Faced with the urgency posed by the COVID-19 crisis, Scale AI, the artificial intelligence (AI) Canadian supercluster, recently launched a call for projects to find ideas and solutions that can help Canada meet this challenge by leveraging technology and AI. And the community was not lacking in ideas, with more than 120 projects submitted in just three weeks. Among them, CargoM and the Montreal Port Authority stood out and obtained funding of $500,000 for a project for the rapid distribution of essential cargo, developed in collaboration with Ivado Labs.

In order to respond to the current reality and quickly deliver essential necessities, the AI-based solution enables the optimization of identification and prioritization of critical cargo arriving by container at the port of Montreal to ensure the rapid distribution of essential goods, such as medical equipment and food products. The tool could evolve to allow the rapid distribution of other types of goods.

Stated Daniel Dagenais, Vice-President Operations at the Montreal Port Authority: “With a data management and processing system already well established, we are able to rapidly deploy additional solutions that can optimize the process of unloading and reduce container dwell times to less than 12 hours for critical cargo, in order to ensure continuity of care and services offered to the population, in the context of COVID-19.”

Declared Mathieu Charbonneau, Executive Director of CargoM: “This innovative project highlights both the collaboration between supply chain actors and Montreal’s strengths in artificial intelligence, to contribute to our collective effort in the face of COVID-19 with concrete and effective solutions.”

(photo Montreal Port Authority)