Balloons to Broadband: Centuries of Innovation Enabling Canada’s Future Networks Abstract: Lighter-than-air (LTA) and communications technologies have evolved side-by-side for centuries. From 19th century balloon-borne airmail and telegraph-enabled spotter balloons, to stratospheric mesh networks and tethered “flying towers,” these platforms have repeatedly extended the reach of terrestrial communications networks. Each generation of LTA technology has supported operational communications while enabling the early deployment of new network technologies. This presentation traces the historical arc of LTA communications and situates them within current research on high-speed connectivity. It then introduces a demonstration project supported through collaboration between Lux Aerobot, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and McMaster University. The project leverages Lux's high-altitude platforms (HAPs) for early deployment and characterization of next-generation optical communication technologies for resilient, high-throughput connectivity tailored to Canada’s unique constraints and network needs. . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Des ballons au haut débit : des siècles d’innovation au service des futurs réseaux du Canada Résumé: Les technologies des plus légers que l'air (PLA) et des communications ont évolué parallèlement au cours des siècles. Des ballons de courrier aérien et de télégraphie du XIXe siècle aux réseaux maillés stratosphériques et aux « tours volantes » captives, ces plateformes ont constamment étendu la portée des réseaux de communication terrestres. Chaque génération de technologie PLA a soutenu les communications opérationnelles tout en permettant le déploiement précoce de nouvelles technologies réseau. Cette présentation retrace l'histoire des communications PLA et les situe dans le contexte des recherches actuelles sur la connectivité haut débit. Elle présente ensuite un projet de démonstration soutenu par la collaboration entre Lux Aerobot, le Conseil national de recherches du Canada (CNRC) et l'Université McMaster. Ce projet s'appuie sur les plateformes haute altitude (HAP) de Lux pour le déploiement et la caractérisation précoces de technologies de communication optique de nouvelle génération, afin d'offrir une connectivité résiliente et haut débit adaptée aux contraintes et aux besoins réseau uniques du Canada. Liam Graham, Systems & Montreal Team Lead, Lux Aerobot About / A propos The High Throughput and Secure Networks (HTSN) Challenge program is hosting regular virtual seminar series to promote scientific information sharing, discussions, and interactions between researchers. https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/programs/high-throughput-secure-networks-challenge-program Le programme Réseaux Sécurisés à Haut Débit (RSHD) organise régulièrement des séries de séminaires virtuels pour promouvoir le partage d’informations scientifiques, les discussions et les interactions entre chercheurs. https://nrc.canada.ca/fr/recherche-developpement/recherche-collaboration/programmes/programme-defi-reseaux-securises-haut-debit NEW: In order to promote more open discussions/interactions, at the end of the presentation and Q/A, we will allow other experts in this field (quantum comm) to present very briefly their work (1 slide, 2 min max) or their company. / Afin de favoriser des discussions/interactions plus ouvertes, à la fin de la présentation et des questions/réponses, nous permettrons aux experts de ce domaine (communications quantiques) de présenter très brièvement leurs travaux (1 diapositive, 2 min max) ou leur compagnie. Co-sponsored by: National Research Council, Canada. Optonique. Speaker(s): Liam Graham, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/499915

UBC IEEE ExCom meeting to discuss hiring, next year plan and upcoming events, as well as the new UBC IEEE AESS Chapter. Room: 3009, Bldg: MCLD, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Free Registration (with a Zoom account; you can get one for free if you don't already have it. This requirement is to avoid Zoom bombing. Please sign in using the email address tied to your Zoom account — not necessarily the one you used to register for the event.): https://sjsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/i6n2sgjLQFelwXCNz4-YGQ Synopsis: As large language models (LLMs) evolve from static, prompt-based tools into autonomous, agentic systems capable of reasoning, planning, and acting with minimal human oversight, organizations face an exciting yet complex frontier. These advanced systems hold the potential to revolutionize enterprise workflows, developer tools, and customer-facing applications—but realizing that potential requires navigating a host of technical and ethical challenges. This panel brings together leading voices from AI research, infrastructure engineering, and real-world application domains to discuss how agentic LLM systems are moving from lab experiments to production-grade deployments. Panelists will explore critical topics such as orchestration, safety, observability, and evaluation, while offering hard-earned lessons from deploying these systems at scale. Whether you're building tools for developers, integrating LLM agents into enterprise pipelines, or shaping the next wave of intelligent products, this discussion will equip you with the strategic and technical know-how to bring agentic AI into impactful, everyday use. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn what it truly takes to operationalize the future of AI. --------------------------------------------------------------- By registering for this event, you agree that IEEE and the organizers are not liable to you for any loss, damage, injury, or any incidental, indirect, special, consequential, or economic loss or damage (including loss of opportunity, exemplary or punitive damages). The event will be recorded and will be made available for public viewing. Speaker(s): Yubin Kim, Gautam Solaimalai, Shaleen Kumar Gupta, Vishal Jain, Abhay Khosla, Rahul Raja, Harsh Varshney Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/494702

Time & Date: 6 p.m., Wednesday, August 17th, 2025 Location: Zoom Draft Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xVNFswJQ8IxuzbxFiIWpNN1aPPpCv53Vvbxpw5XZuAs/edit?usp=drive_link Room: TBA, Bldg: TBA, 1000 KLO Rd. , Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1Y 4X8, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/501283

Time & Date: 6 p.m., Wednesday, August 17th, 2025 Location: Zoom Draft Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xVNFswJQ8IxuzbxFiIWpNN1aPPpCv53Vvbxpw5XZuAs/edit?usp=drive_link Room: TBA, Bldg: TBA, 1000 KLO Rd. , Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1Y 4X8, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/501283

Electric vehicles first appeared in the mid-19th century. EVs held the land speed record until around 1900. The high cost, low speed, and short-range of battery electric vehicles, compared to 20th century internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, led to a worldwide decline in their use as private motor vehicles, although electric vehicles have continued to be used in the form of loading and freight equipment and public transport – especially rail vehicles. Now in the 21st century, interest in electric vehicles has increased due to growing concern over the problems associated with fossil fuel vehicles, including damage to the environment caused by their emissions, and the sustainability of the current hydrocarbon-based transportation infrastructure as well as improvements in EV technology. We will explore all of these aspects and a quick glimpse in the current state of the art, as well as developments around the corner. Speaker(s): , Sharan Kalwani Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/498207

We are pleased to announce a special presentation introducing QV Studio, a quantum startup builder funded by the Québec Government. The presentation will be given by Bouraoui Ilahi, Scientist-in-Residence, and will be followed by an open discussion. Whether you are a quantum scientist, an expert in a quantum enabling technology, or a specialist in another field who may benefit from a collaboration with quantum specialists, this talk is for you. Your Expertise + Quantum + QV Studio = the path to build a Quantum unicorn QV Studio’s mission is to build and launch the next generation of startups by applying quantum and enabling technologies to solve real-world challenges. Why QV Studio? QV Studio bridges the gap between research and real-world applications. It offers innovators over 1,000 hours of coaching, training, and consulting from an experienced business and technology team, millions of dollars in funding, and strategic support to help transform breakthrough technologies into thriving companies. Co-sponsored by: OPTICA-SPIE Student Chapter at INRS Room: 214, 1650 Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Quebec, Canada, J3X 1P7

We are pleased to announce a special presentation introducing QV Studio, a quantum startup builder funded by the Québec Government. The presentation will be given by Bouraoui Ilahi, Scientist-in-Residence, and will be followed by an open discussion. Whether you are a quantum scientist, an expert in a quantum enabling technology, or a specialist in another field who may benefit from a collaboration with quantum specialists, this talk is for you. Your Expertise + Quantum + QV Studio = the path to build a Quantum unicorn QV Studio’s mission is to build and launch the next generation of startups by applying quantum and enabling technologies to solve real-world challenges. Why QV Studio? QV Studio bridges the gap between research and real-world applications. It offers innovators over 1,000 hours of coaching, training, and consulting from an experienced business and technology team, millions of dollars in funding, and strategic support to help transform breakthrough technologies into thriving companies. Co-sponsored by: OPTICA-SPIE Student Chapter at INRS Room: 214, 1650 Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Quebec, Canada, J3X 1P7

CubeSat VIOLET was approximately 10 cm by 10 cm by 20 cm or roughly the size of a two-litre milk carton. It was designed, built, and tested, by the students in our research group called CubeSat NB, a first-of-its-kind partnership among the New Brunswick Community College, the Université de Moncton and the University of New Brunswick. The purpose of the project was student education and 274 students were part of this project. CubeSat NB was one the 15 teams in the Canadian CubeSat Project, inspired by the Canadian Space Agency. VIOLET's mission was to study space weather. It was deployed in a low earth orbit from the International Space Station in 2024 and, as planned, burned up on entry to the atmosphere. Despite over a million radio messages being sent to VIOLET, it did not answer. As they say, space is hard. Some lessons learned will be presented for groups who are considering building a nanosatellite in a university environment. Speaker(s): Brent, Room: SS1071, Bldg: Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3G3

Abstract: In this talk, we will discuss two recent observations from our group that have challenged widespread assumptions held (by us included!) about the optical response of commonly used optical materials: that material polarization can safely be considered to respond locally to the electric field and that the second-order nonlinear response of amorphous films should vanish due to centrosymmetry. In the first part of the talk, we will describe our proposal for a new type of optical antenna dubbed a “photonic gap antenna”, and our realization of its extreme version using an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material. Such antennas can provide electric field enhancements of >100 and large Purcell factors without requiring stringent nanofabrication. To our surprise, when measuring third harmonic generation as a proxy for field enhancement, sharp peaks emerge in the response that are completely absent in our full wave electromagnetic calculations. We find that the appearance of these peaks can only be explained when including nonlocality in the dielectric response of the ENZ material. Nonlocal simulations show that the volume averaged field enhancement can be 4–6 greater than that predicted by the local model, which becomes an important consideration when designing optical devices. In the second part of the talk, we will describe our recent discovery that amorphous thermally evaporated organic thin films of small molecules can have second-order optical nonlinearities on par with those of state-of-the-art nonlinear materials (c(2)31, c(2)33 >50 pm/V), with the important advantage that they can be deposited on arbitrary photonic platforms. We will show that by harnessing the interplay between dipole-dipole interactions and surface energy minimization, it is possible to spontaneously break centrosymmetry during thermal evaporation, without the need for special alignment procedures. In addition to its applications in photonics, this observation has allowed us to better understand molecular alignment beyond the mean molecular orientation angle. . Co-sponsored by: Prof. Nicolas Quesada Speaker(s): Stéphane Kéna-Cohen J. Armand Bombardier J-1035, Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, H3T 1J4