Jean-Samuel Chenard

Soralink aims to leverage integrated sensors in the food production industry to measure, analyze and ensure core equipment performance and reduce unplanned downtime. In this venture, my role is to ensure that the smart sensor technology created in the course of many years at Motsai is leveraged to process and deliver rich key metrics to the Soralink analysis platform. I support the key physical world measurements, on-chip processing and wireless infrastructure to elevate what sensors can bring to future AI-powered systems. I bring many years of experience in industrial sensor design and electronic industry best practices to deliver unique sensors that can be leveraged to fulfill Soralink's mission to simplify and automate the monitoring of key food production assets.

Motsai offers design services and product development of specialized high-tech projects in the wearable and embedded telecommunication systems area. Our company's past design project portfolio include high-performance aerospace telecommunication hub terminal, submersible satellite phone, portable cryptography unit, vehicular router communication hub, low-power wearable computing platform, high-speed computer vision image capture system, specialized industrial sensors and robotic equipment. Motsai can manage complex projects involving technical challenges on multiple fronts (electronic design, RF design, mechanical integration, software, firmware and circuits). We coordinate the clarification of specifications, task distribution and allocation, technical research and supply chain. Our team of specialists in DSP, microelectronics and low-power wireless design will bring optimized solutions rapidly to your market. Past and current design services clients include Satcom System, Accedian Networks, OMsignal, Newtrax, Nectar, Flexomaid and many more high-profile customers that rely on our expertise to expand their business and deliver awesome products to their customers. Feel free to contact me directly via LinkedIn or through our corporate web site.

Optimal Microsystems was a specialized distributor of embedded development solutions in the Canadian market ranging from low-end, low-power microcontrollers to high-performance computing solutions for portable products. The product line included development kits and computer-on-module enabling the rapid prototyping and deployment of products based on Texas Instruments MSP430/TMS320, ARM Cortex-A8, NXP LPC (ARM7, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4), Atmel SAM7/SAM9, Atmel AVR, PIC. Due to the need to keep up with the big growth in design requests and interest in the design of innovative systems, product distribution was eventually stopped and all activities of the company were transferred to Motsai.

Tactile Labs is a company dedicated to the advancement of haptic research. It continues the work of the Haptics lab at McGill university and enables worldwide researchers in the haptic community to benefit from highly-specialized products. Other work at Tactile Labs include the design of a high-voltage (300V) multi-channel amplifier array and power sequencing unit for piezoelectric actuators. Real-time embedded system with programmable logic. Member of the boards of directors.

Laboratory and course instructor on microprocessor systems. Over the many years where I studied at McGill University, I taught more than 500 students the art of writing embedded firmware on low-power microcontrollers like 68HC12, PIC, MSP430, ARM7, ARM Cortex. Gained great insight on how to teach hardware and firmware integration and a unique perspective on how teaching scaffolding is required to reach key milestones in understanding of micro-controllers. Designed the hardware platform material to teach the course. Winner of outstanding teaching assistant for this work and the McGumps platform that I designed to facilitate the teaching of embedded systems design. Course highlight: - Microcontroller architecture and structure - Embedded systems programming in C (with some assembly for good measure) - Interfacing to peripherals through standard buses - Embedded software architecture - Integration of wireless transceivers This lab-based course has a strong emphasis on practical implementation of hardware solutions which include micro-controllers, programmable logic, LCD and wireless interfacing. The teaching approaches used in the course is scaffolded, student-centered and collaborative learning. (see IEEE Education publication in the references for those interested in the approach)

Optical Transport Networking (OTU 1,2,3) FPGA hardware. 40 Gigabits per second FPGA hardware (STM-256 / STS-768) intrusive error burst generator for EXFO's test set. Tasks included: design, validation, debugging and integration.

Software Validation course (400-level, final year software engineering students). Approximately 40 students. Duties included preparing the course material and the computer programming assignments, grading, and giving lectures. Duties also included the managing the tasks of our teaching assistant. The Software Validation course covers proper validation methods and techniques such as documentation standards for software testing, formal validation, unit testing, network protocol validation and theory on software validation and quality measurements.

Contract to add low-order VT/VC on an LCAS Enabled FPGA-based test instrument supporting both SONET and SDH. Delivered fully-functional RTL and full validation suite within short deadlines and performed in-lab validation at EXFO.

Design engineer in the ASIC and FPGA group. Worked on the core IP design of fiber optic communication integrated circuits. Focused on data multiplexing, data extraction and multiplexing, add-drop multiplexing in high speed and high-bandwidth core fiber optic networking equipment up to 40Gbps. Protocols and technologies: MPLS, VT/VC Cross connect, SONET, SDH. Exposed to major telecom hardware and fiber optic test equipment. Technologies: High-level verification (Specman), formal checking (Synopsys), FPGA and ASIC synthesis (Xilinx, Synopsys). Large FPGAs (>2M gates), full methodology for design-for-testability and design-for-debug.

Embedded firmware update distribution system. Hardware design: analog laser interface cards, FPGA logic, production test jigs and unit qualification and safety certifications.