First of all, I think that's a really excellent question, Mr. Collins.
If you look at the history of innovation of all kinds—certainly in more recent times in terms of the pandemic and in terms of other advances—a vast majority started from fundamental research carried out by our universities and funded by federal governments.
I would just point out that the recent CHIPS and Science Act that was passed in the United States has a huge amount of money—I don't remember the exact amount right now—for a fundamental research in the United States. The reason for that is exactly what we're talking about. It's the strong belief that the engine of innovation starts with university research and with fundamental research. It starts with training those young people who are going to have that entrepreneurial spirit that Mr. Johnston has been talking about. It's that culture of of innovation.
For example, I'll give you a real-life example. A young women, Raquel Urtason, trained with Geoff Hinton on artificial intelligence. She now has a company in Toronto that employs about 50 with Ph.D.s in artificial intelligence who are developing self-driving, semi-autonomous vehicles, starting with trucks. There have been a number of articles in the “Report on Business” in The Globe and Mail on her company.
That research and that company all started from fundamental research started at the University of Toronto. It has now moved into the marketplace. She's raised, as a result, close to a hundred million dollars from the private sector to start her company, which is called Waabi. That's an example.
I take your point about McMaster. There's a huge amount of fabulous research going on at McMaster, which is leading to exactly the kind of innovation that we're talking about this evening.
It's not that I'm driving for fundamental research at universities, per se. The history lesson, if I could put it that way, is that only governments can fund fundamental research. The timelines and the risks are too high. That's why the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act explicitly recognizes that. What President Biden is saying is that he will invest in that fundamental research, but he also expects industry to then pick up what comes out of those universities and take it to the next stage.
That's something the U.S. does well. It's something that we still have a lot to learn about from our colleagues and friends south of the border in terms of how to do that better, including the great research that's going on at McMaster, which you referenced. I could give other examples of research at McMaster that I think is really fabulous.