IVADO announces 35 co-leaders of the 10 research Regroupements of its R³AI program

At the heart of IVADO’s mission, the R³AI program will deploy an ambitious scientific strategy to foster sustainable and responsible innovation for the development and adoption of robust, reasoned and responsible AI. A key component of this strategy will be achieved through the 10 interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral research Regroupements (clusters) funded and supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund grant. Led by 35 co-leaders, their mission will be to foster sustainable and responsible innovation, discovery and application in the field of AI.

AI has the power, if we support its development and adoption for the benefit of society and all its individuals, to address global challenges and transform our societies in a responsible and sustainable way.  We believe that the Regroupement model is the best way to achieve our goals in the development and deployment of R³AI, which requires a bold, cross-sectoral scientific program with a transformative reach. Under IVADO’s leadership, this means creating original, interdisciplinary research alliances capable of responding to the program’s complex challenges.

Focused around a central theme, each Regroupement will comprise a group of researchers drawn from IVADO’s academic members, as well as experts and partners relevant to its development. Their aim will be to implement the bold, cross-sectoral and transformative scientific program proposed in the R³AI application. Within each Regroupement, these researchers are expected to advance the science of R³AI and collectively contribute to the goals of creating robust, reasoned and responsible AI, as well as its adoption.

In order to provide guidance and direction to the Regroupements, the following co-leaders have been selected to lead the Regroupements. The selection of these 35 researchers as co-leaders of these 10 Regroupements is the result of several months of consultation between IVADO’s scientific leadership, its academic members, and the AI scientific community to identify the individuals whose mandate will be to generate major advances in knowledge of AI and its applications. In addition to being representative of the outstanding scientific community, this selection reflects IVADO’s commitment to equitable representation in terms of gender, ethnicity, discipline, area of expertise, and career level.

Regroupement  1: AI and neuroscience

• Sylvana Côté (UdeM)
• Karim Jerbi (UdeM)
• Flavie Lavoie-Cardinal (ULaval)
• Blake Richards (McGill)

Regroupement 2: Machine learning

• Aaron Courville (UdeM)
• Gauthier Gidel (UdeM)
• Doina Precup (McGill)

Regroupement  3: Natural Language Processing (NLP)

• Siva Reddy (McGill)
• Amal Zouaq (Polytechnique Montréal)

Regroupement  4: Implementation Science and Responsible Governance 

• Foutse Khomh (Polytechnique Montréal)
• Lyse Langlois (ULaval)
• Pierre-Majorique Léger (HEC Montréal)

Regroupement 5: Ethics, EDI and Indigenous Engagement

• Joé Martineau (HEC Montréal)
• Annie Pullen Sansfaçon (UdeM)
• Daniel Weinstock (McGill)

Regroupement 6: Molecules and Materials Discovery

• Yves Brun (UdeM)
• Audrey Durand (ULaval)
• Audrey Laventure (UdeM)
• Carlos Silva (UdeM)

Regroupement 7: Environment

• Julie Carreau (Polytechnique Montréal)
• Étienne Laliberté (UdeM)
• Laura Pollock (McGill)
• David Rolnick (McGill)

Regroupement 8: Health Systems

• Mickaël Chassé (UdeM)
• Christian Gagné (ULaval)
• Nadia Lahrichi (Polytechnique Montréal)
• Aude Motulsky (UdeM)
• An Tang (UdeM)

Regroupement 9: Supply Chains

• Yossiri Adulyasak (HEC Montréal)
• Jean-François Cordeau (HEC Montréal)
• Erick Delage (HEC Montréal)
• Emma Frejinger (UdeM)

Regroupement 10: AI Safety and Alignment

• Yoshua Bengio (UdeM)
• Chris Pal (Polytechnique Montréal)
• Danya Sridhar (UdeM)

IVADO and the co-leaders have begun working with the other researchers identified for each of the Regroupements to develop and plan the scientific program.

If you have any questions about the Regroupements, please write to: programmes-excellence@ivado.ca