Responsible AI

Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and the founding director of the ‘Third Space'' research group. His research focuses on the challenges of developing computing systems by incorporating the voices of marginalized populations. He received the International Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship in 2011, Intel Science and Technology Fellowship in 2014, Fulbright Centennial Fellowship in 2019, Schwartz Reisman Fellowship in 2021, Massey Fellowship in 2021, and Connaught Scholarship in 2023. He is also the winner of Microsoft AI & Society Fellowship, Google Inclusion Research Award, and Facebook Faculty Research Award.

Shion Guha is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and cross-appointed to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research interests include human-computer interaction, data science, and public policy. He’s been involved in developing the field of Human-Centred Data Science. This intersectional research area combines technical methodologies with interpretive inquiry to address biases and structural inequalities in socio-technical systems. He is the author of Human-Centered Data Science: An Introduction, an Amazon Best Selling textbook published by MIT Press in 2022. Shion wants to understand how algorithmic decision-making processes are designed, implemented and evaluated in public services. In doing so, he often works with marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as child welfare, homelessness, healthcare systems, etc. His work has been supported by grants from Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, National Science and Engineering Research Council, National Science Foundation, American Political Science Association etc. He has been featured in the media (Newsweek, Associated Press, ACLU, ABC, NBC, Gizmodo etc.) Shion has been awarded a Way-Klingler Early Career Award in 2019, a Connaught New Researcher Award in 2021 and a Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society Faculty Fellowship from 2023-25. Previously, he received an MS from the Indian Statistical Institute in 2010 and a PhD from Cornell University in 2016.

Bhaskar Mitra is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research based in Montréal, Canada. His research focuses on AI-mediated information and knowledge access and questions of fairness and ethics in the context of these sociotechnical systems. He is interested in evaluation and benchmarking, and co-organized the MS MARCO ranking leaderboards, the TREC Deep Learning Track (2019-2023), and the TREC Tip-of-the-Tongue Track (2023). Before joining Microsoft Research, he worked on search technologies at Bing for 15+ years. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University College London.

Parvin Mousavi is a Professor of Computer Science, Medicine, Pathology and Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen’s University, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars. She holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and a faculty position at the Vector AI Institute . She has previously held a Senior Scientist position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and visiting professorships at Harvard Medical School and the University of British Columbia. Her research focus is on developing and leveraging machine learning in computer assisted medical interventions, contributing to the societal impact of AI on the global community. She is a co-founder of Women in MICCAI, the first society of women in medical image computing. She also leads training of the next generation of AI talent through a national training program in Medical Informatics.

Dr. Golnoosh Farnadi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science at McGill University and an Adjunct Professor at University Montréal. She is a visiting faculty researcher at Google, a core academic member at MILA (Quebec Institute for Learning Algorithms) and holds Canada CIFAR AI chair. She is a co-director of McGill’s Collaborative for AI & Society (McCAIS), and the founder of the EQUAL (EQuity & EQuality Using AI and Learning algorithms) lab at Mila/McGill University. Dr. Farnadi's contributions have been acknowledged with prestigious awards, including the Google Scholar Award and Facebook Research Award in 2021. She has also received a Google award for inclusion research in 2023 and was recognized as a finalist for the WAI Responsible AI Leader of the Year award. Dr. Farnadi's commitment to advancing ethical AI practices has also earned her recognition as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics in 2023.

Maura Robin Grossman is a research professor and former Director of Women in Computer Science in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.

Dr Kong is a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Mathematics Department (cross-appointed), University of Toronto, where he serves as the director of the AI and Mathematical Modeling lab. Additionally, he is the Director of the Africa-Canada AI and Data Innovation Consortium and the Global South AI for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Network. He is also the Regional Node Liaison to the steering committee of the Canadian Black Scientist Network. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematics with a certificate in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Alberta, his MSc in Mathematical Modelling from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and the University of L'Aquila, Italy. His B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science was acquired at the University of Buea, Cameroon, and his B.Ed. in Mathematics was earned at University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. He did a 2-years of postdoc at Princeton University. Dr Kong is an expert in AI, data science, mathematical modelling, and mathematics education. His principal research program focuses on developing and deploying innovative AI, mathematical and data science methodologies and technologies for decision­makers in communities, public health, government and industry in order to provide important insights into local and global-scale socio-ecological challenges.

Julia Rubin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She is a Canada Research Chair in Trustworthy Software and the lead of the UBC Research Excellence Cluster on Trustworthy ML. Her research focuses on quality, security, and reliability of software and AI systems. Julia received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in CSAIL at MIT. She also spent almost 10 years in industry, working for IBM Research, where she was a Research Staff Member and Research Group Manager.

Jake Okechukwu Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law of Toronto Metropolitan University. He has gained significant expertise in international human rights advocacy at various ranks of legal systems. As Chief Councillor of the Africa – Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium, he provided human rights compliance expertise on the use of AI and Big Data in Canada and across 20 African countries. Effoduh holds two master's degrees in international law from the University of Oxford in the UK and Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Canada.

Elissa Strome is the Executive Director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. She works with leaders at Canada’s three national AI Institutes in Edmonton (Amii), Montreal (Mila), and Toronto (Vector Institute) and across the country to advance Canada’s leadership in AI research, training and innovation.

Dr. Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. Teresa has served on several national and provincial advisory panels on law and technology related issues. She has written widely in the area of privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, artificial intelligence, and smart cities. She is a co-editor of the books AI and the Law in Canada (2021), Law and the Sharing Economy (2017), and The Future of Open Data (2022). She is co-author of Digital Commerce in Canada (2020) and Canadian Intellectual Property Law (2013, 2018 and 2022).

Joanna Redden is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. She co-directs the Canadian-based Starling Centre and the UK-based Data Justice Lab. She is co-author of Understanding Media: Communication, Power and Social Change (2024), Data Justice (2022), the author of The Mediation of Poverty: The News, New Media and Politics (2014) and co-editor of Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data (2015). Her work focuses on the social justice implications of AI.

Dr. Kosseim is a professor in the Computer Science & Software Engineering (CSSE) Department at Concordia University in Montreal in the area of Natural Language Processing. Together with Sabine Bergler, Dr. Kosseim co-directs the CLaC lab. Dr. Kosseim obtained my PhD from the University of Montreal in 1995 on the topic of Natural Language Generation. Between 1995 and 1997, Dr. Kosseim obtained an NSERC Industrial Postdoctoral Fellowship and worked on the development of the Antidote Software at Druide informatique inc. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Kosseim then served as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Montreal within the RALI group. In 2001, Dr. Kosseim then joined Concordia, and co-founded the CLaC (Computational Linguistics @Concordia). Since then, Dr. Kosseim has graduated 8 PhD students and over 20 Master’s students. Dr. Kosseim has had the honor to serve as Vice-President (2017-2019), President (2019-2021) and Past-President (2021-2023) of the Canadian AI Association (CAIAC). Dr. Kosseim currently serves as Graduate Program Director for the PhD Programs in the CSSE Department.

Dr. Eleni Stroulia is the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science and a Professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. From 2019 to 2021, she served as the Director of the University of Alberta's AI4Society Signature Area. She is renowned for her industry-focused research program leveraging advances in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Her research, notably in healthcare, centers on enhancing independence for individuals with chronic conditions, especially related to aging and frailty, through technologies like the Smart Condo and Virtual Gym. She has mentored over 60 graduate students and PDFs who have moved on to stellar careers in academia and industry.

Dr. Geoffrey Martin Rockwell is a Professor of Philosophy and Digital Humanities and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and has published on subjects such as artificial intelligence and ethics, philosophical dialogue, textual visualization and analysis, digital humanities, instructional technology, computer games and multimedia. He has published books such as Defining Dialogue: From Socrates to the Internet (Humanity Books, 2003) and Hermeneutica, co-authored with Stéfan Sinclair (MIT Press, 2016). Hermeneutica is part of a hybrid text and tool project with Voyant Tools (voyant-tools.org), an award-winning suite of analytical tools. He recently co-edited a book on Right Research: Modelling Sustainable Research Practices in the Anthropocene (Open Book Publishers, 2021) and On Making in the Digital Humanities (UCL Press, 2023).

Dr Travis LaCroix is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, where he also teaches in the Faculty of Computer Science. In Fall 2024, he will join the philosophy department at Durham University. He is the author of Artificial Intelligence and the Value Alignment Problem: A Philosophical Introduction (under contract with Broadview Press). In addition to the philosophy and ethics of artificial intelligence, Dr LaCroix's research explores social dynamics, norms, and conventions, and the philosophy of autism (for which he recently received an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council).