How can we make artificial intelligence more ethical, transparent and fair? That’s the question driving this year’s recipients of the BMO Responsible AI Awards, who are reimagining how AI impacts health care, education, climate resilience and beyond.
Presented by the McGill Collaborative for AI and Society (McCAIS), a strategic initiative of the Computational and Data Systems Institute (CDSI), the awards support interdisciplinary student research that bridges technology and societal impact.
“The future of AI and of society depends on people who can think creatively, work across disciplines, and who care about the impact of their work,” said Samira A. Rahimi, co-director of McCAIS. “That’s exactly what we’re celebrating with this year’s award winners, and it’s what we support at McCAIS.”
2025 BMO Responsible AI Senior Scholars
Building a Socially Relevant and Responsible AI Curriculum for Secondary Girls
Audrey Le Meur (Master’s candidate, Integrated Studies in Education, Faculty of Education)
How can we inspire the next generation of AI leaders while addressing gender inequities in the field? Le Meur’s project is creating an AI curriculum co-designed with undergraduate women to be introduced to girls in secondary school coding clubs.
Emotion Recognition Integration in AI-Digital Nurse Avatar for Enhanced Senior Care
Heyang Li (Master’s candidate, in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)
For Li, the future of AI in health care is as much about empathy as it is about technology. Li’s research will equip an AI-powered digital nurse avatar with emotional recognition functions, allowing it to detect and respond to the emotions of seniors in real time.
Care Trajectories of Older Adults with Cardiovascular Disease and Dementia
Ting Wang (Doctoral candidate, Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Using both quantitative data analysis and in-depth interviews, Wang’s research takes a holistic approach to map patterns of health service use of older adults living with both cardiovascular disease and dementia while amplifying the voices of patients and caregivers.
2025 BMO Responsible AI Junior Scholars
Identifying Key Factors in Methodological Variability of Dynamic Functional Connectivity through Spectral Inference and Feature Selection
Kini Chen (Neurology and Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) captures how brain regions interact, which shifts over time, even at rest. Chen is using AI and machine learning to identify which methods used to assess dFC best predict disease or brain states.
Learning to Value: Hippocampal-Inspired Reward Encoding for Responsible AI System
Hadrien Padilla (Computer Science, Faculty of Science)
As AI systems play an ever-larger role in shaping societal decisions, making sure they are developed ethically and equitably has never been more important. By studying how biologically inspired reward mechanisms can be integrated into neural networks, Padilla wants to shed light on new ways to guide the responsible evolution of AI.
Exploring Bias in AI-Driven Facial Impression Predictions: Ensuring Fairness in Automated Decision-Making
Nahian Rahman (Computer Science, Faculty of Arts)
AI-powered facial analysis has become more common in everyday settings – like human resources – and fundamental questions about fairness and bias are coming to the forefront. Rahman examines how AI models generate “first impressions” from faces and whether these predictions reflect underlying human biases.
The Role of Gender in Medical AI: A study on Chatbot-Patient Interactions
Alina Shimizu-Jozi (Computer Science, Faculty of Science)
Does gender influence the impact of mental health tools in treatment? Shimizu-Jozi’s research looks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and guide best practices in AI-driven mental health applications.
Bridging the Past and Future: Leveraging AI to Analyze Historical Weather Data for Climate Resilience
Michael Yu (Computer Science, Faculty of Arts)
Yu’s project leverages large language models and historical weather data to inform modern climate resilience – the ability of societies to anticipate, prepare for and respond to hazardous climate events. These insights can strengthen civil society’s role in climate planning and make AI-driven strategies more accessible across sectors.
Empowering undergraduate and graduate researchers
Launched in 2021 through a gift from the BMO Financial Group, the Responsible AI Awards Program empowers undergraduate and graduate researchers across all faculties who are advancing our understanding of how artificial intelligence intersects with society. The awards support student research and contribute to interdisciplinary capacity within the recipients’ Faculties and across McGill.
This commitment to responsible AI research is reflected in the work of this year’s award recipients, as well as in the collaborative approach championed by McCAIS.
“As AI continues to transform every sector, the need to understand and shape its societal impact has never been greater,” said Golnoosh Farnadi, McCAIS co-director. “At McCAIS, we believe the path forward lies in interdisciplinary research, bringing together diverse expertise to ensure AI is developed responsibly.”
Support from partners like BMO plays a key role in making that vision possible.
“McGill’s pioneering work in ethical AI research is a driving force in Montréal’s thriving ecosystem. By investing in responsible AI, McGill is helping shape a future where technology is developed and deployed with integrity, transparency, and societal benefit. BMO is proud to support this important initiative and the next generation of AI leaders,” said Grégoire Baillargeon, president of BMO Québec.