Age: 38
Occupation: Associate professor, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary
During the 2021 AI boom, when the world saw the potential of large language models like ChatGPT, AI researcher Mariana Pinheiro Bento saw the potential societal issues such as biases and overreliance on AI programs.
“I could see the challenges and limitations that such models could have, and the really harmful impacts that they may have if not used properly,” says Pinheiro Bento.
She pivoted to creating trustworthy AI programs with experts from engineering, science, medicine, communications, philosophy, political science, education and social work. She has secured more than $1.07 million in funding from the likes of the federal New Frontier in Research Fund and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant program.
Pinheiro Bento leads a joint research program between the biomedical engineering and the electrical and software engineering schools at UCalgary to create equitable medical AI tools. Her program to reduce biases and to prevent mis- or underdiagnosis, particularly for equity-deserving groups, has resulted in one of the world’s largest data sets of MRI imaging data.
A mentor and community advocate, she also helps organize events like BrainHack, which brings together new generations of the neuroscience community and the Women in Data Science Conference where female-identifying data scientists connect and learn.
“I tell everyone that I see myself as their trampoline,” says Pinheiro Bento. “I am here to support them [to] achieve what they want to achieve.”
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