Dr. Issam Laradji | Senior Staff Research Scientist · Adjunct Professor at UBC

Education

Postdoc McGill

Computer Science · 2020 – 2021

PhD UBC

Computer Science · 2014 – 2020

About

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Recent News

Feb 22, 2026 (Sat)

🚀

Completed the 5th round of [BYAI-6: Build Your AI Idea in Six Weeks](https://luma.com/gf424qph), a 6-week program where participants built impressive AI apps. Taught multiple tech stacks including Flask web development, n8n workflows, Lovable, React, and Node.js. The program included weekly office hours, co-working meetups, weekly lectures, labs, and presentations. Open to all experience levels, including those with no coding background. Projects can be seen in the [gallery](https://vam-nexus.github.io/byai-6/gallery.html#gallery). [Testimonial](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7431237815197147136/).

Jan 27, 2026 (Tue)

📝

Our paper [DRBench was accepted to ICLR 2026](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7421816338761007104/) (Brazil). It introduces a large-scale benchmark ([GitHub](https://github.com/ServiceNow/drbench)) for evaluating deep research capabilities of language models.

Jan 26, 2026 (Mon)

🦷

Created [DentalBot](https://github.com/IssamLaradji/dentalbot), an AI-powered assistant for booking and dental service inquiries. Features an admin interface for querying bookings using advanced AI models.

Feb 1, 2026 (Sun)

🤖

Co-facilitated **n8n 101: Workflow Automation (Cohort 2)** hosted by the VAM! Community. Participants built end-to-end automated workflows, deployed AI chatbots with tool-calling and memory, and developed AI daily feed summarizers. ([Luma Link](https://luma.com/bebya5be))

Jan 19, 2026 (Mon)

🤖

Performed a Tech Talk on Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) at [West Van Memorial Library](https://westvanlibrary.ca/event/tech-talk-agentic-artificial-intelligence-ai/). Discussed how autonomous agents are revolutionizing productivity.

Jan 11, 2026 (Sun)

🐍

Taught a full-day beginner crash course workshop on [Building an AI App with Python and Together](https://luma.com/dwd58l1e). Students built and presented their first AI-powered apps.

Jan 10, 2026 (Sat)

🚀

Started facilitating the 5th cohort of [BYAI-6: Build Your AI Idea in Six Weeks](https://luma.com/gf424qph). Helping participants bring their AI MVPs to life through personalized guidance.

2025

🧠

Ran four six-week cohorts teaching efficient AI apps.

Dec 14, 2025 (Sun)

🤖

Co-facilitated the [n8n agentic AI automation workshop](https://luma.com/8h4tllsz). Helped participants build automated, agentic workflows using n8n.

2025

📊

Presented DRBench at UBC Applied Math full-day workshop.

Nov 2025

📽️

Hands-on tutorial at Microsoft Agent Con on deep research agents.

2025

📖

Hosted weekly reading groups on latest AI papers in Vancouver.

2025

🤝

Led bi-weekly AI trends events at NEU via Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!).

2025

📝

Produced 20 research papers (19 accepted) across ICLR, NeurIPS, CVPR, etc.

2025

🚀

Co-organized Agent Arena 2.0 and Agentic AI 1.0 hackathons.

2025

🎙️

Main presenter for the AgentPoirot podcast.

2025

✨

Hosted four Show & Tell AI apps workshops.

Oct 16, 2024 (Wed)

🏫

Talk on [Best Practices for Hosting AI Workshops at the Public Library](https://bclaconnect.ca/resources/continuing-education-resources/ai-exploration-series/hosting-ai-workshops/).

Research Outputs

As an academic, I publish research in top-tier conferences and speak about AI around the world to help push the frontiers of AI.

My first paper was published in 2014, and my goal is to continuously develop new work with impactful real-world applications.

50+ Publications

20 Papers in 2025

5328 Citations as of May 14, 2026

Published In:

NeurIPS