Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery has quickly become the go-to approach in pediatric surgery, but it comes with challenges.

In collaboration with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, we have created an AI-based simulator that learns complex surgical techniques from experienced surgeons, then teaches them to aspiring trainees seeking to improve their skills.

The simulator offers cost-effective, remote training that will reshape instruction across Canada and beyond - especially benefiting resource-limited healthcare systems worldwide.

Carlos Rossar
Associate Professor
Systems and Computer Engineering
Carleton University

At the AI Hub, Saba leads a multidisciplinary team at the cutting-edge of AI. With expertise across all AI fields and big data, Saba and her team take a practical approach to researching, developing and implementing real-world and human-centred AI solutions in vital industries including healthcare, finance and energy. Together, they share a commitment to empowering industry while championing the responsible and ethical adoption of AI, and to nurturing a talent pipeline for an AI-driven economy.

Saba Siddiqi, M.Eng.
Research Lead
The AI Hub at Durham College

Dr. Thiago E. A. de Oliveira specializes in robotics, focusing on AI-enhanced tactile sensing and perception. His research enables robots to navigate unstructured environments and manipulate objects using a sense of touch, similar to humans. This tactile approach is essential for applications where visual data alone is insufficient, advancing robotic autonomy in complex settings. Dr. de Oliveira’s work bridges human sensory abilities with robotic precision and adaptability making a real-world impact.

Dr. Thiago E. A. de Oliveira
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Lakehead University

Jon Stokes makes poison for a living – functional poisons designed to kill dangerous, disease-causing bacteria, that is. Last year, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), he discovered a potent new drug candidate that targets one of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria in the world. He then invented an AI algorithm to design even more new antibiotics to target that bacteria. And his startup – Stoked Bio – ensures these discoveries are getting to the patients who need them. 

Jon Stokes
Founder, Stoked Bio
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences
Member, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research
McMaster University

As the world looks for solutions to curb climate change, nuclear energy will play a key role in the low-carbon transition. Dr. Yanwen Zhang, the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Impact of Radiation in Energy and Advanced Technologies, is leading research into nuclear materials that is helping industry to develop safer and longer-lasting reactors. Her expertise builds on Queen’s well-established strength in this area and her research program is set to push the boundaries of material science, enhancing our understanding of how nuclear energy will support a low-carbon future.

Dr. Yanwen Zhang
Canada Excellence Research Chair
Queen’s University

Dr. Terry Peckham heads the team of 30 at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE), Saskatchewan’s first Technology Access Centre (TAC). DICE-TAC engages in applied research across various sectors. Dr. Peckham specializes in data manipulation, analysis, storage, transmission and display. Most of his current research focuses on the industrial application of machine learning, particularly with sensor-based systems, and on data integration and migration for machine learning across data silos.

Dr. Terry Peckham, PhD.
Director and research chair
Digital Integration Centre of Excellence Technology Access Centre (DICE-TAC)
Saskatchewan Polytechnic

Dr. Carolyn Johns co-leads a Canada-USA cross-border team that ensures Indigenous knowledge and underrepresented groups are reflected in community-led adaptive water governance approaches to climate change in one of the world’s greatest transboundary freshwater basins – the Great Lakes watershed. This approach to watershed stewardship and governance will ensure sustainability and build climate resilience across communities in this region creating solutions for 40 million people who rely on this important freshwater source.

Dr. Carolyn Johns
Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
Co-lead for The Global Centre for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters
Chair, Geoffrey Bruce Fellowship in Canadian Freshwater Policy

Dr. Mi Jung Park’s research is focused on making machine learning safer and more private. Her work includes using Bayesian techniques to improve model accuracy, creating ways to generate synthetic data that keeps individual privacy intact, and developing ways to remove data from models when needed. She also studies how to defend models from attacks. The research helps ensure that advanced data analysis is both effective and respects users’ privacy.

Dr. Mi Jung Park
Canada CIFAR AI Chair
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
The University of British Columbia

Dr. Vered Shwartz is an expert in natural language processing, studying ways to make large language models more accurate and useful. Her work involves teaching these models to understand implied meanings and use human-like common sense. She is also focused on eliminating biases from these models so they can be fair, equitable and relevant for people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds.

Dr. Vered Shwartz
Canada CIFAR AI Chair
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
The University of British Columbia

Dr. Ajwang’ Warria’s research on child protection and migration is shaped by her years of experience as a social worker and development advocate in sub-Saharan Africa. Warria is a transdisciplinary scholar, focused on the critical connections that violence and transnational migration have with other development issues. By identifying these intersections, Warria hopes to co-create sustainable, context-based interventions with victims and survivors, build meaningful connections and contribute to thriving communities, and strengthen transdisciplinary responses.

Dr. Ajwang’ Warria, PhD.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work
UCalgary Research Excellence Chair and Academic Co-Lead, Cities and Societies,
Institutes of Transdisciplinary Scholarship

With its experts and research centres and institutes, the University of Ottawa plays a pivotal role in Canada’s research ecosystem, enhancing public policy in the heart of the nation’s capital. The Office of Public Policy Research and Outreach (OPPRO) helps uOttawa’s research community to develop effective solutions to complex policy challenges – like in artificial intelligence and life sciences – and inform public policy in Canada and around the world.

Cintia Quiroga
Acting Director
Office of Public Policy Research and Outreach
University of Ottawa

Jimmy Lin, Professor and Cheriton Chair at Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science, builds tools to help users make sense of large amounts of data by working at the intersection of information retrieval, natural language processing and data management. He is also the Chief Scientist of Primal, a Waterloo-based company specializing in enterprise-grade AI solutions that combine the strengths of neural networks and knowledge graphs.

Jimmy Lin
Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo