Kamloops · British Columbia · Canada

Advancing AI that keeps people at the centre.

AIRL is a human-centered AI research lab at Thompson Rivers University | 14 US patents, 137 publications, and five research pillars serving health, security, accessibility, and community.

Explore our research Publications & patents
AI for Health & Healing · TRU HorAIzon Initiative

From brain-tumour AI to the Wellness Hub.

Leading the $130,000 HorAIzon Presidential Initiative | medical imaging AI, privacy-preserving campus LLMs, and health systems demonstrated to BC's Minister of State for AI.

Health & Healing pillar Funded projects
Geneva Gold Medal · NEOM OXAGON Winner · Top 2% Scientists

Award-winning, human-centered innovation.

Gold Medal with Honor at the 49th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, BlindLine first among 800 at NEOM OXAGON, and consecutive World's Top 2% Scientists rankings.

News & awards Join the lab
14
US patents granted in AI, ML & robotics
137
Research outputs · h-index 30 · 3,225+ citations
$397K+
Research funding across 21 grants
57
Students & researchers trained (HQP)

Founding Director named in the World's Top 2% Scientists (Stanford/Elsevier, 2024 & 2025) · Gold Medal, 49th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions (2024) · IEEE Senior Member · Lead, AI for Health & Healing, TRU HorAIzon Presidential Initiative.

Dr. Ghazanfar Latif — AI expert in Kamloops, British Columbia and Founding Director of AIRL, the AI Research Lab at Thompson Rivers University (TRU)
Founding Director

Dr. Ghazanfar Latif

Assistant Professor of Computing Science, Thompson Rivers University · Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

A leading AI expert in Kamloops and British Columbia — named in the World's Top 2% Scientists (Stanford/Elsevier, 2024 & 2025), IEEE Senior Member, inventor on 14 granted US AI patents, and author of 137 publications (h-index 30, 3,225+ citations). He leads TRU's HorAIzon AI for Health & Healing initiative and founded AIRL, the AI research lab at TRU.

About Dr. Latif →
Research pillars

Five directions, one principle: the human at the centre.

Every pillar pairs rigorous technical AI with the people it serves — patients, first responders, persons with disabilities, Indigenous communities, students, and industry.

Health & Healing

Medical imaging AI for cancer and disease, digital mental-health support, and secure intelligent health systems. Flagship: the $130K TRU HorAIzon initiative.

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Defence & Security

Resilience against AI-generated disinformation, threat detection, document forensics (9 patents), cybersecurity, and wildfire & public-safety intelligence.

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Assistive Technologies

Award-winning Braille learning systems, sign-language AI, and accessible interfaces — including BlindLine, first among 800 at the NEOM OXAGON Hackathon.

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Indigenous Communities

AI for the digital preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages in Canada, culturally responsive educational AI, and community-led data stewardship.

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Applied AI Systems

Intelligent education, agriculture and environment, smart cities and IoT — from mineral recognition and plant-disease diagnosis to traffic-sign and pothole patents.

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Why "Human-Centered"?

Technology earns trust when people shape it. AIRL pairs deep-learning capability with governance, accessibility, and community partnership — the coral figure at the centre of our mark is the point of every project.

About the lab →
Latest

News & latest publications

RP-IoMT: A Robust and Provable Framework for Federated Learning Privacy-Preserving Intelligence in Healthcare IoMT

M. Saad Bin Ilyas, Sohail Masood Bhatti, Ghazanfar Latif, Sherif Abdelhamid, Arfan Jaffar

Tech Science Press · Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences · 2026

JournalsHealth & Healing

Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach for enabling collaborative model training across distributed Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices without sharing sensitive data.…

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Fungal Infection Detection Using Custom Fusion-Based Deep Learning Features

Irum Nehvi, D. N. F. Awang Iskandar, Jaafar Alghazo, Ghazanfar Latif, Insha Nahvi

Springer Science+Business Media · Communications in computer and information science · 2026

ConferencesHealth & Healing

Fungal infections pose a significant global health challenge, ranging from superficial skin conditions to lifethreatening systemic diseases, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. With an estimated 1.5 million…

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Frequently asked

AI in Kamloops — common questions

Who does AI research at TRU (Thompson Rivers University)?

AI research at TRU is advanced by AIRL — the AI Research Lab founded by Dr. Ghazanfar Latif — across health, defence and security, assistive technologies, Indigenous communities, and applied AI systems, alongside TRU's Computing Science department and the HorAIzon presidential AI initiative.

Is there an AI research lab in Kamloops?

Yes — AIRL (AI Research Lab, airl.ca) at Thompson Rivers University is a human-centered AI research lab in Kamloops, British Columbia, with 21 funded projects, 14 US patents, and open research datasets.

Who can help my business adopt AI in Kamloops?

AIRL partners with BC businesses through research-backed AI consulting, prototyping sprints with the Central Interior Business Accelerator, and Mitacs co-funded R&D that can match your investment with federal support. See Industry & Partnerships.

Where can I learn AI in Kamloops?

Thompson Rivers University offers AI and computing courses taught by AIRL's Founding Director, and the lab provides professional AI workshops, corporate training, executive briefings, and free open video lectures. See Teaching & Training.

Looking for the wider picture? Read our guide: AI in Kamloops — researchers, labs & companies →

Join a human-centered AI lab.

We always welcome leading researchers from around the world to collaborate on research grants and build strong research networks.

We also recruit undergraduate and graduate students, research assistants, and Mitacs interns every year.

Work with us