Dr. Issam Laradji
I democratize AI knowledge, trends, and fundamentals for everyone while researching and building frontier AI systems that expand the limits of intelligence and what machines can do.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Education
Postdoc
McGill
Computer Science
·
2020 – 2021
PhD
UBC
Computer Science
·
2014 – 2020
About
See details ↓Recent News
🎙️
Will join the faculty of the 2026 [**AI in Finance Summer School (AIFSS)**](https://lnkd.in/p/e43bhiKD), presented by **RBC Borealis**, to give a technical talk on **Agentic AI**. The program brings together speakers from leading AI institutions and universities to explore advances in machine learning and what comes next. - Aug 24–27, Vancouver, BC.
🛡️
Will participate in the **Vancouver AI Safety Roundtable**, hosted by the [**Vancouver AI Safety Hub**](https://vancouveraisafety.org/) at UBC Robson Square. The roundtable will bring together approximately 20 members of Vancouver’s AI safety ecosystem to map existing work, identify gaps and opportunities, and define priorities for a regional hub. - Vancouver, BC.
📝
Registered as an **Area Chair** for the [**ACL Rolling Review (ARR) August 2026 cycle**](https://aclrollingreview.org/). - Online.
🚀
Started leading and teaching the 6th offering of [**Build Your AI Idea (BYAI)**](https://luma.com/xssu7mfq), a hybrid 4-week program hosted by **Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!)**. The cohort includes **35 students**, with weekly lectures, co-working sessions, and socials focused on turning ideas into launched AI-powered apps. - Vancouver, BC.
🛠️
Led a [**VAM! hands-on workshop**](https://luma.com/w4dt00mg) teaching coders and non-coders how to design, build, and demo their own apps using **Claude Code** in under three hours. - Online.
🏆
Became an **Area Chair** at [NeurIPS 2026](https://neurips.cc/). - San Diego, CA.
🏫
Gave a hands-on AI workshop at [West Coast Family Centres](https://westcoastfamily.org/) in Vancouver for social services staff. Covered practical AI tools for writing notes, drafting emails, and connecting families to programs, alongside privacy and bias considerations. Participants worked in small groups on real challenges from their own roles.
🤝
As founder of **Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!)**, co-hosted a [**beach BBQ with over 100 people**](https://luma.com/69jxo1um) alongside MLVC founder [**Wendy Huang**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-siqi-huang/) for **Web Summit Vancouver 2026**, connecting founders, investors, and AI builders across the city. - Vancouver, BC.
🏆
Became an **Area Chair** for [ARR May 2026](https://aclrollingreview.org/). - Online.
🤖
Ran a 2-week **Hackacourse** teaching participants how to build their best personal AI assistant. Students built and presented their projects at a Show & Tell. View the projects in the [gallery](https://vanaimeetup.com/programs/openclaw-hackathon-1/public/projects) and the event on [Luma](https://luma.com/nkjz6kzv). - Vancouver, BC.
🎓
Became a Member of the **UBC Master of Data Science (MDS)-Vancouver External Academic Advisory Board** (2026–2028). - Vancouver, BC.
🚀
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/). - Vancouver, BC.
🤖
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)) - Vancouver, BC.
📝
Our paper [DRBench was accepted to ICLR 2026](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7421816338761007104/). It introduces a large-scale benchmark ([GitHub](https://github.com/ServiceNow/drbench)) for evaluating deep research capabilities of language models. - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
🤖
Gave 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. - West Vancouver, BC.
🐍
Taught a full-day beginner crash course on [Building an AI App with Python and Together](https://luma.com/dwd58l1e). Students built and presented their first AI-powered apps. - Vancouver, BC.
🚀
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. - Vancouver, BC.
🧠
Ran four six-week cohorts teaching participants how to build efficient AI apps. - Vancouver, BC.
🤖
Co-facilitated the [n8n agentic AI automation workshop](https://luma.com/8h4tllsz). Helped participants build automated, agentic workflows using n8n. - Vancouver, BC.
📝
Published 20 research papers (19 accepted) across ICLR, NeurIPS, CVPR, and more in 2025.
📊
Presented DRBench at [UBC](https://www.ubc.ca/) Applied Math full-day workshop. - Vancouver, BC.
📽️
Gave a hands-on tutorial at Microsoft Agent Con on deep research agents. - Microsoft, Vancouver, BC.
🚀
Co-organized Agent Arena 2.0 and Agentic AI 1.0 hackathons at [NEU](https://vancouver.northeastern.edu/). - Vancouver, BC.
📖
Hosted weekly reading groups on the latest AI papers in Vancouver as part of [Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!)](https://vanaimeetup.com/). - Vancouver, BC.
🤝
Led bi-weekly AI trends events at NEU via [Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!)](https://vanaimeetup.com/). - Vancouver, BC.
🎙️
Presented [AgentPoirot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_ikQQ82qAk) on the podcast, covering agentic AI research and deep investigation systems. - Online.
✨
Hosted four Show & Tell AI app workshops, where participants demoed their AI projects live. - Vancouver, BC.
🏫
Gave a 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/). - Vancouver, BC.
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:
Selected Apps3
AgentAsimov
A deep research agent for long-horizon knowledge synthesis and complex question answering.
Link to app
AgentPoirot
End-to-end analytics agent for extracting actionable insights tailored to user goals and personas.
Link to app
Haven-AI
Framework to launch, manage, and visualize thousands of reproducible experiments.
Link to app
Selected Papers6
Selected Talks2
Selected Writings
Testimonials
N
🎉#BYAI6 - Build Your AI App course organized by VAM! Community - concluded today with mind-blowing Demo Day. 💥The room was filled with an exceptional group of builders - strong ideas, serious execution, and the kind of focused energy that inspires confidence in where applied AI is heading. 🌟30 applications, each brought to life through the skill, persistence, and creativity of their builders. The technical depth, product clarity, and execution across the cohort were genuinely impressive. 🏆For me, this milestone was personal. My application, Talking Cure AI, was presented publicly for the very first time - moving months of focused solo development into open dialogue with the community. ✨️Grateful to Issam Laradji and the #BYAI6 team for the rigor, structure, and consistently high bar throughout the program. You helped us turn our ideas into reality🫶. Onward 🚀
D
Thrilled to present my research on the ethical application of Artificial Intelligence in Education at the Vancouver AI Meetup. Huge thanks to Issam Laradji for the invite and to the amazing audience whose meaningful questions and comments made it a great session. Looking forward to connecting with this passionate team!
I
What a fun event on our campus -- Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!) Night, organized by Issam Laradji and Dylan Nihte at Northeastern University Vancouver. Enjoying some great learning with the Vancouver AI community and some of our fantastic students!
G
Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!): A Night of Innovation & Ethics in AI! Last Friday night at Northeastern University Vancouver, the Vancouver AI Meetup brought together an incredible group of AI enthusiasts, researchers, and industry leaders. Huge thanks to Issam Laradji and Dylan Nihte for organizing such a fantastic event!
R
I completed the development of my ThreadStory app with the help of #BYAI and the #VAM team. The learning experience has been incredible, and I am amazed at how much I have gained in such a short time. For anyone considering this journey, I highly recommend taking this course. It offers a community of like-minded individuals, exposure to cutting-edge AI applications, and the encouragement needed to keep pushing forward.
Selected Communities
Let's Collaborate
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