Mila and BusPas Inc. announce a partnership to develop machine learning solutions embedded in bus stops
Montreal, July 20, 2022 — Mila, the world’s largest academic deep learning research institute, and BusPas Inc., shaping the future of mobility through connected IoT infrastructure at bus stops, have announced a strategic partnership to use artificial intelligence (AI) to develop embedded solutions at bus stops.
Today, we see significant service inequalities from one bus stop to another. Too often, the bus stop consists only of a pole with a sign and a paper timetable poster. Some stops are equipped with bus shelters as advertising makes them profitable and space allows it. Some, more rarely, are equipped with passenger information systems that are expensive and bounded.
With the current challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and road congestion (e.g. ARTM Strategic Plan), BusPas has focused on developing a cost-effective and scalable technological infrastructure to increase the quality of public transport services with regards to user satisfaction with the aim of increasing transport usage. “With this partnership, Mila and BusPas will collaborate to develop certain functionalities integrated into BusPas’ scalable Cloud and Edge Computing system. This includes the development of machine learning models that can detect system inefficiencies and malicious behaviour, as well as new algorithms that support sustainable mobility and a smart city,” explained Brad Cameron, COO of BusPas.
For users, this technology taking the shape of a display attached to a bus stop pole aims to democratize universal access to real-time information from the agency to the passenger, increase the sense of serenity at the bus stop, while providing transport agencies with crucial data for planning departments regarding user flows (real-time demand volume, waiting time of individuals at stops), as well as a multitude of environmental and operational information for smart city functionalities.
Mila will help BusPas develop its solution to reach a new level of intelligence and capacity to better serve communities.
“The environment and the fight against climate change is one of the core research areas in line with Mila’s mission,” says Stéphane Létourneau, Mila’s Executive Vice President.“ This partnership with BusPas has the potential to develop AI solutions that will improve public transit services and urban mobility for the benefit of the population and transportation agencies.”
About BusPas
Montreal-based company, BusPas Inc. has created an innovative solution to cover all bus stops in the transportation network. The BusPas offer is the first of its kind. It is the basis for a much larger ecosystem of resources and data for public transport and the city. BusPas’ goal is to promote sustainable, close and positive relationships between mobility users as well as city and smart mobility stakeholders. Founded by public transport software developers, BusPas is a dynamic development company committed to advancing today’s mobility and shaping tomorrow’s. Using cloud and mobile technologies, BusPas and its partners are transforming the mobility experience for users and supporting transit agencies in the smart city.
For more information, visit buspas.com.
Contact: info@buspas.com
About Mila
Founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Mila is an artificial intelligence research institute that brings together nearly 900 researchers specializing in machine learning. Based in Montreal, Mila’s mission is to be a global hub for scientific advances that inspire innovation and development of AI for the benefit of all. Mila is a non-profit organization recognized worldwide for its significant contributions to the field of deep learning, particularly in language modeling, machine translation, object recognition, and generative models.
