Breakout Session 3

In this talk we overview the history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research from the dawn of expert systems, the growth of connectionism to recent developments in Generative AI and Large-language models. We will discuss AI research at the University of Alberta, highlighting recent breakthroughs and real-world applications including adaptive prosthetics and water treatment. We will wrap up speculating about the future of AI: developing systems with goals and purposes.

About Dr. Adam White:

Adam White is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. He is the scientific director of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, a principal investigator of the Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence group at the University of Alberta, and a Canada CIFAR Chair in Artificial Intelligence. Previously, Adam was a staff research scientist at Google Deepmind. Adam co-created the Reinforcement Learning Specialization, taken by over 100,000 students on Coursera. 

Adam's research is focused on understanding the fundamental principles of learning in both simulated worlds and industrial control applications. Adam's group is deeply passionate about good empirical practices and new methodologies to help determine if our algorithms are ready for deployment in the real world. Adam has pioneered applications of reinforcement learning to real drinking and wastewater treatment plants and is the co-founder of RL Core Technologies, a startup applying AI and machine learning across industrial control.

Join us for an engaging event featuring presentations from University of Alberta startups, showcasing innovative ideas and emerging ventures. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion on entrepreneurship and innovation with AI, where experts will share insights on how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of startups, research, and commercialization.

About the Panelists:

Peter Atrazhev - Peter holds a MSc in Software Engineering and Intelligent Systems and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta. He is a co-founder and CFO of TREX-Ai, a company that is developing an energy management system for distributed energy resources (DERs), a DERMS, that is fully decentralized and automated.

Dr. Mustafa Gül - Dr. Mustafa Gül is a co-founder and COO of CityScan Technologies. He oversees the company by managing the operations. He is also a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta (UofA) and the Associate Dean of Research. Dr. Gül’s current research focuses mainly on developing novel technologies for smart, sustainable, and resilient cities.

Kinza Mawji - Kinza Mawji, University of Alberta student and the son of Ashif Mawji — a prolific Edmonton investor who sold the Upside Software company he started for US$22 million in 2012 — has started his own platform to help startups find investment, called ScaleupMap.  ScaleupMap is a platform originally built as an in-house venture diligence tool for the ScaleGood VC Fund, and now designed specifically for startup founders at any stage. It acts as an AI co-founder that works alongside you on your venture, using proven startup frameworks from sources like Y Combinator to help you think through decisions, priorities, and strategy.

This presentation will cover what are Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), their history as a part of cognitive science, how they are useful for the study of cognition and why it is important to analyse how these models work internally. In my research we are concerned with musical cognition and uses ANNs as models that can help us uncover novel relationships between musical elements, providing insight as to how those elements might be represented in the brain. Additionally, the presentation will briefly cover the professional road that led me to working in psychological research, from high school to graduate studies.

About the Dr. Arturo Perez:

Dr. Arturo Perez is a Chilean Doctor in Psychology from the University of Alberta. During his career he has focused on cognitive science, the study of how the mind works, researching topics such as mathematical cognition and the psychology of music. His latest research focus is Artificial Neural Networks and Music.

You use AI every day in your smart phone, on your TV, and on your computer. But what if you had a robot attached to your body? This talk will discuss how AI is currently used in smart prosthetics and where it might be used in the near future.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Matt Taylor - Matthew E. Taylor (Matt) received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in the summer of 2008, supervised by Peter Stone. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral research position at the University of Southern California with Milind Tambe and spent 2.5 years as an assistant professor at Lafayette College.

He was then an assistant professor at Washington State University where he held the Allred Distinguished Professorship in Artificial Intelligence. In 2017, he temporarily left academia to help start an artificial intelligence lab in Edmonton, Alberta, with Borealis AI, the artificial intelligence research lab for the Royal Bank of Canada.

He is now a tenured associate professor in computer science at the University of Alberta, a Fellow-in-Residence at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, and remains an adjunct professor at Washington State University. He has been a PI or co-PI on over $6M USD in competitively awarded research funding from federal, state, and industrial sources, including the National Science Foundation CAREER award.

He has (co-)supervised 7 graduated PhD students and 5 MS students, as well as published over 120 peer-reviewed papers in conferences and journals. His current fundamental and applied research interests are in reinforcement learning, human-in-the-loop AI, multi-agent systems, and robotics.

Laura Petrich - Laura is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computing Science under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Pilarski and Dr. Matthew E. Taylor. She received a B.Sc. with Honors in Computing Science from the University of Alberta in 2019 and an M.Sc. in Computing Science from the University of Alberta in 2022. Her research interests include reinforcement learning, human-robot interaction, biomechatronics, and assistive robotics. Drawing inspiration from her anatomical studies with Dr. Pierre Lemelin, Laura’s research aims to develop control methods for robotic manipulation with the goal of increased functionality, usability, reliability, and safety in the real-world.

During her undergraduate and master’s studies, Laura worked with the Computer Vision and Robotics Research team led by Dr. Martin Jägersand. She advanced a cohesive perspective on assistive technology by unifying the strengths of robotics research with the specific needs of the intended users. Based on these findings, Laura prototyped a robotic learner that can adjust to the user’s needs through basic feedback, making wheelchair-mounted robotic manipulators more user-friendly.

Before finishing her master’s degree, Laura worked as an Associate Machine Learning Scientist on the Advanced Technology team at Amii for a year. She developed a machine learning-based decision making system for Attabotics, which enhanced the efficiency of their fully autonomous robotic warehouse.

In her free time, Laura enjoys nature, playing piano, and board games.

Artificial intelligence is transforming agriculture — one of the world’s oldest industries — into a data-driven, high-tech field. In this session, students will explore how AI-powered computer vision helps farmers predict crop yields, detect plant disease early, and make better decisions using real-time data.

I’ll share how CropMind uses AI, mobile devices, and machine learning to support vineyards and orchards across Canada and the U.S., and how careers in AI now span agriculture, climate technology, robotics, data science, and engineering.

We’ll also discuss ethics, bias in datasets, and why building responsible AI matters — especially when technology directly impacts food systems and sustainability.

About Damilaire Odumosu:

Damilare Odumosu is the Founder and CEO of CropMind Inc., an Alberta-based AI company transforming orchard and vineyard management using computer vision and machine learning. A third-generation farmer and engineer, Damilare combines agricultural experience with advanced AI development to help growers improve yield forecasting, reduce labour demands, and make smarter operational decisions.

Under his leadership, CropMind has deployed across British Columbia, Québec, and California, and has been recognized among top ag-tech innovators in North America. The company has received support from Alberta Innovates, Techstars, and multiple commercialization programs.

Damilare is passionate about making AI practical, ethical, and accessible — and inspiring the next generation to build technology that solves real-world problems.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in 7 different self-paced hands-on activities to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI), how data and AI intersect, how generative AI works, and engage in ethical conversations about AI use.