Talk about “artificial intelligence” (AI) is abundant. Politicians, experts and start-up founders tell us that AI will change how we live, communicate, work and travel tomorrow. Autonomous vehicles, the detection of illnesses, automated filtering of misinformation and hate speech – AI is seemingly set out to fix fundamental problems of our societies. At the same time, substantive concerns are raised that these developments might reinforce social and economic inequality, exacerbate the opacity of decision-making processes, and ultimately question human autonomy. Moreover, the direction of the scientific field itself is up for dispute, with leading practitioners of machine learning publicly disagreeing about the long-term importance of different approaches to designing and training these artificial agents. This conjunction of dynamic technological developments and fundamental controversies sets the perfect scene for a comparative, longitudinal inquiry into how AI as a sociotechnical phenomenon is being integrated into our societies. Although we have seen spikes of interest in AI before, 21st-century AI is currently in its formative stage—unsettled in the public debate, but also in expert policy and research communities. And while progress in machine learning has long come in the form of experiments, today these ‘experiments’ take place in our everyday lived environment; this is the implicit subtext of the profusion of publications of consultancy surveys, ethics whitepapers, national AI strategies, and large redeployments of research funding. The proposed project seeks to contrast both regional and globalized trajectories in four key countries: Canada, France, the UK, and Germany. Within and across these countries, the project compares and relates to each other—using historical, ethnographic, and computational methods appropriate to each case—the discourse and developments around AI’s “deep learning revolution” over 10 formative years (2012 to 2021) in three layers: in the media, in the policy space, and in the research community. The fieldwork builds on and extends the “cartographie de controverses” that has been developed at the Media Lab, Sciences Po. The media analysis will investigate AI debates in major news outlets, niche websites and social media conversation. The policy analysis will map and analyze the existing policy initiatives, whitepapers and regulations in each country, with careful attention to their rationales. Policy analysis will employ select expert interviews and social media conversations to contextualise policy developments. The research analysis will map publication archives and scientific communities as well as experiment with ethnographic embedding in relevant workshops and conferences where AI intersects with social issues (e.g. of online propaganda or of bias in machine learning models). In addition, the project will investigate and instigate formats of public engagement by hosting participatory workshops that enable stakeholders and members of the public to debate and negotiate AI pathways. Each of these analyses and interventions will not be conducted in a stand-alone manner, but will reflexively inform one another. This particular research design allows the project to retrace how 21st-century AI has been repeatedly constructed as both a problem and a solution: how throughout its brief history and unknown future, AI cultures negotiate across controversies and (apparent) closure without the scope of “AI” ever being fully defined. This international, comparative, multi-methodological study with a clear commitment to public knowledge and engagement seeks to extend and redistribute the range of expertise that is relevant to ensure that the coming of AI is truly for the greater good.

Note: The length of the abstract is limited to 2250 characters in compliance with the Canadian NSERC proposal. Greater exploitation of space has fostered research towards the production of highly-performing cheaper satellites of small size and small weight ranging from micro- (10-100 kg) to picosatellites (less than 1 kg). This reduction requires the development of novel smart radiator devices (SRDs) to overcome the present limitations of thermal control systems in terms of mass, surface area and power budget. SRDs based on the thermochromic approach incorporate films of which the thermal emittance passively switches from a high value at high temperature to a low value at low temperature. One of the most promising smart materials for such applications is vanadium oxide (VO2). In this context, we propose an ambitious research project to tackle the challenges associated with the synthesis of smart polycrystalline VO2 thin films on space-compatible substrates using advanced plasma-based processes. This project will cover several aspects spanning from the understanding of the role of dopants on the metal-to-insulator transition temperature and on the emittance of the VO2 films to the fabrication of SRDs prototypes and their performance evaluation in space environment. Because of the wide range of knowledge required to address all the scientific and technological challenges associated to the development of VO2-based SRDs, we have formed a team with Canadian and French researchers that have complementary expertise. The possibility offered by the joint NSERC/ANR program represents a unique opportunity for our team not only to significantly contribute to a domain of strategic interest for both Canada and France, but also to integrate our research in a strategy aiming at sharing knowledge, infrastructure, and responsibilities of HQP training. To ensure a remarkable benefit of this research to Canada and France, our team can rely on the support of a major industrial partner (MPBC). This project will help MPBC to position as one of the future world leaders in the manufacturing of the next generation of SRDs. Moreover, our proposal is supported by 3 end users, namely Magellan Aerospace in Canada, and Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence & Space in France, who will be able to integrate these VO2-based SRDs in their future products.

The project SILMARILION aims at demonstrating a set of battery components suitable for 700Wh/L cell, using the following full cell level approach: -New cation-deficient Li-rich positives, targeting a specific capacity >= 250mAh/g -µm-size Silicon from low cost milling, blended with graphite to achieve an electrode with > 1000mAh/g -screening of electrolyte components and assess interface with active materials -focus on electrode formulation in order to determine the more suitable set of binders and conductive additives -correlate the complete cell properties to active materials & interfaces ageing, thanks to advanced characterization techniques such as NMR and EELS (i.e. highlight the importance of full cell configuration vs half-cell). -Demonstrate the achievements at prototype level with 3 generations of 18650-like cells, in order to reach a durability target of 20% energy loss after 1000 cycles at C/2 at room temperature and 20% energy loss after 400 cycles at 45°C. -explore some power/energy ratios.

Our project belongs to the theme of public policies and social innovations facing demographic changes and targets two sub-themes: the transformation of public services and the specificities concerning the provision of public services at the local level. Throughout Europe and Canada, the proportion of older adults will significantly increase in the future. This population is heterogeneous along social (socio-economic inequalities), familial (differentiated networks of potential caregivers), and cultural (effect of migration dynamics) lines. This heterogeneity leads to important regional disparities within each country. As a result, local contexts affect various dimensions of services offered as well as the different types of support provided by caregivers. Consequently, adapting these services to a local population raises important horizontal equity issues since national policies usually aim to provide similar services throughout the entire territory. The main goal of our project is to study and compare social policies targeting older adults in France and Québec, and specifically analyse how social and medico-social services take into account local particularities. This requires identifying the appropriate geographical level of analysis and to reconstruct the demographic, social and migratory evolution of the territories. This project also studies policy changes that are triggered by these demographic changes at the local and national levels. In a nutshell, this project aims to construct a multidimensional “biography” of territory.