Bio
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and the founding director of the ”Third Space” research group. His research interest is the intersection between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ahmed received his PhD and Master’s from Cornell University and his Bachelor’s and Master’s from BUET in Bangladesh. In the last 15 years, he has studied and developed successful computing technologies with various marginalized communities in Bangladesh, India, Canada, USA, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and Ecuador.
He has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles and received multiple best paper awards in top computer science venues including CHI, CSCW, ICTD and FaccT. He has received numerous honors and accolades, including the International Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship, the Intel Science and Technology Fellowship, the Fulbright Centennial Fellowship, the Schwartz Reisman Fellowship, the Massey Fellowship, the Connaught Scholarship, Microsoft AI & Society Fellowship, Google Inclusion Research Award, and Facebook Faculty Research Award. His research has also received generous funding support from all three Canadian tri-council research agencies (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC), the USA’s NSF and NIH, and the Bangladesh government’s ICT Ministry. He was named a Future Leader by the Computing Research Association in 2024.