Build a Bridge Program Mentors
Participants in the Build a Bridge program and competition will have the opportunity to schedule meetings with program mentors, who will offer tailored advice and feedback in their respective fields. More information on how to schedule mentorship meetings will be shared with participants in advance.
Darren Fast, is the Associate Vice President (Innovation, Knowledge Mobilization & Partnerships) at the University of Alberta. Previously, Darren was Director, Partnerships & Innovation at the University of Manitoba. He has also been the founder of Solalta Advisors Ltd, the Chief Technology Officer at Lombard Life Sciences, and Manager, Product Planning and Development at Viventia Biotech. Darren holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Alberta and a MSc in chemistry from the University of Manitoba. He is located in Edmonton, Alberta.
Adila Mehjebin is a PhD student in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta, specializing in housing issues, immigration and settlement studies, and community planning. Prior to her doctoral studies, Adila earned a Master of Planning in Housing from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. She is currently a research assistant at Bridging Divides, where she contributes to research aimed at addressing housing inequities of vulnerable migrant populations. Adila's professional expertise includes Urban Housing, Policy analysis, and community consultation, focusing on improving access to safe, affordable housing for marginalized communities.
Naimul Khan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering and the Master of Digital Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he directs the Multimedia Research Laboratory. His research focuses on user-centric intelligent systems combining AI and Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR). He has a rich history of industry collaboration with media and healthcare companies in Toronto and beyond. This record is backed by over $3M in government funding.
Kiana Jenabidehkordi is the Innovation Lead at the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (CERC) at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout her career, she has gained comprehensive experience in entrepreneurship, having worked in various roles, from founding her startup to acting as a Venture Coordinator with TMU's accelerators, where she supported other startups. In her current role, she is helping the research programs to adopt more innovation in their research, design, and launch innovative initiatives and she collaborates with AI Lab to develop digital tools that are tailored to customer needs and guiding them in crafting effective market strategies.
Isar Nejadgholi is a Senior Research Scientist at the Digital Technologies Research Center at the National Research Council Canada, specializing in applied machine learning and natural language processing for social impact. Her work is interdisciplinary and emphasizes developing reliable AI solutions while ensuring models are explainable, fair, and safe. Additionally, she serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She has extensive experience in building and deploying machine learning systems across various applications, including biomedical signal, image, speech, and text processing in both academic and industrial settings. She is actively involved in the NLP community, having served as an area chair at major conferences and a committee member for several ACL workshops.
Radin Hamidi Rad is a PhD candidate in Computer Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University, specializing in artificial intelligence, information retrieval, and graph analysis. Prior to his doctoral studies, Radin earned a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence from Amirkabir University of Technology - Tehran Polytechnic. Radin is currently a software and data specialist, providing technical solutions, performing data analysis, and advising on data privacy and security best practices at Bridging Divides. His professional expertise extends to programming, data mining, and hardware design.