The Waterloo AI Institute is among a handful of research hubs established in recent years across Canada in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

The founding co-directors of the Institute are Professor Fakhri Karray of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor Peter van Beek of Computer Science. The main goal of the Institute is to advance fundamental and applied areas in the field of AI/ML while providing highly coveted know-how to support industrial partners in the quest to become more competitive in the age of big data, cloud computing, automation and robotics, and the Internet of Things. Major growth witnessed in the past ten years in the field of AI/ML has motivated many companies to benefit from this trend.

Given the unique critical mass of UW researchers working in AI/ML and related fields, establishing the Waterloo AI Institute was a compelling initiative. With support from various faculties across the University, and in particular the faculties of Math and Engineering, the Institute was inaugurated in early 2018, around the same time other federally and provincially-funded institutes were founded (MILA in Montreal, AMII in Edmonton and the Vector Institute in Toronto).