THUNDER BAY — Lakehead University has been acknowledged in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Lakehead has taken the top place for its AI research publication in a ranking of undergraduate universities.
“It's very exciting for us because now we are attracting ... students from all over the world,” Dr. Abdulsalam Yassine, associate professor at Lakehead University and chair of the software engineering department said. “We are developing cutting edge technologies.”
Yassine said Lakehead in general is making great progress in research.
“(Lakehead is) climbing to probably the number one research institution within its category, as a comprehensive undergraduate focus university, we have done great research," he said.
“I have worked with the City of Thunder Bay, with Synergy North and other companies developing software, developing AI solutions for an area analytics, predictive analytics, data integration and processing in order to optimize some of the work and integration of renewable resources, electric vehicles into the smart grid.”
When Lakehead students graduate, they receive top jobs, Yassine said.
“I would say in the last five years, the AI domain is taking probably 60 to 70 per cent of the (software engineering) job market.
“All our students graduate with AI experience and AI skills and capabilities. They get jobs sometimes before their graduation and at most one or two months after they graduate.
“That speaks for two things: for the demand in this category and this technology and this research and also for the quality of the training that we offer students here at Lakehead,” he said.
AI is the foundation of many new technologies, Yassine said.
“It is the most important, I would say, solution and technology that we have in the last 20 years," he said.
Yassine said he tells his colleagues and students one thing: “In the next minimum of 15 years the focus for us should be on AI in every sector of the industry, in health care and energy and transportation.
“In all these sectors of industry, AI is going to be a dominant factor and an important factor to excel. We have to place ourselves in on top of that in the Northwestern region as well as in other regions in Canada as well.”
Consulting firm Research Infosource, a division of The Impact Group, released it rankings of Canadian research universities on Thursday.
In the Research University of the Year competition Lakehead ranked 35th overall and fourth in the undergraduate category.
According to a news release from the university, Lakehead also ranked number one in each of the following categories:
- Not-for-profit research income (2023)
- International Government Research Income Growth (470 per cent growth from 2022 to 2023)
- Artificial intelligence publications (2018 to 2022)
- Artificial intelligence publications as a percentage of total university publications (9 per cent of Lakehead’s total research publications)
- Artificial intelligence publications growth (over 182 per cent increase from 2018 to 2022)
The university said their total annual research income is growing each year. It has increased 13 per cent to $27 million from 2022 to 2023, and there is steady growth in corporate research income in addition to the not-for-profit research income.
