Patrick M. Pilarski

Patrick M. Pilarski

Fellow, Canada CIFAR AI Chair & Board of Directors

Academic Affiliations

Professor – University of Alberta (Medicine); Associate Professor – University of Alberta (Rehabilitation Medicine); Associate Professor – University of Alberta (Computing Science); Canada Research Chair in Machine Intelligence for Rehabilitation – University of Alberta; Principal Investigator – Reinforcement Learning & Artificial Intelligence Lab (University of Alberta); Principal Investigator – BLINC Lab (University of Alberta); Principal Investigator – SMART Network (University of Alberta)

Industry and Research Affiliations

Research Affiliate – Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital

Areas of Expertise

Artificial intelligence; machine learning; reinforcement learning; bioinformatics; medical informatics; human-machine interaction; rehabilitation medicine; robotics; online learning; assistive robotics; precision health

Patrick’s research interests include reinforcement learning, real-time machine learning, human-machine interaction, rehabilitation technology, and assistive robotics.

Dr. Patrick M. Pilarski is an Amii Fellow, Canada CIFAR Artificial Intelligence Chair, and a Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta. With over 20 years of experience in AI and machine learning, he is the award-winning author or co-author of more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. Competitive national and international research grants have supported him. His research accomplishments include some of the first published approaches to user training of upper-limb prosthesis control systems via reinforcement learning.

In 2017, Dr. Pilarski was one of three Amii researchers who brought the first international research office of Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary DeepMind to Edmonton. He served as co-lead and a Senior Staff Research Scientist at the DeepMind Alberta office until 2023. In addition to his directorship on Amii's board, Dr. Pilarski is a director on the board of Silvacom Holdings Corp. and serves as an AI Advisor on the Investment Committee of the UA Innovation Fund. Dr. Pilarski regularly delivers invited keynotes to boards, business organizations, policymakers, and the general public on the growing impact of artificial intelligence on medicine, industry, and society. He previously founded a startup company, actively engages in consulting, has created multiple arts organizations, and has further governance experience in the arts sector on steering councils and advisory boards of regional and national creative arts organizations.

He graduated from the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program (DEP) in 2024 and is a holder of the Institute of Corporate Directors Director designation.