Canada’s Summit for Applied AI

Dawn Song is a Professor in Computer Science at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence. Her research interest lies in AI safety and security, Agentic AI, deep learning, security and privacy, and decentralization technology. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the MIT Technology Review TR-35 Award, ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award, and more than 10 Test-of-Time Awards and Best Paper Awards from top conferences in Computer Security and Deep Learning. She has been recognized as Most Influential Scholar (AMiner Award), for being the most cited scholar in computer security. She is an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow, and an Elected Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley. She is also a serial entrepreneur and has been named on the Female Founder 100 List by Inc. and Wired25 List of Innovators.

Ion Stoica is a Professor in the EECS Department and holds the Xu Bao Chancellor Chair at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Director of the Sky Computing Lab and the Executive Chairman of Databricks and Anyscale. His current research focuses on AI systems and cloud computing, and his work includes numerous open-source projects such as vLLM, SGLang, Chatbot Arena, SkyPilot, Ray, and Apache Spark. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, an Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, and an ACM Fellow. He has also co-founded several companies, including LMArena (2025), Anyscale (2019), Databricks (2013), and Conviva (2006).

From 2018 to 2026, Manuela Veloso was the founder and Head of JPMorganChase AI Research & Herbert A. Simon University Professor Emerita at Carnegie Mellon University, where she was faculty in the Computer Science Department and then Head of the Machine Learning Department.

Veloso has a licenciatura degree in Electrical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, an M.A. in Computer Science from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Veloso has Doctorate Honoris Causa degrees from the Örebro University, Sweden, the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), Portugal, the Université de Bordeaux, France, and the Universidade Católica of Portugal.

She served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and she is co-founder and a Past President of the RoboCup Federation. She is a fellow of main professional organizations in her area, namely AAAI, IEEE, AAAS, and ACM. She is the recipient of the ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award, the Einstein Chair of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an NSF Career Award, and the Allen Newell Medal for Excellence in Research. Veloso is a member of the National Academy of Engineering with a citation “for contributions to artificial intelligence and its applications in robotics and the financial services industry.” She is also a member of the Academy of Sciences of Portugal.

Her research interests are in AI, including Autonomous Robots, Multiagent Systems, Continual Learning Agents, and AI in Finance. For further details, see www.cs.cmu.edu/~mmv.

Freddy Lecue is a Managing Director and Head of Frontier AI Model Methodology at Wells Fargo, where he architects and scales Generative AI, agentic AI, and advanced machine learning models for enterprise production, while balancing performance, latency, cost, and risk.

He leads the firm’s AI research agenda, elevates modeling standards through targeted training, and establishes best-practice frameworks to enhance robustness, scalability, and model validation. Freddy also drives AI-enabled transformation across the end-to-end model lifecycle, including development, documentation, testing, and validation.

Prior to Wells Fargo, he held senior AI leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, Thales Canada, Accenture Ireland, and IBM Ireland. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and is based in New York City.

Armando Benitez is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO) and Head of AI at BMO Capital Markets. He leads a team of engineers, strategists, and AI professionals who create end-to-end solutions at the intersection of Finance and Technology.

As CDAO, Armando shapes the strategic vision for data and analytics, integrating AI into business processes to drive innovation and improve decision-making. His leadership promotes data-driven insights and aligns technological initiatives with business goals.

Armando joined BMO’s ETF desk in 2016 after working on data products for fraud detection and recommender systems at Paytm. With a background in High Energy Physics, he brings a unique perspective to the team.

Dr. Mamdani is Clinical Lead – Artificial Intelligence at Ontario Health and Director of the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). Previously, Dr. Mamdani was Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto where his team deployed over 50 AI solutions to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. Dr. Mamdani is also Professor in the Department of Medicine of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He is also an Affiliate Scientist at IC/ES and a Faculty Affiliate of the Vector Institute. In 2024, Dr. Mamdani’s team received the national Solventum Health Care Innovation Team Award by the Canadian College of Health Leaders. Also in 2024, Dr. Mamdani was named international AI Leader of the Year by AIMed. Previously, Dr. Mamdani was named among Canada’s Top 40 under 40. He has published over 600 studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. Dr. Mamdani obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD) from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and completed a fellowship in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research at the Detroit Medical Center. During his fellowship, Dr. Mamdani obtained a Master of Arts degree in Economics from Wayne State University with a concentration in econometric theory. He then completed a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University with a concentration in quantitative methods.

Prof. Steven Waslander is a leading authority on autonomous robotics, including self-driving cars and multirotor drones. He received his B.Sc.E.in 1998 from Queen’s University, his M.S. in 2002 and his Ph.D. in 2007, both from Stanford University in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was recruited to the University of Waterloo from Stanford in 2008, where he led the Autonomoose project, the first self-driving car to be tested on public roads by a Canadian university. In 2018, he joined the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), and founded the Toronto Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (TRAILab).

Travis is an expert solutionizer who likes long walks in the park and tinkering with interesting technology.

Tyson Macaulay is an experienced executive in cybersecurity and networking. He has worked extensively in Data Center (DC), High Performance Computing (HPC), telecommunications, and blockchain technologies. In his current role as Director and COO of 01 Quantum, Tyson guides go-to-market strategy for AI security. He is also active in the energy sector, advancing quantum-safe digital assets. Prior to 01 Quantum, Tyson was VP of Solution Architecture at Cerio, a leading performance networking company. He previously held senior roles at BAE Systems as CTO of the Cyber Security Division, CTO of Telecommunications Security at Intel, and Chief Security Strategist at Fortinet. Tyson is an active security researcher and Deputy Director of Carleton University’s National Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection. His body of work includes books, peer-reviewed publications, international standards, and patents.

Zeke Miller is Director of Engineering for Agent Factory at Workday, where he combines deep expertise in programming language theory, code health, and AI to build production-grade agentic systems for data and software engineering. Previously a Staff Software Engineer at Google, he was the Uber Tech Lead for Gemini for Data, leading efforts on Code Assist, Conversational Analytics, Data Science Agents, NL2SQL, and LookML generation in Google Cloud. Zeke’s background spans Code AI in Google Labs and privacy-centric systems in Ads Privacy Sandbox, grounded in a Computer Science degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, giving him a uniquely practical perspective on how LLMs and agents are transforming the software and data stack at scale.

Alet Blanken is Vice President of AI Engineering at Workday, where she leads the strategy, development, and deployment of Generative AI solutions that transform analytics across Looker, BigQuery, and large-scale databases. With over 15 years of experience building and leading high-performing engineering teams at Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and ACI Worldwide, she operates at the intersection of Generative AI and data analytics to deliver scalable, secure, and production-ready systems. Her work spans LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), anomaly detection, and predictive modeling to unlock actionable insights and automate complex analytical workflows. Alet holds degrees in Information Technology and Industrial Psychology, along with a PMP and AWS Solutions Architect certifications, and brings a rare blend of deep technical expertise and human-centered leadership to the TMLS stage.

Swanand Gupte is a seasoned Artificial Intelligence executive and strategist dedicated to navigating the intersection of advanced analytics and business transformation. Currently leading key AI initiatives at TELUS, Swanand focuses on modernizing enterprise capabilities through the deployment of next-generation technologies, including Agentic AI and MLOps. He is passionate about building high-performance teams and creating scalable architectures that translate complex data into best-in-class customer experiences.

With a professional foundation rooted in management consulting at McKinsey & Company, Swanand brings a disciplined, global perspective to driving innovation and operational efficiency. His expertise lies in bridging the gap between technical complexity and executive strategy, ensuring that AI investments deliver measurable value and sustainable growth. Swanand holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Ramin is a Machine Learning Engineer at TELUS with over seven years of experience. His focus areas include NLP, AI-driven automation, and building ML systems that operate reliably at scale. When not working, he enjoys hiking local trails and spending time at the gym — especially during Vancouver’s frequent rainy days.

Kai Wei Tan is a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer at CoreWeave, where he partners closely with enterprise customers to design and deploy production-grade AI systems. Previously a Lead AI Software Engineer at Boston Consulting Group, he built and scaled generative AI solutions for Fortune 100 companies, leading end-to-end development of LLM-powered agents and real-time decisioning systems.

Areeb Khawaja is a Technical Product Manager at TELUS. He works at the intersection of AI, APIs, data products, and platform strategy, where he’s currently leading the development of the TELUS API Marketplace. His focus is on enabling partners and developers to securely access and monetize data capabilities, while building scalable, privacy-conscious digital ecosystems.

Ketan Umare is Co-Founder and CEO of Union.ai, an AI development infrastructure company helping organizations build, deploy, and scale production AI. Union.ai provides a single platform that unifies infra-aware orchestration, model training, inference, and compliance, enabling teams to escape pilot purgatory and ship AI faster.

Ketan is also a leading contributor to Flyte, the open-source, Kubernetes-native AI/ML orchestrator used by 3,500+ companies. He led the original engineering team behind Flyte, building it to power dynamic, large-scale, and fault-tolerant AI workflows. Today, Union builds on that foundation to help enterprises operationalize mission-critical AI systems with lower costs, faster iteration cycles, and production-grade reliability.

Prior to founding Union, Ketan held senior engineering leadership roles at Amazon, Oracle, and Lyft, where he worked on large-scale distributed systems and data platforms.

In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his two daughters and exploring the outdoors.