Here are some information for prospective students who want to apply to a position at Norlab. Read those information carefully before communicating with us.

For international students, because of the immigration procedure and the risk of recruiting with limited information, we will only answer emails which are recommended by a professor known by the laboratory.

For Canadian students, it is expected that you will ask for funding to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and students from Quebec are expected to also ask for funding to the Fonds de recherche du Québec Nature et technologies (FRQNT). It takes typically 8 months to receive and answer from the funding agencies, so you need to plan at least a year in advance if you want to do research in our lab. If you have a high profile, we offer support to write a strong proposal. Those grants are highly competitive, so you will need to work on research skills, grads, and social implications through your undergraduate studies.

We try to keep an international level of research, so are expectations might be higher than anticipated. Here is a breakdown of workload and support from Norlab for each level of researcher:

… and for all levels, you should

• be self-driven, autonomous, ethical, and meticulous
• develop communication skills with international standards
• have an active implication in the development and maintenance of lab’s infrastructure
• support teaching activities through paid contracts, when needed
• demonstrate collegiality through social activities of the lab

Note: This information is given as an average and the specific details will depend on the status and particularities of each candidate.

Suggested Lectures

• Introduction to mobile robotics (GLO-7021)
• Learning through deep neural networks (GLO-7030)
• Advance techniques in artificial intelligence (IFT-7025)
• Numerical vision (GIF-7001)
• Algorithmic photography (GIF-7105)
• Elements of robotics (GMC-7046)
• Active sensors (GMT-7007)
• Advanced satellite positioning (GMT-7037)

Targeted Journals and Conferences

• International Journal of Robotics Research
• Journal of Field Robotics (JFR)
• Autonomous Robots
• IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) - location rotating through North America, Europe, and Asia each year.
• IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) - location rotating through North America, Europe, and Asia each year.
• International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR) - location rotating through North America, Europe, and Asia each year.
• International Conference on Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) - typically in the US.
• Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV) - typically in Canada.

Our International Network

• Switzerland: ETH Zurich
• Hong Kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• China: ShanghaiTech
• England: Oxford
• Australia: Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT)
• Germany: University of Bonn
• France: Georgia Tech Lorraine; Institut Pascal
• USA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory; University of Nevada
• Canada: University of Toronto; McGill

How to apply

1. Read about grant opportunities from NSERC and FRQNT
2. Read about the past and current projects to make sure that the general topic highly motivate you
3. Read about graduated studies on the Faculty of graduated and postdoctoral studies
4. Make sure that we are advertising an open position on our web site, then…
5. Contact us for a meeting by mentioning a specific project.

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