed this technology here in Quebec, and were able to benefit from it for the project. It enabled us to achieve our project objectives.
Émilie: And this really is a Quebec first, isn’t it?
Benoit: Yes, exactly. We implemented this technology with C2MI and CMC Microsystems. Now, all the technological processes that have been developed and implemented are available to other companies and researchers who would like to use them.
Nathaniel: If I may interject quickly, Benoit is modest enough to explain to listeners what an interposer is and what TinyML is. When you’re trying to make a board that integrates microelectronics and you want to add components to it, normally there’s no choice: you have to go right or left, front or back. As a result, the board expands and its surface area gets bigger. And then it becomes difficult to integrate it into a device. Interposers are an existing technology that wasn’t available in Quebec. We could have looked for the expertise, but it didn’t exist here. So, another extraordinary thing that happened was that we were able to train the expertise at Université Laval. The interposer allows the map to grow into the third dimension. It takes height instead of length or width. The result is a much denser and more compact system.
The other very interesting thing Benoit mentioned was TinyML. It stands for “machine learning”, which means miniaturized artificial intelligence. When we think of artificial intelligence today, we all think of ChatGPT and the revolutions that have changed the way we approach information today and every day. And these objects need huge server farms, huge systems to be able to process information. Here, we process artificial intelligence algorithms on a chip measuring seven millimeters by seven millimeters. We’re able to detect falls, respiratory rhythms and do absolutely unique things, without an Internet connection, without needing to send the information to infrastructures with high computing power. Thanks to Benoit’s team, we can do this directly on an on-board card.
Émilie: With very little impact on the environment too, right? Very little energy use. What are the impacts of the project for you two? ?
Benoit: If I may say so, for the university, it’s an opportunity to train students in cutting-edge fields at all levels: undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral. Secondly, the impact is mainly in terms of the intellectual property generated by these projects, which can be exploited by companies like iMD Research.
Nathaniel: For iMD Research, we’re looking to develop intelligent devices capable of tracking elderly people. These people are at home and have family caregivers who need to come and see them. These caregivers can remotely monitor the condition of the elderly person. If that person is in a nursing home, the nursing station will be able to see what’s going on in real time, without having to travel, and intervene if there’s something going on with the patient that needs immediate attention.
Émilie: What motivates you to innovate?
Benoit: For us at the university, it’s all about helping companies get off the ground and perform. It’s really the motivation to innovate.
Nathaniel: I’m part of a minority, not a visible minority, but a vocal minority, whose core value is “tikkoun olam”, which means changing the world. That’s what we’re trying to do.
Émilie: If you too want to change the world, I invite you to take advantage of Prompt’s Funding Programs and submit your technology projects, which you can of course work on in partnership, as Nathaniel and Benoît have done.
