GenAI Challengers

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Christine Bell

Christine is a teaching scholar and faculty member in Physiology and Pharmacology at Western University whose work focuses on generative AI, feedback literacy, and student agency. She recently received a SSHRC grant to explore how GenAI can help students build stronger feedback literacy skills. She has also published a reflection and faculty guide in Advances in Physiology Education on using a human-in-the-loop approach in an undergraduate laboratory setting, with an emphasis on supporting students as they develop skills in prompt engineering. Her current projects highlight the importance of embedding student voice and agency into feedback processes so learners are empowered to grow their feedback literacy skills.

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Mark Daley

Mark is Western's first-ever Chief AI Officer, appointed for a five-year term in October 2023. A respected researcher in the field of neural computation, Mark's career includes a tenure as Vice-President Research at CIFAR, a world-renowned institute supporting AI research and leading Canada's national AI strategy. Additionally, Mark is a multidisciplinary scholar and has held cross-appointments in several departments across campus, including Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Sciences, Biology, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics. Most recently, prior to taking on the role of Chief AI Officer, Mark served as Western's Chief Digital Information Officer leading Western Technology Services (WTS).

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Wendy de Gomez

Wendy is a PhD student in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at the University of Waterloo where she researches the process of AI policy formation and its subsequent implementation by modelling both long and short-term externalities of AI development and deployment. Externalities include environmental impacts, political survival, organizational efficiencies, and interest group influence as variables affecting the development and proliferation of AI rules within rule-forming entities such as an organization or government. Wendy is a trained research strategist and data analyst with over 13 years of experience in the public and private sector and believes that a truly holistic perspective of this technology should be paramount in determining its acceleration path.

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Carson Johnston

Carson is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at Western University and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Her research sits at the intersection of philosophy of mind, epistemology, and artificial intelligence, focusing on how AI shapes human agency. She investigates the consequences of anthropomorphism in AI design and develops conceptual strategies for using artificial intelligence to advance social and scientific progress. Carson's works aims to inform responsible AI design, policy, and interdisciplinary approaches to emerging technologies. Since starting her program, Carson has been active in Western's AI research community, contributing to Dr. Chris Smeenk's Computational Epistemology Think Tank, the Human–AI Relations Working Group (Rotman Institute), and developing online modules on using AI for graduate research.

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Alec Mullender

Alec is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at Western University, researching critical classification and time/temporality in Library and Information Science (LIS). His work examines the effect of time on systems, processes, and people. He has three cats.

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Joanne Paterson

Joanne is a member of the Research and Scholarly Communication Team at Western Libraries, where she supports researcher visibility and impact through tools like ORCID, bibliometrics, and Western's Research Information Management System (RIMS). With an MA in Musicology and an MSc in Information and Library Science, Joanne brings a mix of domain expertise and metadata nerdery to her work—often diving deep into platforms like OpenAlex, ROR, Scopus, and Web of Science to ensure that research outputs are cleanly and accurately represented. She also explores digital humanities tools and methods, working on projects that involve TEI, Palladio, CollectionBuilder, and other open-source platforms to surface hidden stories in historical and institutional data. A lifelong learner, she's currently exploring how AI is reshaping the landscape of scholarly publishing.

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Andrew Richmond

Andrew is a Postdoc in the EMRG Lab in the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. He works in philosophy of science, blending methods from philosophy and psychology to study scientific reasoning and especially the way cognitive science and AI make complex systems, like brains and neural networks, intelligible.

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Rachel Sandieson

Rachel is the Course Materials Manager at the Dellelce Family Bookstore at Western University, where she supports instructors and students by coordinating textbooks and custom course materials.

With a background as a clinical librarian, Rachel has provided research and curriculum support across multiple departments on campus. Her academic interests include educational technology, collaborative tools, and integrating online learning in library settings. She is especially passionate about accessible education and enjoys exploring innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Outside of her role at Western, Rachel is a certified yoga instructor, having completed her advanced 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher training, with a focus on mindful and accessible movement. She brings the same spirit of curiosity and support to her yoga practice as she does to her work in higher education.

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Pinar Barlas

Pinar is a Library and Information Science Ph.D. student in the Faculty for Information and Media Sciences at Western University, studying the construction of datasets for machine learning applications, in order to minimize the harmful societal effects of Artificial Intelligence systems. More specifically, Pinar is investigating the ethical implications of data cleaning practices. Previously, Pinar was a Research Associate for the Fairness and Ethics in AI-Human Interaction Multidisciplinary Research Group at the CYENS Centre of Excellence. Pinar has a BA in Cultural Studies & Communication, an MA in Interaction Design, and brief experience in the industry as a User Experience and Service Designer.

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Dan Bousfield

Dan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Western University in London, Ontario. His current research focuses on the role of AI in educational assessment and pedagogy, examining how generative AI, such as large language models (LLMs), challenges traditional approaches to writing, citation, and assessment in International Relations education. His broader academic work addresses international relations, political economy, and critical theory, with particular attention to race, neoliberalism, digital diplomacy, and the political implications of technology.

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Noah Kostesku

Noah is an undergraduate student at Western University pursuing an Honours Specialization in Computer Science. He currently works as a Project Manager at Tech for Social Impact, where he co-leads a team developing technology solutions for non-profits to drive social change through accessible design. Noah also serves as a Research Assistant at Western, focusing on Explainable AI in the context of credit risk. His work aims to create interpretable machine learning models that promote transparency and fairness in financial decision-making. Passionate about the intersection of technology and ethics, he plans to pursue postgraduate studies to further explore ethical AI and its potential to shape more just and responsible systems.

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James Shelley

James is a member of the Research Office in the Faculty of Health Sciences. He is a process strategist and in-house software developer, focussed on leveraging advancements in automation, analytics, and AI to support strategic, institutional initiatives. James is currently leading several AI-enabled projects at Western University in the areas of research administration, knowledge mobilization, and science communication.

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Stephen Spong

Stephen is Western's Copyright Officer as well as a member of Western Libraries' Teaching and Learning team. Prior to this he was the Director of the John and Dotsa Bitove Law Library at Western Law. Over the course of his career, he has worked in a number of libraries in Canada and the United States. He holds a J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School and a M.I. from the University of Toronto's iSchool.

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Luke Stark

Luke is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University in London, Canada. He is Co-Director of the Starling Centre for Just Technologies and Just Societies at Western and is a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Future Flourishing Program. Luke is the Principal Investigator on Insight Development and Insight Grants funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and is the recipient of numerous competitive internal grants and awards from Western University. Luke received his PhD from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University in 2016, and holds an Honours BA and MA in History from the University of Toronto. His current book project Reordering Emotion: Histories of Computing and Human Feeling from Cybernetics to Artificial Intelligence is under contract with the MIT Press.

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William J Turkel

William is Professor of History at the University of Western Ontario and internationally recognized for his innovative work in digital history. He uses machine learning, text mining, and computational techniques in his study of the histories of science, technology and environment, drawing on many decades of programming experience. He is author of Spark from the Deep (Johns Hopkins, 2013), The Archive of Place (UBC, 2007) and the open access textbook Digital Research Methods with Mathematica (2nd ed 2019). His current research focuses on the development of computational environments to support hybrid human-AI teamwork in the social sciences. Dr. Turkel is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (2018-25) and a recipient of the Wolfram Innovator Award (2020).