Summer School 2025

Theme: Leveraging Data Science, AI, and Cross-Sector Collaboration for Healthy Cities’ Sustainable Ecosystem Innovation

SMART Summer School 2025 Recap
May 26–30, McGill University, Montreal

The 2025 SMART Healthy Cities Summer School, hosted at McGill University, brought together a dynamic cohort of interdisciplinary trainees, mentors, and sector leaders to explore real-world challenges through the lens of precision convergence science. Under the theme “Leveraging Data Science, AI, and Cross-Sector Collaboration for Sustainable Ecosystem Innovation,” participants engaged in an intensive week-long program centered on collaborative, data-driven problem solving.

At the heart of the program was the Hackathon, where teams tackled challenges in four key sectors:

Agri-Food
Housing & Real Estate
Community Services & Healthcare
Regional Development & Transportation

Each team worked closely with academic and practice mentors to design actionable, evidence-based solutions using a rich suite of open and synthetic datasets. The program combined structured knowledge sessions, sector-specific workshops, and hands-on design thinking to guide participants from problem definition to final pitch.

As such we would like to thank our sector partners who participated including:

Oatbox
Colabor
Bixi
Redwood properties
Clic social ( Le Centre Eva Marsden + CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal)

The week culminated in final presentations to a panel of experts, with each team of students showcasing innovative solutions that addressed complex, multi-level societal challenges. We would like to congratulate the following students who won for each challenge:

1. Housing

Benedict Abotsi
Yiru Wei
Elisha Robbins
Ananya Ajatasatru

2. Transport

Yuchen Hui
Rebecca Henderson
Nika Klaprat

3. Healthcare

Fengran Mo
Sam Sichkaruk
Hailey Mazenauer

4a. Agrifood (Oatbox)

Mikail Bhimani
Derrick Kpakpo Allotey
Emmanuel Kwofie

4b. Agrifood (Colabar)

Yajie Luo
Yihong Wu
Bryce Phillips
Vincent Abe-Inge

The Summer School provided a unique opportunity for emerging researchers to gain practical experience in implementation science, foster cross-sector collaboration, and contribute to building healthier, more resilient communities across Canada.

The summer school would not be possible without our mentor team for their expertise & guidance: