QCAM Course

The course is divided in two sections, the first section has lectures related to the subject; the other is related to the realization of a project in groups of three to five students.

Registrations

For the 2026 winter semester, the course will be open for registration at the following universities

• Laval University, Prof. Jean-François Morin, CHM 7008A – Cours gradué interuniversitaire CQMF –
• Université de Montréal, Prof. Christian Pellerin, CHM6465 – Matériaux fonctionnels –
• Université de Sherbrooke, Prof. Patrick Ayotte, CHM777 – Sujets choisis en chimie des matériaux –
• Concordia, Prof. Louis Cuccia, Chem 650 – Selected Topics in Multidisciplinary Chemistry –
• Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Prof. François Brouillette, NRG7703-2H –  Problème spéciaux III –
• McGill University, Prof. Theo van de Ven, CHEM667, Special Topics 3

If the course is not available at your home institution and you wish to enroll in it, you can do so using the Inter-University Transfer Authorization application (AEHE).

Winter 2026 Lectures

For the winter 2026 session, lectures will be given either in streaming mode or pre-recorded. The live (Zoom) lectures will run on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm or/and at 2:30/3:00 pm, from Jan 14-March 11, 2026.

Lecture

Students have to view at least six 60- to 90-minute courses on videos; the courses present a variety of topics, including polymer chemistry, nanoscience, self-assembly, materials for the biomedical, energy and the environmental domains. Half of these courses are in French, the other half in English. The assessment will be in the form of a written examination.

Project

At the beginning of the session, each student completes a questionnaire to introduce themselves which will allow the groups to be created by favoring interdisciplinarity and an interuniversity aspect. In order to foster the acquisition of new knowledge, no student will have a project directly related to his graduate studies’ project.

Depending on the results of the questionnaire, the supervisor creates groups of 3 or 4 students. Each group will propose a project in the following month on recent aspects related to materials science, and in relation to articles in the literature. This choice of project will be done with the help and with the agreement of the supervisor. The groups will have to:

Identifier les principaux défis du domaine qui doivent être résolus (en sélectionner un en particulier)

• Identify the main challenges of the field that need to be solved (select one in particular)
• Propose a new material / class of materials / device that could solve the challenge they have selected; in particular, it will be necessary to explain why this material has been selected, how it will be studied, how it will be implemented and what are the difficulties anticipated in its use, and how these will be bypassed.

In the middle of the winter session, each group will present, in three minutes (format “my thesis in 180 seconds”), its project to other groups. The presentation will be followed by a constructive criticism among the students.

At the end of the session, a ‘projects’ day will be organized. Each group will present their project orally. A written document will also be provided (approximately 10 pages) on the review of the literature relevant to the project.