Staff | Board of Directors | Advisory Board | Alumni
STAFF
Managing Director
Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson has been researching AI for over three decades, in academia and industry. His basic research centers on general machine intelligence, realtime interaction, and advanced cognitive systems. At MIT he pioneered new ideas in the area of communicative, multimodal intelligent agents. He created a cognitive architecture for Honda Motor Corporation’s humanoid robot ASIMO, with the UK company CMLabs. He is a key contributor to the novel AERA cognitive architecture – the world’s first system that can learn complex skills by observation in circumstances that are largely underspecified. Kristinn has taught advanced AI courses at Columbia University, KTH and Reykjavik University, and consulted for NASA and British Telecom. His NY startup Radar Networks was selected as one of US’s Top 10 Most Interesting Startups by Reuter’s Venture Capital in 2003 and recieved an 8 million dollar investment from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2008. Kristinn is co-founder of CADIA, Iceland’s first AI lab and has authored numerous scientific papers. He is a Professor at Reykjavik University and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Artificial General Intelligence and the LNCS Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence. He is a two-time recipient of the Kurzweil Award for his work on general machine intelligence. MIT Website, Reykjavik University Website.
Research Scientist
Goncalo De Carvalho received his B.Sc. degree in artificial intelligence from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in 2021. He has done AI research at the Cardiology Department at UMCG and Pennie Solutions in Groningen, and worked at the VSNU University Think Tank.
Research Scientist
Maxime Houssin has an M.Sc. degree in computer science from the University of Caen, Normandy, France. He studied semi-supervised learning in multi-agent systems at the University of Caen for anomaly detection in smart buildings at IRIT, and operations research at DCNS in France.
Research Scientist
Sofia Basilio received her B.Sc. from Reykjavik U. in computer science. She has experience in back-end development, user interface design, ontologies and artificial neural networks.
Senior Research Scientist
Jeff Thompson studied computer science and electrical engineering at MIT. His graduate work was in microrobotics and automation at the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Jeff’s industry and research experience includes software architecture design, coding and release management for commercial cryptography, tool automation and a cleanroom production tracking database systems for micromachine manufacturing, and open-source networking libraries in multiple programming languages.
Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Jacky Mallett graduated from MIT in 2005. She has over 2 decades of industry experience, designing, building and troubleshooting Distributed Systems, with extensive experience in real-time critical systems, high performance computing, signal processing, and wide area networking.
Affiliate Researcher
Dr. Pei Wang is an Associate Professor at Temple University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Indiana University, and his M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science, both from Peking University. His main research project is NARS (Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System), a general-purpose reasoning system. Dr. Wang is the co-creator of the International Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, and the Chief Executive Editor of the Journal of Artificial General Intelligence.
Programmer, System Administrator
Ágúst Hlynur Hólmgeirsson, received his B.Sc. degree in computer science from Reykjavik University in 2007 and was the System Administrator for CADIA during his education. He is one of the founding members and the System Administrator of the Icelandic Society for Intelligence Research.
Staff | Advisory Board | Alumni
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman of the Board
Hlynur Halldórsson graduated from the Law School of the University of Iceland in 1994. In year 1999 he received L.LM. degree from Queen Mary & Westfield College at University of London in Computer and Communications Law. He worked as an attorney for Iceland’s largest shipping company, Eimskip for several years before he became an associate and later a partner at LM Logmenn. Hlynur has been a partner of Landslog since July 2010. Hlynur’s main areas of expertise are technology law, copyright law, competition law, maritime law and banking law.
Dr. Hannes H. Vilhjalmsson, Research Scientist, Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents. Associate Professor, School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University. Research focus on intelligent avatars and interactive virtual environments with emphasis on social interaction and collaboration. Co-founder, board-member and technical advisor of Alelo Inc. Former Research Scientist at the Center for Advanced Research on Technology for Education (CARTE) at USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI).
Dr. Sigríður Ólafsdóttir is Director Regulatory Surveilance at Alvotech home page, Iceland. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University. Her expertise lies in biotechnology, drug development, research and leadership, and has professional experience as a CEO and research group leader in drug development companies and as an independent consultant. Her previous appointments include seats on the Board of Nordic Innovation, the Council of University of Iceland, Board of Technology Development Fund, and board memberships of various start-up biotech companies.
Þórunn Sigfúsdóttir has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry in the area of computer science and software development. She has worked closely with many startup businesses in their sprouting phase, from product design to prototype to product launch as Director of Software Development at Daedalus Technology Group, based in New York, bridging an R&D team with venture capital stakeholders. Þórunn is currently Director of Workforce Services at Trackwell Software overseeing the product strategy and business development of MRM solutions.
Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson
See BIO at top of page.
Staff | Board of Directors | Alumni
ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Eythor Ivar Jonsson, DBA, CEO of Klak, Reykjavik, Iceland, directs one of he primary incubation outfits in Iceland. Before joining Klak he held an Associate Professor position at Copenhagen Business School. He is Chairman of the Board of over a dozen Danish companies.
Dr. Finnur Oddsson, CEO of Nyherji, Reykjavik, Iceland. Former Managing Director of Iceland Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Oddsson works with many of Iceland’s largest organizations, public and private, in various capacities. Prior to his current post he was Director of MBA Programs at Reykjavik University, and Director of Executive Education and Assistant Professors.
Dr. Gísli Hjálmtýsson is the Managing Partner of the venture capital company Thule Investments, and former IIIM Board Member. Dr. Hjálmtýsson has a Ph.D. in computer science from University of California, Santa Barbara and has been involved as Board Member, Chairman of the Board, and Director of numerous ventures including Borealis Data Center, Brú Venture Capital, Emerald Networks, Carbon Recycling International, Advania, Voice Commerce Group and Cadec Global. He has served as Dean of Computer Science at Reykjavik University (2001-2007) and was a researcher at AT&T Labs – Research in the US (1995-2000).
Dr. Stacy Marsella is Professor and Associate Dean of Research at Northeastern University, College of Computer and Information Science, United States. Before joining NU he was a Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California, Associate Director for Social Simulation Research at the Institute of Creative Technologies, and Co-Director of the USC Computational Emotion Group. He leads projects on virtual humans, social simulation, interactive drama, emotions and theory of mind.
Dr. Rosalind Picard, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory. She has served on dozens of international science committees and recently chaired the National Science Foundations Committee of Visitors for the Information and Intelligent Systems Division. She has also worked as a consultant for companies such as Apple, AT&T, BT, HP, iRobot, and Motorola.
Dr. Jörg Siekmann, Co-Founder & Scientific Director, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Dr. Siekmann was a founding Chairman of the German AI Society, a Fellow of the German Computer Science Society (GI), Chairman of the Collaborative Research Centre on Resource-Bounded Cognitive Processes, among others.
Dr. John B. Vander Sande, co-founder of American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), he is the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specializing in the analysis of the microstructure of materials. He was Associate Dean and Acting Dean of Engineering at MIT from 1992 to 1999 and was founding Executive Director of the Cambridge (England)-MIT Institute from 1999 to 2003. He was Acting Provost at Reykjavik University, Iceland in 2009-10. Dr. Vander Sande’s experience lies in extensive knowledge of materials, the power technologies industry and his long-time tenure as a professor and administrator at a leading research university.
Dr. Ipke Wachsmuth, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF); Chair, Artificial Intelligence, University of Bielefeld. Dr. Wachsmuth has a strong multidisciplinary publications in several fields, including cognitive learning research, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual reality and multimodal interaction. He is former president of the German Cognitive Science Society and is co-director of the Collaborative Research Center “Alignment in Communication”.
Dr. Yngvi Bjornsson, Dean of School of Computer Science at Reykjavík University. Former Co-Director, Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents, Reykjavik University. Professor, School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University. Former research associate with the GAMES research group at University of Alberta, Canada. Main research interests are artificial intelligence (AI), specifically: informed search methods, learning of search-control, machine learning, and AI applied to computer games.
Staff | Board of Directors | Advisory Board
ALUMNI
Hjörleifur Rörbeck, Senior Researcher / Senior Programmer
Brendan Ruff, Affiliate Researcher
Harris Dindo, Affiliate Researcher
Ragnhildur Sigurdardóttir, Project Manager
Lena Hilger, Research Intern
Davíð Örn Jóhannesson, M.Sc., Research Sciencist, Programmer
Pierre Zanchetta, M.Sc., Research Scientist, Programmer
Jessica Chambers, Research Intern
Throstur Thorarensen, M.Sc., Researcher
Guðný R. Jónsdóttir, M.Sc., Researcher Scientist, Principal Programmer
Dr. Mary Felkin, Affiliate Researcher
Dr. J. Deon Garrett, Senior Research Scientist
Juliane Hanel, Research Intern
Hrafn Th. Thórisson, Research Specialist
Anton Laukemper, Research Intern
Magnús Pálsson, Research Intern
Dr. Ildefons Magrans de Abril, Research Scientist
Laura Nesaule, Administrative Assistant
Dipl. Eng. Eric Nivel, Director of Industry Liaisons
Erik Parr, Specialist
Ólafur Guðmundsson, M.Sc., Affiliate Researcer
Claudio Pedica, Research Scientist
Hamid Pourvatan, Research Assistant