An important centre for key industries like entertainment, IT development and clean tech, Montreal has established its reputation as an internationally recognized technological hub. For Ada Tur (BA’26 Linguistics and BSc’26 Computer Science) and Alex Guangyuan Wang (BSc’26 Joint Honours Mathematics and Computer Science), what drew them here was the work being done in artificial intelligence, and specifically Mila, Quebec’s artificial intelligence research institute.
“A very big reason why I decided to move to Montreal was because of Mila. The institute was founded by Professor Yoshua Benjio, who’s considered the godfather of AI. I’m a big fan,” said Wang, who came to McGill from Edmonton.
Mila was also a draw for Tur, who was interested in gaining experience at the institute while working on her undergraduate degree.
“When I was choosing universities in the U.S., I found that there weren’t many schools that had an external institute like Mila that was so collaborative with universities,” explained Tur, who hails from the Silicon Valley area in California. “I knew that Mila had a close tie with McGill, and I really liked the idea of interning there and working alongside professors at the institute.”
The time put in at Mila paid off; both Tur and Wang will be graduating later this year with published research papers under their belts – and they’re both named as first authors.
Finding guidance and opportunity at McGill
Although he initially considered completing a physics degree, Wang decided to pursue his interest in machine learning, even crushing a graduate-level class on the subject his first year at McGill.
Since then, Wang has received guidance and recognition from renowned AI scientist Professor Doina Precup, allowing him to build on his undergraduate coursework and dive deeper into research on AI reinforcement learning, a topic he has since been exploring at Mila.
“Since I started at Mila, I’ve had the opportunity to lead the projects that I’ve worked on,” he said. “These research projects have been challenging at times, but the mentorship I’ve received from professors and PhD students has been incredibly valuable. You don’t just gain technical skills; you’re taught to think like a researcher.”
Tur similarly found guidance from a professor on opportunities to expand on her interest in AI natural language processing models.
“I was working on a class project, and my professor suggested I collaborate with a PhD student he was supervising who was working on similar research,” she said. “By the end of the course, both the PhD student and I really felt that the research could be published somewhere, so I asked my professor about extending the work. That’s how I managed to extend my project into the summer and get paid by Mila for the research I was doing.”
Since starting their internships, Tur and Wang have collaborated with Mila researchers on several projects they work on year-round, often juggling academic obligations and soaking in life in Montreal with research commitments.
“My professor has a really collaborative lab at Mila, and it’s not rare for him to have an undergraduate student working on research for a semester or expanding on a class project like I did,” said Tur.
“The professors here are deeply involved in students’ projects, care greatly about project progress, and are willing to spend time discussing industry trends with us,” Wang added.
Bright futures ahead
With their graduation dates fast approaching, both Tur and Wang are considering futures in academia and continuing on their research paths.
“I’ve fallen in love with research,” said Tur. “I got a taste of what being a PhD student would be like. Whenever I talk to the PhD students at the lab, they always seem to be having a lot of fun with their research, and I know I have a lot of fun with mine.”
Wang agreed: “I truly love research; the academic atmosphere here is intoxicating – I can explore topics that are expected to become key future directions for the emerging AI industry.”
For now, both undergraduates are continuing their work at the institute while weighing what life post-McGill could look like.
“If you’re curious enough about a topic, you should try to work on a research project as early as you can,” advised Wang. “Research changes the way you look at things, so I think it’s important to pursue what excites you. Value and embrace that passion – that will make you stand out in any technical field.”