Benjamin Courchesne

PhD student of the GRIF of Université de Sherbrooke. My interests center on automata, logics and distributed systems, especially population protocols. In my free time, I write computer science problems for university competitions.

Mail: benjamin.courchesne [at] usherbrooke.ca

Publications

1. M. Blondin, M. Cadilhac, B. Courchesne, L. Guillou, C. Mascle and I. Vialard. Population Protocols over Ordered Agents   ( arXiv , BibTeX) @ ICALP 2026

Talks

1. Population protocols over ordered agents @ ICALP, July 10, 2026, London, UK
2. Protocoles de population: robustesse et composabilité @ GRIF CS club, March 23, 2025, Sherbrooke, CA

Teaching and TA work

Course Instructor (Lecturer)

• IFT630: Processus concurrents et parallélisme   2 sessions [S25; W25]
• IFT592: Projet d'informatique   6 sessions & 12 supervisions [F26; S26; W26; F25; W25; F24]
• IFT199: Initiation à la programmation   3 sessions [F26; F25; F24]
• IGL201: Techniques et outils de développement   1 session [W26]

Teaching Assistant

• IFT605/713: Systèmes répartis et multiagents   1 session [F26]
• IFT436: Algorithmes et structures de données   1 session [F25]
  1. Retour sur la force brute
• IFT320: Système d'exploitation   7 sessions [F26; F25; S25; F24; S24; F23; S23]
• IFT287: Exploitation de BD relationnelles et OO   1 session [F23]
• IFT232: Méthodes de conception orientée objet   5 sessions [W25; F24; F23; W23; F22]
• IFT209: Programmation système   6 sessions [W25; F24; W24; F23; W23; F22]
• IFT159: Analyse et programmation   2 sessions [F22, W22]
• IGL601: Techniques et outils de développement (maintenant IGL201)   2 sessions [S24; W24]

Societies

• Member of the Socio-Political Affairs Committee (CASP) @ REMDUS   (2025 - present)
• VP of External Affairs @ RECSUS   (2024 - present)
• Administrator @ RECSUS   (2024 - present)
• Coach of the OC President @ CS Games   (2024 - present)
• VP of Sponsorships @ United CTF   (2025)
• Director of Cash Operations @ Oktoberfest of Sherbrooke   (2024)
• OC President @ CS Games   (2023 - 2024)
• Administrator @ AGES   (2023)
• IT Infrastructure Manager @ United CTF   (2023)
• President @ JDIS   (2022 - 2024)
• Cohort Representative @ Pegasus Cohort   (2021 - 2023)
• VP Sponsorships @ JDIS   (2021 - 2022)

Scholarships & Awards

• MITACS Globalink Research Award, MITACS, 2026
• Cybertalent trophy in the commitment category, CyberCap, 2023
• Sur le chemin pour les initiatives scolaires Award, Desjardins, 2022


• Cybersecurity Delegate of Sherbrooke University, Cyber Humanum Est (Nancy - France) ,
  2026

  Selected for Europe's premier university cyber-warfare exercise, executing incident response and crisis management under real-world operational stress.

• 1st place out of 52 teams, PolyPwn CTF,
  2025
• 2nd place in the Puzzle Hero category, Computer Science Games, 2023
• 3rd place in the Video Game Creation category, Computer Science Games, 2023
• Jury's choice award, Sherbrooke Game Jam, 2023
• Jury's choice award, Sherbrooke Game Jam, 2022

Competitive Programming author & CTF Contributions

1. Computer Science Games (CS Games)
   1. Agents programming challenge   ( code) @ 2026, Polytechnique, Montréal, CA
   2. Assembly challenge   ( code) @ 2025, Université Laval, CA
   3. CSS images recreation challenge   ( code) @ 2024, ÉTS, Montréal, CA
2. Canadian engineering competition (CCI - CEC)
   1. Programming challenge @ 2026, Sherbrooke, CA
3. JDIS Games
   1. Magellan: a programming agents competition   ( code) @ 2024, Sherbrooke, CA
   2. Space: a programming agents competition   ( code) @ 2023, Sherbrooke, CA
4. UnitedCTF
   1. CTF challenges   ( code[author="capucinoxx"]) @ 2025, Online event
   2. CTF challenges   ( code[author="capucinoxx"]) @ 2024, Online event
   3. CTF challenges   ( code[author="capucinoxx"]) @ 2023, Online event
   4. CTF challenges   ( code[author="capucinoxx"]) @ 2022, Online event