This executive sprint offers multiple modes of learning that will allow you to get up-to-speed quickly on how AI is set to radically transform business, government, and society. This includes:

• 90-minute live sessions, taking place via Zoom on Wednesdays from 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET, comprised of short presentations and faculty-guided and peer-led discussions.
• Curated readings that will allow you to dig deeper into specific topics of interest.
• Action learning thought-starters that will apply the 3R model to your organization or one with which you are familiar.

Receive a certificate from the University of Waterloo

Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a professional education certificate from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Jimmy Lin is a professor and holds the David R. Cheriton Chair in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He also serves as the co-director of the Waterloo AI Institute, which has the mission to promote cross-disciplinary research at the frontiers of artificial intelligence and its applications across the entire campus.

Dr. Lin’s area of research lies at the intersection between natural language processing and information retrieval. In addition to being one of the most cited artificial intelligence scholars in the world, he has been frequently and deeply engaged with both the private and public sectors throughout his career, including an extended sabbatical at Twitter and visiting positions at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

He presently serves as the chief technology officer of Primal, a Waterloo-based AI company focused on creating meaning that computers can understand. Dr. Lin holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and is a fellow of the ACM.

Dr. Joël Blit is a professor of economics, chair of the Council on Innovation Policy at the University of Waterloo, and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). His main research interests are in the economics of innovation and innovation policy. He studies, among other things, AI, economics and the future of work, the diffusion of disruptive technologies and their impact on productivity and jobs, as well as the effect of that intellectual property rights (patents) have on innovation. Dr. Blit’s most recent work, examining how COVID-19 has transformed the economy through automation and reallocation, has been featured in numerous media outlets including The Economist, The Globe and Mail, and CBC. 

He has also received numerous research grants from agencies such as SSHRC, NBER, CIBER, INET, CIGI, the AI Institute at the University of Waterloo.

Prior to joining Waterloo, Dr. Blit was an assistant professor of economics and international affairs at the George Washington University. He has also been a business consultant to financial services firms in Asia, Australia, and North America, which has included formulating the strategy for a $100M USD startup. He holds a BASc Engineering Science (Toronto), MASc Computer Engineering (Waterloo), MBA (INSEAD), MA Economics (Western), and PhD Economics (Toronto).

Dr. J. Mark Weber is special advisor to the Provost on Leadership Strategy and Development at the University of Waterloo. Prior to his current role, Mark was the Eyton director of the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business at Waterloo, the inaugural director of Waterloo's Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation, and a former faculty member at the Rotman School of Management and UTM at the University of Toronto. He also taught courses at Northwestern University, INSEAD, and the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan.

Dr. Weber is an award-winning teacher and researcher, and his research focuses on leadership, cooperation, negotiations, decision-making, and trust. He consults extensively and has provided training to executives and professionals in the automotive, education, healthcare, pharmaceutical, broadcast media, entertainment, telecommunications, professional services, and financial services industries, and in government at all levels.

Watch Jimmy and Joël in our ChatGPT webinar