Irina Rish

Irina Rish is a Full Professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Computer Science and Operations Research and a core member of Mila – Quebec AI Institute. She holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Autonomous Artificial Intelligence and a CIFAR AI Chair. Her research focuses on machine learning, neural data analysis, and neuroscience-inspired AI. She leads the Autonomous AI Lab and has contributed to projects like the Covi contact-tracing app during the pandemic.

Education: MSc and PhD in AI from University of California, Irvine; MSc in Applied Mathematics from Moscow Gubkin Institute. Awards include multiple IBM accolades and prestigious editorial roles (e.g., IEEE TPAMI Associate Editor).

• Research Interests: Continual Learning, Deep Learning, Sparse Modeling, Reinforcement Learning, Neuroimaging Analysis
• Affiliations: MILA, CIRCA (Brain and Learning Research Center), Canada Excellence Research Chair

Publications span over 120 papers, 64 patents, and books on sparse modeling. Collaborates with industry leaders like IBM, Microsoft, and Samsung.

Grants: Leads U.S. Department of Energy’s INCITE project on scalable foundation models. Advises over 30 students in AI and neuroscience-related fields.

Labs/Teams: Directs the Autonomous AI Lab at Mila, co-founded Nolano.ai as CSO.