Today was our first full-day in Montreal, and it was packed with many fun actitivties!
Overview of our day:
1). Breakfast
Since we were set to leave the hotel by 9.15am, BCA kids trickled in for breakfast as early as 6.30am. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, with many breakfast classics including coffee, bagels, yogurt, crossaints, banana bread, and coffee (did I mention coffee?).
2). McGill University Campus and DECAR tour
We left the hotel at 9.15am and headed to McGill University. We were greeted by a McGill University admissions officer and two current McGill students. These students gave us a mini campus tour, and also talked to us about the admissions process at McGill Unversity.
After the campus tour (where we saw a museum, "McGill Beach", and the McGill University student center), we headed to to the engineering building. Here, we split up into 2 groups and visited the DECAR (Dynamics, Estimation, and Control in Aerospace and Robotics) labratory. We met 4 current research students in the lab, and they showed us the drones and other projects they are working on.
3). Lunch & METRO
We went to lunch at around 12pm. Lunch was served at the McGill dining hall. Like breakfast, it was also an all-you-can-eat buffet. There was pizza, rice, and even a make-your-own-taco section. BCA students ate in a separate room from the McGill students.
After lunch ended at around 1pm, we hopped on the METRO to go to our next stop, MILA.
After around 20 minutes, we arrived at our station.
We took a "quick" bathroom break at a gas station on our walk to MILA :D
Here's some graffiti/murals from the walk (credits to Kimberley for making the collage):
4). MILA
Since some people may be wondering what is MILA?, MILA is a federally-funded top AI research institute based in Montreal. We recieved an exclusive opportunity to visit the company!
We spent around an hour at MILA; there were two representatives who gave us a presentation about MILA: it's history, founders, ongoing research, how people can do research at MILA, etc. They also gave us valuable advice regarding the World AI Summit, which we will be attending this Wednesday & Thursday. Some professors from MILA will be keynote speakers at the World AI Summit, including one of the godfathers of AI: Youshua Bengio.
5). Iregular
After our visit to MILA, we walked over to Iregular.
Iregular is a digital art studio (also based in Montreal) that develops large-scale & interactive pieces that intersect the areas of art and technology (especially AI).
The founder of Iregular himself, Daniel Iregui, presented some of Iregular's best projects, and talked in depth about a piece called "Mental Maps," which uses AI to visualize landscapes painted by James Duncan.
After the presentation, we visited Iregular's lab, and we got to play around with another one of Iregular's pieces called "Faces."
6). Dinner
The final highlight of the day was dinner. We ate on the same street as 3 Brasseurs (where we ate dinner last night). We went to Pub St. Paul: a favorite restaurant of many locals and McGill students. The menu was similar to 3 Brasseurs, but had some more seafood options.
Steps update: 20,000+
El fin.