Dr. Marc Fredette is a Full Professor in Decision Sciences at HEC Montréal. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Waterloo.

I) Recognized international expert in applied data science

Dr. Fredette has co-authored refereed articles and conference proceedings, including many in leading journals and conferences, such as Biometrika, Accident Analysis & Prevention, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Technometrics and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. He is specialized in the development of forecasting models for longitudinal data. Combined with his strong multidisciplinary background, this expertise makes him a perfect collaborator for this Chair, and principal investigator of the associated NSERC-Prompt RDC in UX with the same industrial partners. Over the past six years, Dr. Fredette has had 56 different co-authorships, including many from UX-related fields such as IT, HCI and data science, attesting to his strong multidisciplinary experience and ability to make contributions to other disciplines. During this time period, Dr. Fredette obtained four distinct grants from SSHRC and three grants from NSERC while publishing papers in three different fields: statistics, IT/HCI and engineering.

II) Considerable experience in collaborative research with industry

Dr. Fredette has been conducting research in collaboration with industry for the past 15 years. He collaborates with and offers UX and data science-related advice to several Canadian and international companies from various industries such as AIMIA, Air Miles, Vidéotron, Playtika, SAQ, Desjardins and Hibernum. In the past five years, he has trained over 100 executives and professionals in the field of Web/UX analytics as part of a specialized seminar he has developed.

III) Internationally recognized inventor

Dr. Fredette has co-authored eight invention disclosure statements, including four as principal author. Funded by the CFI and the NSERC, his latest invention is currently being beta-tested by major companies in the UX field, including SMI, Noldus and Mensia. Industry partners of the proposed Chair have also expressed interest in using a licence of these technologies in their own labs.

IV) Leadership

Dr. Fredette is a pioneer in the area of data science applied to business in Canada, and he has established two very successful masters-level programs to train HQP in data science and UX; he is also director of the MSc in UX program at HEC. Over the past five years, these programs have trained hundreds of HQP at HEC on a yearly basis. He is among the founders of Tech3Lab, a member of its executive committee and its lead researcher in analytics. He is in charge of the Consultation Center in Statistics at HEC and recently served as Associate Editor for Statistical Modelling and Technometrics.

V) Training of HQP

Dr. Fredette strongly values the training of young researchers: since 2010, he has supervised an impressive 52 students at the MSc, PhD or postdoctoral level. Many of these students have quickly gone on to hold high-level positions in Canadian industry for such companies as Vidéotron, Desjardins, National Bank, Aimia, LoyaltyOne, Ubisoft and Bombardier.