Keynotes 2024

Mark Daley

Mark Daley, Chief AI Officer, Western University
Mark Daley, Chief AI Officer, Western University

About Mark Daley:

Mark Daley was appointed as Western's first-ever Chief AI Officer for a five-year term in October 2023.

A respected researcher in the field of neural computation, Mark’s career includes a tenure as Vice-President Research at CIFAR, a world-renowned institute supporting AI research and leading Canada’s national AI strategy. Additionally, Mark is a multidisciplinary scholar and has held cross-appointments in several departments across campus, including Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Sciences, Biology, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics.

Western is the first university in Canada to create an AI leadership role within its senior executive, and Mark is uniquely qualified for this exciting new role that will help propel Western to the forefront of AI research and application. Most recently Mark served as Western’s Chief Digital Information Officer leading Western Technology Services (WTS). In this capacity he brought together the distributed IT community with a collaborative, respectful and federated approach through the creation of the Strategic Technology forum, drafted the Agile IT Governance framework, and co-created a service-oriented set of strategic objectives guiding the work of WTS.

Mark will be presenting on AI and LLMs in the context of educational institutions.

Okey Igboeli

Okey Igboeli, Associate Professor - Teaching Stream, Director of Science and Business Program, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo
Okey Igboeli, Associate Professor - Teaching Stream, Director of Science and Business Program, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo

About Okey Igboeli:

Dr. Igboeli has significant academic and practical experience in entrepreneurship and research commercialization. Prior to joining the Science and Business program, he founded and led the drug discovery company, True Spring Pharmaceuticals Inc. His research involved discovery of new chemical entities for the treatment of infectious and non-infectious diseases of veterinary and medical significance, as well as strategic risks involved in new drug discovery ventures.

Dr. Igboeli teaches several Science and Business courses and facilitates the integration of Science and Business students’ experience with entrepreneurial activities on campus and in the community.

Dr. Igboeli will be presenting on AI and data privacy in health and the sciences.