Biological and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Programs Online Information Session

Hi Brandon, you can get started just about whenever you're ready for the controls. We can obviously see you at. We can hear you. Can you just do a sound check?

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you. So whenever you're ready, please feel free to start two slots. Do this slide share. Everyone can already see them. If you're looking to change the slide, you can click on the arrows pointing in opposite directions and then click on the individual slide that you're looking to present. As we can see as well now that David is on screen as well. The same applies to you so that when you speak for your program, you have access to change the slides as well. So on that, note that enjoy your session.

How do I?

For the the slide show.

Shirts like one can see it at the moment you click on top with the arrows pointing in different directions. That gives you access to manage the slides, and then if you're looking to change the slide, you click on the slide you want.

I see OK this is great. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

OK, let's get started. Thank you everyone for joining us. This is the.

Biological biomedical

a engineering BME graduate program information session at McGill University.

Uh.

So I see that we have actually quite a few.

Uhm?

Participants, so this is going to be a great session, so we're going to kick things off with Professor David Younker.

Who will give opening remarks on behalf of the.

While Medical Engineering Department who is one of the two participating departments.

Of the graduate program.

So David, you can go ahead.

Can you can you hear me now?

You're muted, so you have to unmute yourself. Yeah, yes, I've been here now, yes.

OK wonderful. Well thank you so much Brandon for for welcoming, for welcoming everyone and thank you every all the participants for being here already. It's my understanding this will be also recorded so looking for so if you if your colleagues have been able to join to bend at this moment, they'll have another chance to join later on. So, as Brandon said, the biological and biomedical engineering program is a program that was founded.

See almost eight years ago or so under this jointly administrated by two departments primarily and one of them being biological engineering and the other one being biomedical engineering, and hence also the name or about chicken farmers engineering program. And so I'll just give you then brief introduction to our department as well on top of the program and Brandon. Then we'll actually dive into the details of the graduate program session here.

So I'll try to switch to slides here.

Is this working or I can control down here?

So we're all learning this. I think it's the first time.

You know, have control now. OK, and here yes Obama reading she. I think I'm getting. I'm slowly getting the hang of this yeah. And actually if you have if you have anything we have a chat here too. So if you'd like to. I see already many of you have participated. So thank you. That's a great use of the chat so if you have questions as we go along please feel free to enter them in the chat so that we can address them as we go along so.

Can I click this slide next slide here or is it with this one? I'm still not sure I can.

Jumping to then back into binary engineering our department.

Uh, no, OK here, so by engineering it's it's a it's a broad field.

And I'm here with lots of no on and we can always discuss about this section about by engineering, but there's lots of overlaps, of course, so the way we have sent about defining our activities is in this areas of devices and sensors. So it's like the hardware that interfaces often with healthcare, modeling, and AI. So this is the computational aspects imaging which includes both the whole body or brain. Large scale imaging. I like to call as well as microscopy imaging.

Molecular materials, which includes biomaterials and nanomedicine, for example, and then finally, and I think that's the reader emerging area nowadays it's living systems engineering as we like to call it, which is the idea of rebuilding biological systems from the body up, and which is an area where now we have a lot of emerging opportunities thanks to advances in genomic and micro nanotechnology.

And so, as you can see, this is an extraordinary broad scope, as we both also reach not only from basic science, but also into clinical applications with these technologies. And being engineers were also often at the forefront of translating these technologies, both for the using to the hospital as well as driving innovations. And I'll come back to slide later on. And so if I now look in terms of biomedical engineer, a relatively small department, actually, despite the large scale of this always.

Activities is about 12 members. Here most of them have specific clinical active activities and if you want to learn more about us then I encourage you to visit. Go on our web page from the Boundary Engineering Department as well as on the web page of the BME, the BME program, the Biological and Biomedical Engineering program, where you can find a very convenient navigation tool to select different individuals based on their cymatic research area or their affiliation to different departments.

So you can. You can do active searches to identify the particular areas or research that might be of interest to you.

So jumping forward. So what is I mean? We've seen lead what biomedical engineering is, but I maybe wanna one point. I want to make today is really this is the role that biomedical engineering can play as a as a as an activity and as a.

As a discipline in driving the modern biomedical research, both under scientific sites and life science research, and the role it drives also in making health impacts in translating findings to address needs in clinical research. And I think one of the essence of biomedical engineering is really to bridge the gap between making new technologies, new inventions, making things that were impossible before. So make them possible.

But at the same time, framing them in a way that they can address current health impacts. So it's finding where are the needs and how we can address them. And if you look at this slide, I know if you can see my mouse, but this is the right hand side here off the slide where we have this health care need at the bottom and then through invention, design and development we come up with new solutions which then together in partnerships either with the hospitals, with spinoffs with existing industry redevelop into clinically translatable products. So this.

Can be a sensor for the clinic, a diagnostic for the clinic, and which ultimately happen. Health impact on the patient.

The other side of this of this.

Infinity Loop here, and that's what it's meant to represent. Is this bioscience challenge or question where we have, I think, one of the really exciting parts of biomedical engineering is that it's also at the forefront of biological discovery and biology is really one of the exciting areas where textbooks are being rewritten. Every four or five years. As many of you know, because that's where because of the new discoveries and advances, and these advances are often driven by really technologies. And so here again, biomedical engineering through the.

Involvement of research methods in inventions by design can create these new technologies that then can be used and deployed in laboratories leading to new scientific discoveries which then give us new opportunities for addressing health diseases. Until there's real mutual feeling of this clinical translational aspect.

And of the scientific discoveries that drives through through this through through our involvement, and as you can see, one of the characteristic is also, it's a highly interdisciplinary approach, not just semantically, but also into display in terms of the people we engage with in the clinic, in industry, and potentially for commercialization.

And then finally I coming back maybe a bit too up to one of the points about the program here. Before Brandon, I think will give you really a deep insight and showcase some of the students.

It's the let me see if I can switch this slide. Here is the statement which I think is one of the points that many of you are are certainly interested in, and so we recently got statistics for our stipends and so we have we have classified them here in two categories, one being the one on the left which is called which I over tightly PhD international tuition and the other one on the right which is PhD, not international tuition, and so the tuition level or the red bars on the left and here.

In Quebec, the international tuition fees are.

Fairly high or comparatively modest, depending the way you want to look at it, but I think what's really remarkable there only apply for three years for international students, and after your four and five and six you, the student international or also Canadian students pay actually the same tuition fees than the local students pay, so they're much lower regime, which is quite unique to McGill, and then the blue bars you see on the left through the different years at the bottom. Here are the average stipend levels for international students in the program, and as you can see there well.

So they're they're, they're. They're. They're typically enough to allow you to live to live in a Co-op or situation with other students here in Montreal and at the same time concentrate on your studies and on the right hand side you have the same kind of graphic where we have the stipends for local students, or the overall level is a little bit lower, but of course the comparatively. Also the the tuition fees are much lower at the level of only a few $1000 per year, and I think this is one of the great attraction here at McGill sat through the.

Provincial support for growth for graduate studies. We are able to manage very low tuition fees and tuition fees for students so that even with our stipends, they can allow for living quite fair comfort comfortably here, specially in Montreal. Given the living costs and I think Brandon will give you more information about that.

Uhm, so I think that's that's the main point I have here. I. I'm not sure if there's a presentation by engineering, but so banning also has is our sister department and their activities overlap in large part in the ones that I have shown you here, they have semantically divided them slightly differently. But Brandon, who is also a member of that department, might be able to speak more to that.

And so with that I thank you all for your interest and for giving me the opportunity to talk to you. I remain available if you have questions or or anything you feel free to email me or the program manager and so that you can find more information. Or if there's information that you're lacking here on the program. So thank you so much. And then Brandon I'll hand it back to you.

OK, thank you very much, David.

OK, thank you very much, David.

Uh, so.

Uh, so I think that we're supposed to have a another opening remark from like Davis at the sister department.

Of our engineering.

By Professor Stanley club. But I'm not sure if Dan is on the participants.

OK, I guess we will proceed with the presentation as we have right now.

OK, so I think I gotta, I gotta handle this presentation scheme as well. Again, welcome everyone.

So my name is Brenda Shaw. I'm the graduate program director of the BNY program at McGill University.

Come with us. We also have a rubber funnel. Who is the associate graduate program director and peanuts or any? Who is the student affairs officer? And when I ask also like to thank Jesse, Eric, and Cory Hor for organizing this information session.

So.

As Professor David Yonker just mentioned, the BNI graduate program is an Interfaculty graduate program at. McGill is administered by both the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Miguel. In particular, we have two departments who joined administered program. One is the Department of Power Engineering that situates within the Faculty of Engineering and the other one is the Department of Biomedical Engineering that situates within the Faculty of Medicine.

In Health Sciences, what this really means is, is that there is a lot of activity in this field of biological biomedical engineering at McGill, and there's a lot of interest. Everybody recognize its significance, its relevance, and there's a lot of interest here at Miguel to build a very strong program in BNI. So we're lucky to have the strong support from both faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

As well as from the two departments of Bob Barr Engineering and Biomedical Engineering to to support our graduate program. Now, what is this gradual for? Well, it's an interfaculty program is an interdisciplinary.

Program and our students in the program and our faculty members carry out broad, multidisciplinary research at the interface between physical sciences. Life sciences.

Medicine and clinical practice and engineering. So if you are interested in the application of quantitative and engineering methods and approaches to fundamental problems in life sciences.

And medicine, then. This program is for you, and I should say that it has been said many times that when you look into.

The 21st century and beyond. The key enabling technologies in our society is about technology and information technology and and our program has significant research activities in both key areas.

So our program.

Encompass is a large number of participating faculties. More than 60 faculty members from more than 15 department San Miguel participates in the BNI Graduate program, so the main departments are like Professor Yunker mentioned biomedical engineering or engineering. But we also have significant.

Active participation from other departments, including neurology and neurosurgery, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, Physiology and many, many other departments.

So we have significant research activities.

In a broad range of areas.

So faculty members and students in the program perform cutting edge projects with.

In diverse topics, going all the way from molecular and cellular engineering to signals, systems, and modeling. So the research carried out within the program is organized around.

Seven key themes by medical sensors, diagnostics and therapeutics, biomedical signals and systems by molecular cellular engineering. Biomedical modeling by informatics and computational biology. Biomaterials and tissue engineering and imaging and microscopy. As you can see, there is a broad range of research areas that carry out within the BNI program and we're very proud that the program.

Is indeed one of the broadest around the world. I should say in terms its broad integration of life, science, engineering and medicine at multiple scales from atoms all the way up to organisms. Moreover, we have research significant research activity ranging from traditional.

Areas of BNY, including biomedical signals, systems, modeling mechanics, imagine therapeutics to emerging.

Search activities in things like biomaterials devices by molecular cellular and tissue engineering. So no matter what your research interest is, chances are that you will be able to find a faculty member here at BMMI whose research aligned with your research interest.

So the BME program offers both a thesis based Masters and PhD degrees.

So our students, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the research that we carry out our students come from a wide range of backgrounds. So many of our students come from traditional engineering disciplines, but many others also come from sister disciplines in physics and chemistry in biology and Physiology and in medicine, among many others.

So our the successful applicants to the program we expect them to have sufficient quantitative training and knowledge and they should demonstrate a keen interest in interdisciplinary research in life, science, medicine and engineering.

Now, in cases where students lack a prerequisite or quantitative, let's say per requisite.

But otherwise

acceptable to the program. We will accept them and with the requirement that they take the missing prerequisite after they entered the graduate program. Now I should also say that the Bpmi program right now is masters and pH D. Degrees or thesis based. So applicants meeting academic requirements must also be accepted by a research supervisor who will then supervise their research thesis before they are accepted into the BNI program. Now students.

Applicants are not required to identify the supervisor at the time of application, but they are required to have a supervisor on board at the time of the offer of acceptance. So applicants, if you're applying for the BBB program, you are strongly encouraged to contact potential research supervisors to see if if they have positions available in their laboratories.

Sobti students receive a guaranteed minimum stipends, and this is true for both Masters and PhD students, provided that they make adequate progress throughout the program. So Professor David Yunker has already presented with you a graph showing you that our students are very generously supported, so they have.

Received a generous stipend, in particular in relation to Miguel's to Montreal's low living costs, so select students.

Also received generous internal awards, so these awards include the biomedical Engineering Recruitment award, the McGill Engineering Undergraduate Student Masters Award, as well as Media Engineering, a Doctor Award, among many other possible types of awards. On top of the internal awards and Miguel. Students are also encouraged to apply for external fellowships and in the past, many of our students have been very successful at securing those external.

Fellowships

So what are the benefits of the AB program? So here you will receive.

You will be able to take a customized courses that are related to biomedical science, engineering and industry. So we have a great selection of bmmi both courses within BME program as well as outside of the two departments for students to choose from. You'll also receive innovative.

Research training to train your problem solving and critical thinking skills. Finally, BME program has a diverse interdisciplinary.

Uh environment, which will help you to help students to build a diverse network of peers.

Our students have been very successful in terms of pursuing exciting careers after they graduate, and these include a wide range of career possibilities, including academia, industry, healthcare and government. So our recent graduates have been able to secure, for example, in academia, tenure track, faculty positions in leading institutions in North America, and we have a lot of our graduates going to industry some.

Of them even create their own startup companies which now employ, you know, 20 or more.

Workers in their in their companies. A lot of them also go into a health care as well as both research type of jobs in government and as well as policymaking type of jobs in government. So there's a lot of different options for them to pursue their future careers. So I'm showing you. Here is a student.

Uh.

A student lab Me Symposium which took place back in 220, nineteen, which was extremely successful. So these events and many other events are entirely led by graduate students within the program. So we recently had another symposium earlier this year held via Zoom. Again, extremely successful, so our students, our student representatives, will also be able to tell you the different kinds of activities that's going on within the program later on.

So why Miguel? Well, I mean, Miguel is one of the top universities in the world known for his 200 year history of accidents. But I think that more importantly, you know, for the from the perspective of biological biomedical engineering, in water for BNY program to be successful, you've got to have very strong and comprehensive school in both medical in both medicine and engineering. Miguel is very. We are very lucky that Miguel has strong.

And comprehensive medical and engineering schools right? When you look at our peer institutions, many of the great engineering schools don't have medical school and vice versa. And we are very lucky to have Top Rank and comprehensive medical schools and engineering schools within the same place and literally within walking distance which greatly help us to faster to build a strap for the BBPI graduate program.

So Montreal is also a great place to live as you know that Montreal offers exceptional quality of life.

Again, many of our peer institutions, they're not in metropolitan areas. We're lucky to be in the metropolitan area, but not too big. You know, Montreal is a is a small enough place so that you can. Actually, you can actually go around very easily. It's a vibrant cultural city with lots of activities. You can do a lot of different things, and it's it's. It's a good place to live, especially for young, for young, for young people, and also it's very cheap.

Is very in terms of cost of living is around. It's among the best in terms of metropolitan areas in both North America and Europe. So you can do a lot of things and you can do a lot of different things with the generous stipends that you receive.

So.

In order to apply for the graduate program, you need to determine the deadline for applications. So if you're interested in, for example, the fall term default admission, let's say four 2022, then your application dialog will be February the 1st, and this is true for both International and Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

But but if you are interested in being nominated to one of the Miguel Internal Awards Fellowship Awards, then it's very important that you start your application as early as possible, because many of these awards require an earlier deadline than the actual. Then what I'm showing you here, which is the admission deadline?

So you must submit. You must start your online application by before this deadline, and here is the web address for the owner application www.mcgill.ca/reply.

At the same time of starting application, I would strongly encourage everyone to contact potential supervisors that would best align with your research interests.

And if you have established such contact, notify them about your complete application. And once you receive an admission offer, you can go ahead and confirm your acceptance and notify your supervisor.

So if you have any questions you can, please do feel free to email us at info BNI and mcgill.ca or visit our website at www.mcgill.ca.

Alright, so this concludes my presentation. I think we have two student representatives from the BNI program who will share their experience in the program.

Yeah, Emily.

Hello hi everyone, yeah Josh and I are going to talk about our.

OK, so you can go ahead.

Thank you.

OK, great, I can go first so we're just gonna we have a few points that we're going to talk about. So as Brendan just kind of explained about the application process.

I thought it was relatively simple. I mean you just have to give in your transcripts references, a personal statement and your CV, but the really important part is finding a supervisor, so make sure that you look through the professors in the department for both biomedical engineering and bio engineering and find something that you're really interested in.

And come, pick a few profs so that you can increase your chances of. Actually, you know, obtaining a supervisor or not. Everyone has funding for lots of grad students come.

Talk to the professor like have like a video call with them, but also talk to their students. Send them an email and just say like.

How is the professor? What's their leadership style so that it is a good fit for you? Because that's really important too. It's not just one way.

Come and then a little bit about me. My name is Emily. I'm a PhD student here and my I actually started as a master student and fast tracked into the PhD program. So that's an option for you if you're thinking about a PhD, but you're not quite sure yet. You can do that within the first 16 months.

My research is studying more the bio engineering side, so I'm studying the huntingtin protein which is related to Huntington's disease and how it's disrupting intracellular transport in neurons, which I actually get to make from stem cells, which I think is pretty fun, and I use biophysical techniques like optical tweezers so they're pretty cool.

In addition, Josh and I are both on the yummy SS Student Council. I am currently the Chair, which means that I go. I focused mostly on like student advocacy and I attend a bunch of meetings, including department meetings and the PGSS meetings for the Graduate Student Society meetings and ensure that the voices of our student body in the program are heard. But there are other rules on the Council. Last year Josh and I were the social representatives.

So we organized a lot of fun social events for people in the program.

Uhm and lastly, just how this program has helped me over the last few years. This is my third year so I've been here awhile and I've just learned so much about kind of time management and organizational skills, as well as just sort of like planning and leadership skills that I found very important. And I believe that this experience was really unique at McGill.

True.

Great, thank you very much Emily. I think next we're going to have Josh.

Oh, you're muted.

Can you hear?

So you have to click the yes great.

You can hear me now, OK?

Yes, I can hear you.

OK good OK. Hi everyone, my name is Josh, I'm a second year master student in BNI on the BME side of things so on biomedical engineering I did my undergraduate at McMaster University and I graduated in 2020 from electrical and Biomedical engineering and so why was I interested in doing more research? While I had done some research through undergrad and I really liked it and I wanted to continue doing a specialized work and learning in an academic environment.

So there's lots of support and opportunities to learn cutting edge research.

So, just as Emily did, I will talk a bit about the application process, finding a supervisor, my current research, and my role in the BBBS Council and finally career aims.

As Emily mentioned, I found the application process pretty simple and straightforward. I do recommend spending some time to make sure that your CV and personal statements are up to date.

Importantly, that these demonstrate your experiences and it's this doesn't necessarily need to be formal research because there are a lot of skills that are transferable.

And perhaps more importantly, make sure that this reflects your interest in what you want to research.

And you can always ask for help. The staff in BNI are wonderful and very helpful so always ask for help if you need any clarification.

To find a supervisor, I went through the BNI website and essentially looked at every supervisor whose research interest interested me in any way and made a big list and from that list I refined.

Ever find it to see which profs I was interested in working with and then I reached out to those profs and tried to set up a time to meet and speak with them about their research so I wanted to find out what type of projects that they had and if they had any openings at all. Their lab environment. What type of leadership style they had and how many other students say supervised and currently have in our lab. So as Emily mentioned, it's also important to talk to their other students and I definitely recommend going into this with a good idea of what.

Work is so maybe read some of their most recent papers to have an idea of what the research they do is.

And just remember that this is a two way interview, so maybe that you think the prophets interviewing you to see if you're a good fit and their lab, which is true, but you're also sort of interviewing them to see if you're if they're a good leader and supervisor for you because you're going to be with them for two or four or five years. So just make sure that you know that going into any meeting with the professor.

So my research focuses on improving image guided surgery technology, mostly through medical image processing. I did all my coursework at the start of my masters, so last year I did.

For three courses in the first semester and then one course in the second semester, and so I didn't do too much research the first semester. Focus on the coursework and I took some courses that were outside the BME program, so from different departments like electrical and computer engineering, this helped me learn a lot of fundamental.

Uh, concepts for my research in it. I think this is a great aspect of EV ME is that you can draw on different areas outside of the program itself.

And there's also the seminar course where you can.

See all the other interesting work that other students and faculty are doing, and that's really interesting to open your eyes to the different research that is undertaken in BNY.

So I'm part of the nest lab. The Neuroimage and Surgical Technologies lab. It located in the Montreal Neurological Institute and this Research Center is really great because it's directly.

Linked a lot with clinicians so they can help make sure that your work has some real clinical applicability in the end, which is which can be very unique.

So as Emily mentioned, I'm on the PBS Council as well. I'm the president, so the Council be BMSS. It stands for biological and biomedical Engineering student society, and we plan events and and other.

Initiatives to help the students connect, become more informed and just to be just to represent them. So some examples include the holiday special that we did last year.

Some games that we had online as well as in person BBQ that we had recently and a research symposium that we hold BI annually, which is a two day event to show showcase student research as well as from experts in the field. From McGill and beyond. And so as part of the Council had the opportunity to meet new students and make an impact on the program. And I was elected in my first year so it's never too early to join.

As for my career aims, I'm not quite sure where I want to go yet, but in BNI I feel like that's fine because there are lots of opportunities both within the program itself to continue on doing research, for example as a PhD or there are a lot of connections to industry as well, so it doesn't feel like I'm limited in any way. In fact, it feels like the exact opposite. There's a lot of support no matter the career choice that I'd like to make.

Lastly, I'll just touch on a very big benefit that I see this program having is that it's very, very diverse and encompassing of all research, biological or biomedical, related. Until you learn a lot more than just about what your specific research is, and I think that is invaluable.

Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing any questions, bye.

OK, thank you very much Emily and Joshua.

So I want to thank them as well for the outstanding job that the Student Society has done in the in the in the past few years. And they organized a lot of activities for the students, so they mentioned the biennial research symposium, which is entirely led by the student. There's also a lot of fun activities outside of up.

Academia they also organized in the past year and banquet at the end of each academic year, so all of these are really add to the richness of of student life. And I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their outstanding work.

OK, so this.

Is.

Uh, I guess the end of the presentation, so now will be a question and answer time.

Uhm?

So I don't know how to do. Do we have a?

A moderator.

Because there there's a lot of questions in the chat box, many of which are have been answered. I guess you can. Also, I'm not sure if the platform allows you to ask questions directly.

If you want to do that, you can unmute your microphone and speak up.

OK.

Yeah.

So, Brandon, there's no way for our participants to unmute themselves or put themselves on video. So what we usually do is invite them to ask their questions in the chat. Of course, I saw that Pina, Robert, David, and a few others have been answering questions, but if anyone else in the audience has any additional questions, please feel free to add to them and the relevant faculty member will be able to address them.

Yeah, so I see a lot of questions involved.

Where is the list of faculty members. So for that I strongly encourage everyone to go to the BNI website www.mcgill.ca BB me. It features a comprehensive list of faculty members working in all areas of Bmmi and we are very lucky because our program is really all encompassing. You find all kinds of research activities you know from molecular cell engineering to signal systems modeling.

To devices and therapeutics, all kinds of research. You will be able to find someone that will align with your research interest. I see that there is also a question about the use of artificial intelligence. We are very lucky. Our program is very strong in the application of artificial intelligence in all areas of biological, medical engineering research. So we're very lucky to have those very strong representations.

All the way going down to molecular cell engineering all the way up to neuroimaging in all kinds of areas. We have strong expertise in the application of artificial intelligence. All of these areas.

OK, so I think that.

Right, yeah, David.

Yeah, you can hear me. OK, great wonderful. Yeah I I see some questions here so.

And I see also questions for Emily and Joshua if they if they could come back in and answer, that would be great. 'cause I I happy to ask for them, but I'm not sure that would be satisfactory to the person to ask the question. But there's a question whether we have computational biology and and I think so. I think you have a professor. She is one of the leaders in that area.

I'm on molecular interactions I I'm not sure about wet lab studies and combining the two, but I think you know through collaboration. This is certainly something that can be done as well.

Uhm, until well, if me and Josh are not, yeah, I mean I can speak really to my in my lab. I mean, yeah.

From and I think it's probably the case for many to you know you start on a project and then overtime things can go really well, which is rarely the case, but.

I'll ask calling to plan so often. There's some things you don't expect, and then the project might involve a little bit or change a little bit, and so it depends. I'm supposed to discuss it so often. An ongoing discussion between now, the well, the science. Basically, you know some things you want to do, they just don't work. Then you have to navigate the funding. Availability is the interest of the students, so this will depend also on the kind of lab. Different labs have different types of flexibility and and and.

Should also feel about that.

Yeah, but I see their back so I'll let the let Emily and Joshua Speaker to their experience here please.

Sorry, I answered a little bit in the shot. Uhm, I first went into, you know graduate research with but have an open mind. I had kind of a general idea that I wanted to study neurodegenerative diseases and I wanted to use biophysical techniques, but I wasn't being super like narrow minded of like I want to do exactly this thing because you don't really know enough like going into research. What what there is out there and what you really want to do. Or at least that's the case for me so.

I I kind of kept an open mind and then it just kind of I got lucky because the professors that I I was interested in actually had a grant for the exact kind of research that I wanted to do.

But you know, I think just going into it with an open mind and like, really.

Focusing on more of a broad idea of what kind of research you want to do, because once you actually get into it, it can become more and more interesting when you find out really what what you're discovering. And of course projects will change and evolve over time. As Doctor Yunker said. So just keep an open mind and.

Just go into what you are interested in doing.

Yeah, I'd agree with Emily, so I hope you can hear me. So I'd agree with Emily. I agree with Emily that it's important to be keep an open mind in.

Always realize that things may change, but on the other hand, if you do know exactly what you want to do, then I think it's important that you're forthright with the professor speaking with and say I know what I want to do is as possible and speak to a lot of professors 'cause maybe some aren't open to that and some are, and so I'm just make sure that communication is open and honest from the start that way.

So you're you're sort of expectation, will match the reality when you start your research.

But yeah, I think it's also important to keep an open mind because you'll learn a lot doing anything you're interested in.

OK, thanks I'm seeing here question by yes I'm on about the research assistantships.

So I'm not entirely sure, so guys in terms of a student support. I mean, that's normally you know. So we have guidelines on the Big Me program about student supports and research assistantships.

So currently the minimal force for master students is 17,500.

Uh, but that's so that's the same amount whether international or local students. And so when you discuss with a potential supervisor, then you can ask exactly what they might be willing to to support you for. And, for example, if you get a researcher recruitment award which is 10,000 years for two years for Masters students, then the supervisor actually required to pay. I think 17 plus the student awards, or 27,000 to the student. If you're a PhD student, then it's the minimal stipend.

A research assistantship would be at the. I think it's I'd have to double check exactly later. I see also around 1718 thousand back plus any stipend or tuition fees you tuition, tuition fees you might have to pay. So here it's a big difference. I mean, it's so whether you're international or local does not make a difference for the student in the end because you all get the same amount of money at the minimal level, but it makes a big difference for the supervisor because if we have an Internet, if I take an international students for example.

I'll have to pay much more funds to support that international students, and so the idea behind here is that to pay what we call a livable stipend so enough money that someone living on a student level of expenses, meaning or you probably live with other students in house and you don't own a car so and and you, you watch. Of course, they're expensive, because that you can basically live and focus on your studies and your research rather than having to go and work outside of the lab and then on top of that.

There's a very few TA teaching assistantships available, but as a as a graduate program we do not have that many courses. So for example, II teach a course so there there are some tears available. There's a few of those available that can also be used to supplement your statement, but then to obtain a tthe that's competitive and so you can't always rely on that if you. If you're planning to come in here.

I don't know if Brandon you have something to add here.

Yeah.

In that context, or if I got it right.

Yep, great summary.

Yeah, I think David gave a great summary on the way that students are supported, so all of our students are guaranteed minimum stipends, so that's true for both Masters and PhD students. And the idea is that all the students will be able to be on their coursework, spend all of their time in the lab pursuing research, essentially supported by a combination of supervisors, grant fundings, and internal wars from Miguel.

So that's the basic idea. And on top of that, some students do apply to, let's say, teaching assistantships. You know they become teaching assistants for courses within Miguel, and that's possible, and so those stipends they can use to supplement their their standard stipend. On top of that, many of our students also apply for external fellowships, many with Marsha very successful McGill. We the BBB program at McGill.

Is being very successful in terms of securing these external fellowships about both provincial levels and adds Canadians.

Government levels, so those really help in terms of, of course.

Both looks very good on your CV and also it helps with supervisor. It helps the program you know it helps Miguel.

Yeah, see, I see a question about Cancer Research. I think we have a lot of profs here doing cancer, cancer related research and this has to do. Many of them are working on drug deliveries and things like that. But also many are working on a basic type of Cancer Research application of nanoparticles in terms of diagnosis and diagnostic and treatment of cancer and so on.

And imaging.

Maybe I can touch up on a point. I think we haven't addressed. Maybe too much is what. What are students doing after they complete the program, which I think is something that's of interest to many of you.

So I I know I've been here for a while, so I had students at the master mentions that the master and at the pH D. Level and so for master student and I see at every level actually students are really going. All in all possible types of directions, so we have had students at the master level. My recent mass shootings. One of them became a clean room technician or staff here at McGill, and then then actually found a lot of position at Simon Fraser University. So he went there.

Other masters students? Yeah, so many of them went back to professionalized, many of them, of course, continued graduate studies mean either here at McGill or then going to other colleges in in in the US.

If I said, let me speak about masters, yet some something found. Also jobs in industry one of my earlier message. She's now she was a representative at Nikon. That Mettler Toledo and now she's another company. And of course, many of them then go on to do PHD's, and so among the PhD students, if I look back at some of the recent PhD students from my lab, and you know, maybe Brandon could speak to his lab and other labs, so I've had one of my PhD students have it earlier on, he found a job at Illumina, so he realizes sequencing company and.

Using the research and development there in in the UK.

Another recent graduate, one of my recently found our faculty position at Guelph, which is now at the Union here in Canada. A university in Ontario, and another one are you currently just got an offer for a faculty position at the University of Washington in Seattle? So we see that just the PhD program here at McGill really can lead you to academic careers, and I know a lot of you are concerned about the potential for becoming an academic, but I I think if you're really dedicated to that and like to do it.

Academic career you have a lot of opportunities through the training programs you might have here, but on the other hand, yes you can go to industry. Like I said with with Sebastian he couldn't alumina there's also opportunities in in in government. So for example here in Canada and we have the National Research Council which is a government run, research labs and so one of Alex Hernandez. One of my recent graduates. He also found a job there as a as a research officer and he's working now here actually to here in Montreal in Boucherville.

On on on same topic of research but now is in the research government. And then finally there's also options for spin offs. So I think in my lab we have also had a good interesting spin-off companies or commercialization. I think it's really in the nature of biomedical engineering, where we have this ambition of addressing real world problems, and so both actually licensing of IP which many of our colleagues here in the department in the different departments have done and through spin offs, which can be either led by.

Outside member also solves sometimes we LED also by outstanding graduate students and to some of them have gone on then to raise funding from venture capital and and and and go through different cycles of capital fund raising and and growing as a as a spin-off company. So really the you know it's it's this all these opportunities and it depends. Well of course it's a bit, you know, not every project can lead to a spin-off company. There's a big chance involved in that and also not every student is interested or also the profile.

For becoming a CEO of a company but in terms of science technology this, there's plenty of opportunity and also singing the program. We really also, and I think many places, but he also in particular.

Focus on interpersonal skills and developing these other qualities that are very important to succeed in in your future careers and one moment there. I think in in a graduate program. Of course, his presentation skills, which by employers is always recognized as one of the key skills in your career. And of course going through a PhD or master. This is one of the points where you can be sure that you will really learn to present your research and your ideas ultimately, in a way that that in a compelling way, which when you're working anywhere, is.

When you want to share your ideas or promote your ideas or work with people, this is of course a very important quality.

So yeah, so I, I think that's that's a bit of an overview here. I'm not. Brandon has something else to add to that or someone, or if you have other questions about that, would be happy to answer.

Yeah, I think.

Yeah, I think David gave a really nice summary of the career prospects of our graduates. I think a key characteristic of the BNI graduate program is inter is interdisciplinary, you know. So you got a chance to collaborate, so interpersonal skills are very important. That's what you learn. You got a chance to collaborate with diverse people in engineering, in medicine, in science. So all of these prepare students very well in terms of pursuing a wide range of career options.

Or

activity.

Beard in academia, so David gave a few very good examples of our recent graduates and industry, be it create their own startups or joining industry for research, development or other kinds of activities where you or in government for both research and policy related activities. So there's a strong. There's a. There's urgent as strong need for for people with relevant expertise here in Canada.

And elsewhere as well, and I think that's what the our graduates will be able to benefit and pursue.

I I see a question here by end of true, so actually it's a good point about the hospital. So I mean, I I I spoke about my experience from my side. So we work with hospitals for my graduates. Not many have been in hospitals, but for example one of our colleagues here are.

On hide or he works on an artificial pancreas on this closed loop type of system so he's running clinical trials and for example, several of his students went to Med school for example, and I think several of his students are then very closely involved with hospital research and or hospital. Actually, clinical delivery of care, even almost and working very closely with condition. So this so this is you can navigate a bit depending on your supervisor is on. My lab is more like maybe more research focus in that sense that that basic technology or the labs are.

Very close to the patient and patient delivery and so this so depending where you're working at and what kind of trajectory is kind of course and also influence and of course on your interests influence where you might find opportunities after graduating from the program.

Yeah, there's a question about chaos where complex networks need computational neuroscience. Miguel is one of the epicenters of of chaos and computational neuroscience. Many of the we were lucky to have many of the world leaders in both chaos dynamic systems and computational neuroscience. So if you I think yeah, Robert gave.

A list of faculty members, but McGill is extremely strong in this regard.

Great man.

So I just wanna echo some of Davids. A point about really. I think Miguel is in a in a in a great place in terms of you know, doing these these kinds of interdisciplinary research right between life science, engineering and medicine because we have great engineering schools and great medical schools. And they're very close to each other. We're literally within walking distance from each other now. The hospital. Some of the hospitals are two. You know, two stops.

With train rides away, but again everything is very close to each other. You can go anywhere.

Mostly by by walking is fine, so a great place for for initiate and maintain interdisciplinary collaborations.

I see an interesting question by Jesse here for Emily and Joshua asking them what made them choose to apply to to to apply, and maybe choose the MCGIBONEY program.

Which I think is one of the very relevant questions to many of the potential interested candidates here or or participants here.

Yeah, that's a hard question. There's a lot of factors that kind of went into my decision to come to McGill slash bmmi. So firstly, I was really interested in the type of research that my now supervisor was doing, so it was mainly based on the actual research as well. As you know, the fact that there are a lot of resources available at McGill and the fact that the program is so interdisciplinary like I came from biochemistry. So really my physics.

Background was not very strong, so having other people in the lab available that can kind of help fill in the gaps for me was really helpful because I was really interested in actually learning that other aspect. The physics, the math that goes into kind of the biology that I already knew.

And yeah, I just I also like the city in Montreal like it. It's pretty fun and it's affordable, so that's pretty nice. So I would say those are the main things that factored into my decision.

Yeah, and for me.

You just muted me, so yeah.

OK, can you hear me now? OK so for me I would say the.

The factors were that Miguel is like an internationally renowned school, the institute, the Montreal Neurological Institute where I work is also internationally rollout, renowned for neuroscience and neurology research, and but the thing that was the most important in my decision was the supervisor that I connected with Louis Collins. He.

Sort of met all the things that I wanted in a supervisor and his research aligned with exactly what I wanted to do, and so I thought that was the that was the most important thing when finding yeah, or when choosing McGill over anywhere else, was supervisor and then sort of out from there would be the school and the institute that it was in. And of course Montreal is also a great city.

Great, thank you very much. Are there any other questions?

OK, so if you do have questions again you can please feel free to contact us, email us at Info tab miguel.ca.

I think a copy of the whole session will be made available. Query, is that right?

Yes, exactly so after the session everyone will receive an email in about an hour or two with the recording and will also make sure they get your slides is also they can click on the different links you included.

OK, great.

With that, I think this concludes this information session. I thank everyone for your participation. I look forward.

22 applications and good luck to everybody.

Application and graduates.

A position search. Thank you very much.

So I think we're done.

What, where is the broadcast button?

Yep, so you basically just you see where broadcast is the moment you click that it ends your block test and then you can just leave this session and the event closes by itself.

So it's the button that's highlighted in green, so it's the one that will video.

OK so I just could I just click that OK great OK? Thank you very much. OK, great.

Exactly and then it'll end the session for you.

And awesome.

Thanks.