Join Us
Opportunities to join the Oakes Lab at Polytechnique Montréal for undergraduate, Masters, and PhD positions.
I have funded undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD positions open now for motivated and talented individuals interested in cutting-edge research.
What You’ll Research
You’ll develop new techniques for digital twin construction, verification, and explanation, following our AI-assisted, model-driven approach with tools like game engines, ontologies, and LLMs. This research is applied across real domains, including permafrost monitoring, beer fermentation, smart-city traffic, aerospace machining, and robotic assembly, in ongoing projects with industrial and academic partners. You’ll help push that further in the lab and our Digital Twin Engineering course.
Available Projects
Developing a semantic integration and consistency framework for hierarchical digital twins.
Analyzing and improving the quality of DT models and systems, and the explainability of DT architectures and service results. [quality paper] [explainability paper]
Utilizing machine learning (RL, LLMs, recommendations) and ontological modelling for DT construction and evolution. [paper]
Investigating software architecture styles, patterns, and reference architectures for digital twin systems and their services.
If you have another research idea which aligns with my interests, I would love to hear it!
What I Offer
- Competitive funding, with multiple scholarship opportunities
- Supportive mentoring: weekly one-on-one meetings, active co-writing, and continual guidance toward your goals. My simple philosophy: your success is my success.
- Publication in top venues (MODELS, SoSyM, TOSEM, FSE) and presentations at leading international conferences
- Collaboration with industrial partners on real, deployed systems, with the option of a paid industry internship through the Mitacs Accelerate program
- International research visits to partner labs (Aarhus, Denmark; Antwerp, Belgium; and more)
- A position at Polytechnique Montréal, one of Canada’s leading engineering schools (virtual tour)
- Affiliated with the Université de Montréal (ranked 125th globally) and Mila
- Located in Montréal, an affordable and vibrant bilingual city
What the Work Looks Like
Research means working at the boundaries of what we know. As a researcher, you find the problems and the solutions that no one has found before. We read, think, discuss, and write about big ideas, always exploring and problem-solving.
In practice, you’ll pick up an open research problem, not a task list, and drive it forward. Expect to submit to a workshop or conference within your first year, and to a top venue (MODELS, SoSyM, or similar) as your work matures. At leading conferences, you’ll present your ideas and results and discuss them with world-class experts in the field.
Research and lab discussions happen in English, and you can be admitted and study in English. Polytechnique is a francophone university, so you’ll also pick up some French while you’re here: graduating students complete one French-language course, with free lessons offered on campus. Those who only speak English can easily enjoy Montréal, since most people speak both languages. It’s also a great chance to learn a beautiful language, and to enjoy les festivals, du café sur la terrasse, et la joie de vivre.
Contacting Me
See the Contact page for my email and office location.
I’m always excited to hear from prospective students, and I read every email myself. To help yours stand out:
Show you know the lab — reference my research interests and publications.
Tell me about you — a few lines on:
- What excites you about research?
- What are your research interests, and how do they match mine?
- What is your favourite project you’ve worked on?
Include:
- (Required) Up-to-date CV
- (Required) Transcript(s)
- (Optional) Reference letter(s)
- (Optional) Relevant publications or reports
A great email tells me who you are, what you want to research, and why our interests align, in your own words.
Ready to apply? See the admission process and application page. Under-represented groups are especially encouraged to join us!