A lab built around a simple conviction.
Artificial intelligence should serve people — patients, learners, communities, and the institutions that protect them. AIRL turns that conviction into peer-reviewed research, patented inventions, open datasets, and trained talent.
Human-centered AI, end to end.
AIRL advances trustworthy artificial intelligence across five pillars — Health & Healing, Defence & Security, Assistive Technologies, Indigenous Communities, and Applied AI Systems — connecting technical capability with governance, accessibility, and community partnership.
The lab works alongside the Canadian Association for AI and Future Studies (AAIFS) for knowledge mobilization and the Inspire Intelligence Journal for open scholarly dissemination, forming a complete pipeline from research to real-world impact.
- Founded 2026 at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
- Lead of AI for Health & Healing — TRU HorAIzon Presidential Initiative ($130,000)
- 14 granted US patents; 115+ publications; 12 research datasets
- International co-investigator network across Canada, USA, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Australia & India
- Active graduate, Mitacs, and undergraduate research training
Founding Director
Dr. Ghazanfar Latif, Ph.D.
Founding Director, AIRL
Assistant Professor, Computing Science, Thompson Rivers University · IEEE Senior Member · President, AAIFS · Editor-in-Chief, Inspire Intelligence Journal · Editorial Board, Discover Artificial Intelligence (Springer Nature)
Dr. Latif is an award-winning innovator with 12+ years across teaching, research, innovation, curriculum development, and academic administration. Named in the World's Top 2% Scientists (Stanford/Elsevier) in 2024 and 2025, he holds 14 granted US patents and has published 110+ WoS/Scopus papers (h-index 30, 3,185+ citations). His patented innovation received the Gold Medal with Honor at the 49th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions (2024), and his BlindLine system won first place among 800 entries at the NEOM OXAGON Hackathon.
Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University
Full Graduate Instructor/Supervisor; Lead, AI for Health & Healing (HorAIzon); Chair, CS Industry Outreach Committee.
Adjunct Professor (AI), University of Fredericton
EMBA Artificial Intelligence Leadership stream; curriculum development.
Acting Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence, PMU
Directed a university AI centre; established four research labs valued over $10M.
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Université du Québec (UQAC)
FRQNT-funded deep learning for automated mineral-grain recognition.
Industry: health AI & cloud engineering
ML lead for cancer-care NLP at All4Cure (USA); HIPAA-compliant cloud EHR at CareCloud/MTBC; 150+ freelance AI/cloud projects worldwide.
Education: Post-Doc in AI (UQAC, FRQNT) · Ph.D. Computer Science, Gold Medalist (UNIMAS) · M.S. Computer Science (KFUPM, full scholarship) · B.S. Computer Science (FAST-NUCES, full merit scholarship).
Experience building research infrastructure
Before founding AIRL, Dr. Latif supervised the establishment of four research laboratories — valued at over $10 million — for a university AI centre, a playbook now applied at TRU.
Robotics Lab
Unitree humanoid, Temi, Zara & NAO robots, 3D scanning/printing, PCB printing, research drones.
AI HPC Lab
GPU clusters with 16× and 4× Tesla V100s, Olympus research microscope and scanner.
VR / AR Lab
Apple Vision Pro, Meta Oculus, VIVE Cosmos & Elite, RealWear, KATwalk locomotion.
Embedded Systems Lab
Raspberry Pi & Arduino fleets, Dexter robotics kits, 50+ IoT sensors and microcontrollers.
Academic leadership
- Secretary, IEEE Thompson Okanagan Section (2026) · Chair, IEEE Young Professionals AG · Vice Chair, IEEE Systems Council (TOK)
- HorAIzon Committee (TRU President's initiative); CS Research, Curriculum & Industry Outreach committees (TRU)
- Advisor: TRU AI Club and IEEE Student Chapter
- Six degree programs designed, including TRU's Master in AI (2025) and PMU's BS/MS/PhD in AI
- Accreditation contributor: ABET (IT & Computer Engineering), NCAAA
- UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship (2026)
Professional standing
- IEEE Senior Member (member since 2017; elevated 2025)
- Digital Research Alliance of Canada (2025–)
- National Academy of Inventors — honorary membership (2022–)
- President, Canadian Association for AI & Future Studies (AAIFS)
- Certifications: EMC Cloud Infrastructure, RackSpace Cloud, Cisco IoE / CCNA / IT Essentials / Entrepreneurship; Cisco Certified Instructor (22 courses)
- Professional training: Palo Alto Cybersecurity Academy, Windows Server Administration (Koenig, Dubai), Cisco CCNA