Vector Scholarship In Artificial Intelligence

Chris Dulhanty
2018-19 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Waterloo, MASc, Systems Design Engineering
Previous Degree: B.Eng, Biomedical Engineering (University of Guelph)

How my research will have an impact: My research interests lie in the social impact of artificial intelligence with projects on auditing training datasets for representational bias, benchmark datasets for evaluation bias and on fairness and privacy implications of face recognition.

As of August 2020 , I am a Machine Learning Engineer at Apple.

Jun Gao
2018-19 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Toronto, MSc, Computer Science
Previous Degree: BSc, Computer Science (Peking University)

What are you working on now? In 2019, I was published in three different conferences: CVPR on interactive object segmentation, ICLR on analyzing representations in language modelling and NeurIPS on differentiable rendering and trying to learn 3D shapes from 2D images. My goal is to get into all the computer vision conferences, including ECCV and ICCV in the next year. I also work part-time as an intern at NVIDIA, where I get to learn more about graphics, 3D and AI in that domain.

As of 2020 , I am a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto with Vector Faculty Member and Co-Founder, Sanja Fidler.

Diana Lucaci
2018-19 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Ottawa, MSc in Computer Science, Applied AI Concentration
Previous Degree: BSc, Computer Science (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi)

How my research will have an impact: My thesis will be focused on the explainability of NLP algorithms. We have to keep an eye on the applicability of research in industry and work to eliminate the gap between pure research and specific applications. My thesis has the potential to touch so many industry applications including the medical domain, when AI agents are supporting the decision making process for specialists and doctors.

Maral Rasoolijaberi
2019-20 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Waterloo, MASc in Systems Design Engineering
Previous Degree: BASc in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering (Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran Polytechnic)

What are you working on now? I’m currently working on a project to analyze histopathology images by applying U-Net, a convolutional neural network for biomedical applications, to segment tissue and remove background information. We will also compare this tool against other image processing tools as well to find out which method is more accurate or faster. So far, no one has used U-net for segmenting tissue. This application will have implications for cancer detection in the future, which is so inspirational and I am excited about.

Amrit Sehdev
2019-20 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
Queen’s University (Smith), Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence
Previous Degrees: Doctor of Medicine (University of Calgary); Master of Public Health (Queen’s University)

What’s next? As a physician, I’m lucky to work with colleagues and patients who continue to strive for better outcomes. We are working on NLP and Image Detection solutions currently to solve health system demand problems on a global scale. In the future, I hope to continue to combine my experience in healthcare and AI to work with like-minded people to solve problems and develop great solutions.

I am currently a 2020 Member for the Governor General’s Canadian Leaders and a Physician at Humber River Hospital in Toronto.

Michael DeWit
2019-20 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Toronto, Master of Health Informatics
Previous Degrees: BHSc in Health Science & BScN in Nursing, Western University

What am I passionate about? As a clinician from the MHI program, I am uniquely positioned to identify the gaps in the healthcare system faced in my everyday work, and help implement AI technologies to bridge these gaps with other clinicians and technical teams. Prior to the MHI, some processes may have frustrated me, but now I view these as opportunities for improvement to use technology to make things easier for patients and healthcare providers. I look forward to these new advancements in healthcare, while ensuring we consider issues such as privacy and governance.

As of October 2020 , I am a Clinical Application Analyst and Registered Nurse with the University Health Network.

Ricardo Luhm Silva
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
York University (Schulich), Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence
Previous Degrees: Master’s in Industrial and System Engineering, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Paraná; Master of Business Administration, Fundação Getulio Vargas; B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Paraná

What do I bring to the AI industry? I have pretty unique experience as a mechanical engineer, working in both construction and for one of the biggest oil companies in Brazil, managing teams of more than 200 people. I also had the opportunity to work with Renault on quality control and AI systems, presenting to the headquarters, who eventually decided to implement my inspection system for all the teams in France and a number of other factories. With both my management and product development program, I hope to transition to consulting, where I will help analyze and implement AI solutions quickly.

Sara El-Shawa
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Guelph, MASc in Engineering (Collaborative Specialization in AI)
Previous Degrees: BSc in Computer Science and Biology, University of Toronto 

Interesting AI projects I am a part of: I am exploring different interdisciplinary collaborations, including one with the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics which involves error correction in DNA barcoding and classification of sequences using AI. Our work will use a predictive modelling approach to shed light on species interactions when novel stimuli are introduced into an environment. Additionally, I am working on a project that focuses on information flow in social networks. I am also collaborating with the Public Health Agency of Canada to predict the severity of COVID-19 cases by investigating associations with clinical symptoms and comorbidities.

Bill Zizek
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Toronto (Rotman), Master of Management Analytics
Previous Degrees: BSc in Chemical Biology, McMaster University

Opportunities for entrepreneurship in AI:With my degree in chemistry and my past research experience working in drug development in healthcare, I have been working with a start-up called neuroLytixs, which uses machine learning to aid biomarker discovery for the diagnosis of concussions. The company has just raised seed funding through angel investors, partnered with the Ontario Centres of Excellence, and is part of Techstars AI 2020 in Montreal. During my MMA program at Rotman, I want to learn more about shaping decision-making and strategy at the intersection of healthcare and AI, exploring pathways where I can have a positive impact on patients.

Paul Mvula
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Ottawa, MSc in Computer Science (Applied AI Concentration)
Previous Degrees: BSc in Computer Science and Technology, Jiangsu University

What are your interests in AI? Since childhood, I have always been interested in computers. I came across AI during my undergraduate degree and realized its importance in its ability to interpret and handle the huge amount of data we generate in our everyday lives. Recently, I started working on a cybersecurity project aimed at detecting phishing applications in website domain names. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a lot of new domains being created every day including malicious and phishing ones. Therefore, I am helping develop a classifier that shows whether a given domain name is either legitimate or malicious.

Rachel Thierault
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
Queen’s University, MSc in Computer Science (AI)
Previous Degrees: Bachelor of Computer Science in Biomedical Computing, Queen’s University

What are you most excited about working on? I first started on mass spectrometry analysis for detecting breast cancer while working on my undergraduate thesis- I fell in love with this project and it got me excited about pursuing a master’s degree. My current research applies machine learning to high dimensional data, and has the potential to answer important questions such as “what is the metabolic profile of cancer?” By looking at hundreds of pixels, it can lead to medical breakthroughs. I am so excited to be at the leading edge of this research, where I get to intersect with all types of experts, including chemists, pathologists, surgeons and computer scientists. Learn more about me here.

Lana El Sanyoura
2020-21 Vector Scholarship in AI Recipient
University of Toronto, MSc in Computer Science
Previous Degrees: BSc in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, University of Toronto

What are you working on now: I am working in the interdisciplinary Computational Social Science Lab to understand the impact of machine learning systems of online platforms on user behaviour. If the impacts of these algorithms are negative, how can we build better ones that have high accuracy but also positively impact wellbeing? I hope to be part of the movement towards creating more user-centric systems that account for human trust and wellbeing, while avoiding bias.

Vector Scholarship in AI Recipients by Institution*:

*Please note all recipients have granted us permission to post their names on the Vector website until they have enrolled full-time in their programs. As such, their names will not appear in the above table until their enrollment is confirmed.