Québec City, a World Heritage Site

Quebec City is the cradle of French civilization in North America. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, after Jacques Cartier unsuccessful attempt to settle a colony in the 1540s, Québec City has created a unique blend of its European seed with North American vitality.

Québec City excels in attracting and seducing visitors from all over the world by the beauty of its landscapes, the brightness of its winter, the warmth of its people.

To know more about Quebec City: its history, its organization and to explore its variety and diversity, please visit its official website at: http://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/en/accueil/index.shtml

Québec City will celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2008. This milestone will be celebrated with various exhibits and performances all the year long, starting from a new year theatrical and acrobatic feast to its closure that will coincide with the 12th summit of French speaking countries in October.

To know more about the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Québec City, please visit the official site of The Société du 400eanniversaire de Québec: http://www.quebec400.qc.ca

Québec City houses Innovation

Quebec City is also known for the vitality and the outstanding quality of its R&D in optics, lasers and optronics, and more recently in geomatics. The academia, several governmental institutions and industries are contributing to this success.

Université Laval - the first francophone University in North America - played a major historical role in this domain with the former Laboratoire de Recherche en Optique et Lasers, transformed 10 years ago into a major driving force named the Center of Optic, Photonic and Lasers (http://www.copl.ulaval.ca/)

Université Laval hosts the headquarters of two major Canadian networks of Centers of excellence that are day-to-day practitioners of information fusion concepts and techniques that are: the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI) and the GEOmatics for Informed DEcisions network (GEOIDE).

Created in 1999, the mission of the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI, http://www.cipi.ulaval.ca/) is to bring university researchers together with public sector and industrial partners in a network with state-of-the-art facilities in order to stimulate innovations in photonics and to promote their exploitation. Activities are currently structured around five themes that are namely Engineering of Photonic Devices, Photonics for Information Technology, Photonics for Information Technology, Ultra-fast Photonic Technology, Precision Photonic Measurement.

In order to fulfill its national mandate of supporting the Canadian Forces at home and abroad and to consolidate the security of Canadians and their homeland, several Applied Research and Technology Demonstration Programs are testing and pushing forward information fusion theories and applications. DRDC-Valcartier (http://www.valcartier.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/), the largest of the five Defence Research and Development Canada laboratory, hosts three R&D sectors: Optronic Systems (optronic surveillance and electro-optical warfare), Information systems (Information and Knowledge Management, Decision Support Systems, Systems of Systems) and Combat Systems (Weapons Effect, Precision Weapons, Emergent Energetic Material). DRDC-Ottawa hosts several R&D teams working on Advanced Radar Systems, Aerospace and Radar Navigation, Anti-terrorism and Counter Smuggling Technologies, Electronic Warfare, Information Operations, Radiation Effects, Space Systems, Synthetic Environments. DRDC-Atlantic's main R&D activities are focused on Underwater Sensing and Countermeasures, Naval and Air Platforms, Signature Management, Maritime Information and Knowledge Management, Shipboard Command and Control. The DRDC Central Office is coordinating the national and international R&D effort through several programs such as the C4ISR.

On the private sector side, the creation of INO (Institut National d'Optique http://www.ino.ca/fr/accueil.aspx) in the mid-80s and the presence of world leaders in the design of EO and hyperspectral sensors such as Telops and Bomem illustrate the vitality and innovation of Quebec City area in this domain of expertise.