About

Dr. Afsoon Soudi  is an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and the Associate Director of the Creative AI Hub at The Creative School. Prior to TMU, she led machine intelligence teams to develop an audience analytics platform and recommender systems enabling discoverability and personalization in digital media products. In addition to her academic experience, Dr. Soudi is a tech-based entrepreneur. As a co-founder and VP of R&D of an award winning software company (which was later acquired), she led a multidisciplinary team of researchers and developers on technology commercialization and developing ML products for B2B applications. Dr. Soudi completed her Ph.D. in Physics at Washington State University. She holds multiple patents and published numerous peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals. Her current research interests intersect Responsible AI, climate change and media analytics.

Dr. Hossein Rahnama is a Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also the Founder and CEO of Flybits, an AI/ Data Science company. His research is focused on the design of Human-AI Systems , data governance for generative AI, human-computer interaction, and the “system of systems” design of data-driven applications. He has published more than 40 papers and holds 23 patents in computer and data science.

He previously served as a council member at NSERC (National Science and Research Engineering Council of Canada) and is currently on the board of directors of Home Capital Group and Canadian Science Publishing. He is a founding fellow at the MIT Connection Science Group and one of the Global Directors of MIT Media Lab’s City Science Group. He Was on MIT Technology Review Global TR35 list (2012) and Canada's Top 40 under 40 (2017).

Christopher Blomkwist is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Creative AI Hub in the Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also a second year PhD student in Media and Design Innovation. His research explores practice-based approaches to generative and agentic artificial intelligence, pedagogy, and creative technologies in higher education. At the Hub, Christopher supports new AI projects, documents processes for faculty and students, and helps advance awareness of emerging creative AI tools. With a background in digital media, teaching, and research, his work bridges academic inquiry and applied innovation, fostering collaboration between technology, creativity, and education.