HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab: $18 million for accelerating digital transformation in organizations
November 10, 2023
HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab has been awarded $18 million in funding over 5 years. This is the most substantial research-related funding ever received in the history of the School. Such major financial support will boost innovation in user experience (UX) and accelerate digital transformation in organizations.
This amount comes from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the provincial organization, PROMPT, and 13 partners: Alloprof, National Bank, Blue Yonder Group Inc., CAE Inc., CN, D-BOX Technologies Inc., Deloitte Digital, LRDG Inc., Desjardins Group, Radio-Canada, ServiceNow, Sobeys Inc., Videotron Ltd.
“I am delighted with this historic funding. Our researchers in all areas of management sciences constantly strive for excellence and are driven by a deep desire to surpass themselves. Our mission’s primary focus is on research and knowledge transfer to the business community and society, and this contribution will convert HEC Montréal’s high ambitions into reality.”
Caroline Aubé, Director of Research and knowledge transfer, HEC Montréal, Pierre-Majorique Léger and Sylvain Sénécal, Co-directors, Tech3Lab, Robert Déziel, Deputy Director, NSERC, Liette Lamonde, Managing Director, PROMPT and Federico Pasin, Director, HEC Montréal.
Helping organizations to accelerate digital transformation
The 13 industrial partners will work closely with the multidisciplinary team in HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab by providing real cases. The results and progress will optimize UX among their customers and employees in a wide variety of sectors: traditional and electronic commerce, telecommunications, banking, transportation, procurement, online education, culture, and entertainment.
The funding will be used for two research programs led by the co-directors of Tech3Lab, Pierre-Majorique Léger and Sylvain Sénécal, and comprising 10 other researchers from the School:
- the first one seeks to help organizations develop easy-to-learn technological interfaces and ensure that users are ready to adopt them;
- the second one hopes to improve UX measures and methods and make them more accessible (for instance, by providing internal teams with opportunities to validate results faster).
“This major public and private funding will help accelerate research findings and make UX even more intuitive and enjoyable. Meticulous innovations regarding the speed and diagnostic nature of data from our experiments will now become possible, with the purpose of mobilizing the latest developments in artificial intelligence to achieve results almost in real time, when evaluating digital products and services.”
“Information technologies are ubiquitous in our economy. In recent years, UX has taken on strategic importance for many organizations in a variety of sectors. Our research helps them make pivotal decisions when developing new digital products and services.”
Experts from HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab will conduct tests that will analyze users’ reactions from emotional and cognitive perspectives, with the help of certain tools including physiological sensors, and equipment for measuring facial expressions, visual attention, and cognitive load.
Providing digital transformation training to the next generation
HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab also ensures that the next generation is equipped to address future challenges in digital transformation. Collaborations with its industrial partners help create unparalleled training opportunities, especially for students of the School’s Master’s degree in User Experience (UX), who complete their thesis within these partnerships. Thanks to its international status and capacity for innovation, the laboratory attracts an average of almost one hundred students across all levels each year from Canada and abroad.
Learn more
HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab
Master of Science (MSc) – User Experience
NSERC
PROMPT [in French only]