UDM--Workshop-2025

Invited Keynote Speakers

The following invited researchers have confirmed their participation in the workshop:

	Daniel Roy, University of Toronto Short bio: Daniel Roy is the Research Director, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, and Founding Faculty of the Vector Institute, one of the three nationally funded AI laboratories in Canada, housed in Toronto, with over 800 research staff from over 12 member universities. He is also a Professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto, with a cross appointment in Computer Science. Roy's research spans machine learning, mathematical statistics, and theoretical computer science. Roy is a recipient of the NSERC Discovery Accelerator award, Ontario Early Researcher Award, and a Google Faculty Research Award. Roy serves as an action editor for the Journal of Machine Learning Research and Transactions of Machine Learning Research, and on senior program committees of the leading ML conferences. His work has received numerous awards, including a best paper award at the 2024 International Conference on Machine Learning. Prior to joining Toronto, Roy was a Research Fellow of Emmanuel College and Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, hosted by the University of Cambridge. Roy completed his doctorate in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his dissertation was awarded the MIT EECS Sprowls Award.
	Bassam Zarkout, IGnPower Inc. Short bio: Bassam Zarkout is a seasoned technology executive with over 30 years of experience across Canada, the U.S., and Europe. He specializes in bridging business, technology, and regulatory strategy for global Fortune 100 firms and public sector entities. As founder of IGnPower Inc., he advises on enterprise digital transformation and data strategies. Former CTO of RSD Geneva, Bassam led both technology and strategic initiatives around Information Governance platforms. At the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and Digital Twin Consortium (DTC), he chairs the Industry DX and Distributed Data Interoperability and Sharing groups, driving advancements in enterprise data asset valuation, digital twin, AI, and data trustworthiness to accelerate industry-wide digital transformation. He also co-leads the consortia’s Thought Leadership Group which published the peer-reviewed Journal of Innovation publication.
	Porter Jenkins, Brigham Young University Short bio: Dr. Jenkins is an AI scientist and researcher with a PhD from Penn State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he teaches courses on Deep Learning, Databases, and Probabilistic Machine Learning. His research has been published in leading AI conferences, including ICML, KDD, AAAI, IJCAI, WWW, and WACV. Beyond academia, Porter has several years of experience collaborating with industry partners to apply AI technologies in real-world settings. His partnerships span both startups—such as Delicious AI, Enzy Technologies, and NextGen Nuclear—and enterprise organizations like Vivint Smart Home. His work bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and practical AI deployment, helping shape the future of intelligent systems.