Life in collaboration
Clockwise from top: (1) a still lush McGill campus in late Summer; (2) Samer in front of "the world turned upside down" sculpture by British artist Mark Wallinger at the London School of Economics, October 2019; (3) clear blues skies on over the McGill campus on a cold winter day; February 2016
Teaching and mentoring
At the PhD seminar for the winter 2023 session of the 'Perspectives on Innovation': [bottom left to right ] Kai-Hsin Hung, Anand Bhardwaj, Samer Faraj, Simon Altmejd, Peck Sangiambut, Brittany Jackson, Guiyu Cai, Anton Andersson, Rayan Chelli; [top row right to left] Thanh-Binh Tran, Eric Blanchet, Marc-Antoine Brière, Sonali Uppal, Debora-Sara Anspach, Elham Farahpour, Hollie Bui, Thanh-Dat Tran, and Xian Zhu.
Date: March 2023
Guest evaluators Charles Hubert Blouin-Delisle [left], Assistant to the Executive Director of the McGill University Health Centre, and Samer attend the midterm presentations of the Emerging Technologies - Winter 2023 undergraduate course taught by our fourth year PhD candidate Anand Bhardwaj [centre] .
Date: March 2023
Our Bricolab sessions are a bottom-up initiative organized by members of the Group on Complex Collaboration in the process of field research, trying to sense make of the world we see through the academic lens. These intimate sessions ideally provide a safe space to share early findings and receive expert as well as peer advice. [from left] Prof. Anna Kim and Prof. Alaric Bourgoin (HEC), join Samer at the Bronfman Faculty Lounge for a 'Bricolab' session to discuss ongoing research with the graduate program scholars of the Montreal Joint PhD Program.
Date: February 2020
Classroom roundtables: at the PhD seminars for the 'Perspectives on Innovation', doctoral students from the Montreal Joint PhD Program take turns to lead sessions on topics ranging from practice and institutional theory to understanding onto-epistemology and sociomateriality.
Clockwise from top: (1) graduate seminar in April 2019; (2) graduate seminar in December 2017; and (3) graduate seminar in November 2013
Virtual PhD seminars for the winter 2021 session of the 'Perspectives on Innovation', during COVID-19 lockdowns
Samer and his research coordinator Aditi Chandrasekhar at the 2023 PhD Information Session
2022 IMSF intern Lauren Harrison's digital transformation proposal at the CHUM for Emerging Technologies - Winter 2022 session led by Samer Faraj.
2021 IMSF intern Maëlys Boudier at the McGill Faculty Club during her IMSF Poster Presentation session.
A world of collaboration
The members of our Group on Complex Collaboration engage with scholars worldwide on how phenomenon within and surrounding AI, health digitalization, robotics, data analytics, ubiquitous surveillance, and technology platforms are transforming complex collaboration in novel and unexpected ways. Our group's scholars engage in multiple collaborations with academic peers internationally. Below are examples of collaborative activities and visits in international settings
from left to right: Professors Michael Barrett, Eivor Oborn and Yolande Chan with Samer outside Hughes Hall, Cambridge during the 2017 session of Research Impact and Contributions to Knowledge.
Date: May 2017
Samer and his student Stavros Polykarpou walk to work in a sunny London with The Shard looming tall at a distance behind them.
Date: June 2018
KIN SUMMER SCHOOL, VU AMSTERDAM: Samer has been co-lead with Prof. Marleen Huysman and a repeat invitee at the KIN summer school since 2012. The summer school is located in Amsterdam and is focused on research on knowledge, information, innovation and technology. The school brings together a changing roster of distinguished scholars with 25, or so, group of postdocs, assistant professors, and advanced PhD students. Several of our advanced graduate students in complex collaboration end up attending the school. (Brian Pentland seranading)
Clockwise from the top left: (1) Prof. Ann Langley explains a fine theoretical point, holding everyone's attention at a 2018 session of the KIN Summer School; (2) Professors Marleen Hyusman (centre) and Anastasia Sergeeva (right) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with Samer at a 2022 sesison of KIN Summer School;
Former student and now collaborator Assistant Professor Stella Pachidi and Associate Professor Thomas Roulet pose for this picture while at work in the Cambridge Judge Business School
From left: Samer, Shiko Ben-Menahem, Vivianna Fang He and Georg von Krogh head out for a hike between commitments at ETH Zurich
With Bijan Azan in June 2019
Conferences and workshops
Intense discussions at a Knowledge Track session during the 2022 EGOS conference in Vienna
Professor Sri Kudaravalli with Samer and our third-year PhD candidate Xian Zhu enjoying the sights and sounds of Vienna
Discussion in progress at a 2017 session of the EGOS conference in Copenhagen
Prof. Georg von Krogh and Samer enjoy a meal outdoors during the 2022 EGOS conference in Vienna
Prof. Brian Pentland entertains an academic crowd during a boat trip organized for participants of the 2017 EGOS conference
Healthcare in focus
Digital transformation at the CHUM: McGill undergraduate students from Samer's class after their 2022 presentations on potential digital transformation at the CHUM for Kathy Malas [fifth from the right], Director of Innovation and AI in Health, and her team at the hospital.
From left: graduate students Wadih Renno and Karla Sayegh at the NICU centre of their hospital site
Date: 2018
Testing out the 'Da Vinci' robots at the CHUM during the Innove-Action Summit for the 'Healthcare Innovation and Performance'
Date: Deccember 2019
The urgent care clinic window is covered, plastered with notices in French and English to say that the centre is at full capacity and unable to accept more patients 'today'
Date: September 2019
Social gatherings
Coffee and conversations: members of the research group gather to celebrate Paolo Leone's graduation as he gets ready for his new job as Assistant Professor of Social Innovation at the Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon, Portugal
Date: June 2022
Present and past staff members of the PhD Program in Management come together for former Desautels Program Administrator Stella Scalia's farewell. [left] Current Program Administrator Yanyan Shu, Student Affairs Coordinator Danae Nika, Stella, and PhD Program Director Prof. Samer Faraj.
Date: January 2023
The research group gathers for a 'homemade pizza' party. Clockwise from top: (1) Rania Afiouni, Paolo Leone, Takumi's wife Yukiko and Takumi Shimizu catch up over dinner; (2) Organizational theorist Wanda Orlikowski and her husband, conceptual artist Kim Schmahmann, join Samer in making homemade pizzas for the crew of the hungry academics; and (3) Alaric Bourgoin gives us a thumbs-up along with Stavros Polykarpou
Date: September 2017
Meeting of the GCC at the McGill Faculty Club
Early origins of the group on complex collaboration at a conference in 2010: Diego Mastroianni, Hani Safadi, Bijan Azad, Sri Kudaravalli, Samer, Steven Johnson, Adrian Yao and Maha Shaikh
Old friends
Professors Eivor Oborn, Michael Barrett, and Samer exploring the distinctly Canadian megafauna at a Montreal hospital
Photo credit: February 2021
Out with the team
Panos Constantinides, Samer, Stavros Polykarpou, Stella Pachidi and Karla Sayegh on their way to a workshop in Cambridge, UK
Photo credit: December 2019