TechSurge: Deep Tech Podcast

·S2 E12

Physical AI, Quantum, and Bio-Innovation: Inside Canada’s Research Frontier

July 15
1h 9m

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Episode Description

Canada produces world-leading science, engineering, and AI research. So why does so much of that research still commercialize outside of Canada?


In this episode of TechSurge, host Nic Brathwaite puts that question to four leaders at two of Canada's top research universities: Mary Wells (Dean of Engineering) and Chris Houser (Dean of Science) at the University of Waterloo, and Heather Sheardown (Dean of Engineering) and Gianni Parise (VP Research) at McMaster.


At Waterloo, Mary Wells traces how the university's origin produced one of the world's most influential co-op programs and a creator-owned IP policy that lets inventors keep their ideas, making the school a talent engine for global tech. The group digs into Canada's AI paradox, foundational research and talent but far less of the economic value, and what quantum, robotics, and advanced manufacturing show about getting research to market.


McMaster runs a different model, built on health sciences, nuclear research, and problem-based learning. Heather Sheardown explains the McMaster Method and why it matters in an AI-shaped future. Gianni Parise argues for commercialization as a core university function, with work spanning AI-assisted drug discovery, inhaled vaccines, critical-mineral-free motors, and a campus nuclear reactor that supplies much of the world's iodine-125 for prostate cancer treatment. They also unpack Fusion Pharmaceuticals, the McMaster spin-out acquired by AstraZeneca, and what it reveals about university commercialization.


Together, these conversations ask what universities must become in an era defined by AI, deep tech, national competitiveness, and the urgent need to move ideas from the lab into the world.

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Speaker Profiles and Links

  • Mary Wells - University of Waterloo Profile: https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/about/dean-engineerin
  • Chris Houser - University of Waterloo profile: https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-environmental-sciences/profile/chouser
  • Heather Sheardown - McMaster Engineering profile: https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/chemeng/faculty/dr-heather-sheardown/
  • Gianni Parise - McMaster Experts Profile: https://experts.mcmaster.ca/people/pariseg

    Chapters:

    0:00 Highlights
    0:56 Welcome 
    2:39 Waterloo’s origin story 
    4:51 Creator-owned IP and the Waterloo model 
    7:42 The Co-op Flywheel 
    8:56 Canada’s AI paradox: world-class research, slower domestic value capture 
    10:21 AI, Regulation, Trust, and Canadian Competitiveness 
    17:09 Rethinking the PhD for Commercialisation 
    21:43 Inside Waterloo’s labs 
    30:14 What Waterloo wants to be in ten years: builders of the country 
    32:39 Meet McMaster: health sciences, nuclear capability, and research intensity 
    34:12 The McMaster Method 
    35:11 Research, Health, and Commercialisation 
    40:45 McMaster Labs: Heat, Motors and Health Innovation 
    47:13 Bioinnovation, Nuclear Research and Fusion Pharmaceuticals 
    58:43 The university of 2035: less lecture, deeper societal impact 


References Mentioned and Further Reading

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