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Welcome to the October edition of Profound Connections.

In this issue of the newsletter, we launch Early Career Spotlight, where you’ll meet outstanding young researchers working on topics ranging from AI (Artificial Intelligence) to theoretical astrophysics to sustainable agriculture. This month we feature Computer Science PhD candidate, Domenic Rosati, who is conducting pioneering research on AI safety at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

This issue’s Researcher Spotlight profiles Kate Larson, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and Research Scientist at DeepMind. Kate’s research focuses on multiagent systems and reinforcement learning, and applications of AI to support sustainable development and climate-related initiatives. 

September was a busy month for the Profound Impact team. We celebrated the fifth annual Profound Impact Day on Monday, September 16, 2024. Inaugurated in 2019, Profound Impact Day is a celebration of the world’s diverse leaders, changemakers, and researchers who are leaving their mark on the global community through their initiatives, influence, and impact.

This year we recognized Roger Grosse, University of Toronto, Ali Ouni, ETS Montréal, and Liam Paull, Université de Montréal, the three winners of the CS-Can|Info-Can Outstanding Early Career Computer Science Researcher Award. Professors Ouni and Paull participated in a panel discussion with Feridun Hamdullahpur, former President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Waterloo and inaugural winner of the Impactful Actions Award.

Celebrations also included a conversation between Dr. Kelly Lyons, Professor, Faculty of Information and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and Chair of the CSCan-InfoCan Awards Committee and Profound Impact’s Sherryl Petricevic. Kelly and Sherryl talked about the vital importance, challenges and benefits of industry-academia collaboration and the challenges of early-stage career research.

Check out the conversations with Kelly Lyons and the award winners on Profound Impact’s YouTube channel.

Profound Impact participated in the launch of Women Funding Women Inc. (WFW) Waterloo Region on September 18. This exciting event featured passionate conversations with forward-thinking investors, ambitious founders, and dedicated ecosystem leaders. We’re proud to be part of the powerful movement to bridge the funding gap for women-led businesses and reshape the future of angel investing. 

We were pleased to sponsor the Accelerator Centre’s She Talks Tech event, a conversation focused on fostering a supportive environment for the next generation of women in STEM, on September 26. I participated in a panel conversation with other women entrepreneurs, innovators, creatives, and academics who have overcome barriers in their STEM careers. A full recording of the event can be found here.

Profound Impact team members Jacqueline Watty and Sherryl Petricevic were present to support our partner, Innovation Factory, southwestern Ontario’s business accelerator for tech innovation, at the 14th annual LiONS LAIR pitch competition in Hamilton on September 26.  LiONS LAIR showcases the best local talent and innovation in Brant, Halton, Hamilton and Norfolk. Congratulations to prize winners Infinite Harvest Technologies, Yellowbird Diagnostics, Inc., Maman Biomedical and DOUBL.

Want to see firsthand how the revolutionary matchmaking features of our AI-powered platform, Research Impact, can transform your research projects by finding the perfect funding match? Join us for University Research Impact Demo Day on 23rd. Sign up here to participate.

As always, thank you for your support and we hope you enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Kate Larsen

Kate Larson
Professor, Cheriton School of Computer Science,
University of Waterloo
Research Scientist, DeepMind

Kate Larson is an acclaimed AI (Artificial Intelligence) researcher whose work focuses on multi-agent systems and brings together computer science, mathematics, and economics.

As the daughter of a biology professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Kate thought she might like to study biology. “The trouble was that everyone in the department knew me as Katie, my father’s daughter,” she says. A very good course in first-year mathematics sparked her interest and led her to major in the subject as an undergraduate at Memorial.

Kate received an NSERC Undergraduate Research Award, and it was Sherry Mantyka, her supervisor for the research project that she conducted related to the award, who encouraged Kate to attend graduate school. She explains, “Sherry was very supportive and an important mentor. She submitted my project, which was on math and cognitive science, to a research conference. That was a really big deal!”

When looking at options for graduate school, Kate initially considered math programs in Canada, but was intrigued by the advice given by a researcher she met at a conference to study computer science in the United States. “I chose to focus on a field I knew nothing about in a place that was unfamiliar to me,” says Kate.

Kate earned a Masters’ degree in Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis and went on to complete her PhD in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Committee members for her thesis dissertation, Mechanism Design for Computationally Limited Agents, included computer scientists and a microeconomic theorist, exemplifying the multi-disciplinary nature of her research.

Kate’s research focuses on multiagent systems and reinforcement learning and applications of AI to support sustainable development and climate-related initiatives. She is especially interested in research challenges that emerge when cooperation is made the heart of AI systems. Issues associated with cooperation are pervasive and important and can be found at scales ranging from daily routines like driving on highways, scheduling meetings and working collaboratively, to global challenges like peace, commerce, and pandemic preparedness. With AI-powered machines playing an increasingly greater role in our lives, it will be important to equip them with the capabilities necessary to cooperate and foster cooperation.

Kate’s work has earned her a Province of Ontario Early Researcher Award, the Canadian Association of Computer Science/Association d’informatique canadienne (CACS/AIC) Outstanding Young Researcher Prize, a University of Waterloo Research Chair and the Pasupalak AI Fellowship. She currently splits her research time as a Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, and as a Research Scientist at DeepMind in Montreal.

Kate’s role as a researcher and professor has included serving as graduate student supervisor and PhD thesis examiner and committee member for many students during the 20 years she has been on faculty at the University of Waterloo. She is also an active member of the university community, acting as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Cheriton School of Computer Science during the COVID pandemic and as a member of the University Senate representing the Faculty of Mathematics. Kate has also been active in outreach activities to female high school students and in events for university students to promote Computer Science as a career option for women. 

The international scientific community has benefitted from Kate’s expertise in her roles as a member of the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) Board of Trustees Board, program chair for the IJCAI 2024 conference, and member of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and CS-Can|Info-Can Boards of Directors. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, and has served as Associate Editor and member of the editorial board for a range of AI scientific journals.

Kate strongly believes that the advancement of AI will benefit greatly from collaborative research that incorporates a diversity of ideas and backgrounds, leading to the consideration of a range of interesting questions. “Issues affecting those with lower incomes, women, and minority populations need to be addressed in AI research. A homogenous group of researchers will develop tools to solve a narrow set of problems,” notes Kate. Kate Larson’s research on cooperation in AI, her emphasis on diversity and interdisciplinary research teams, and her work in both academia and industry are leading the way to machines learning to find common ground to address a wide range of global challenges.