3 June 2025
Professor Ulrich Aïvodji works on artificial intelligence (AI) issues that directly affect our lives: how to design automated decision-making systems that are fair, seamless and privacy-friendly.
One dimension of his research focuses on bias reduction techniques. AI systems often learn from imperfect data. This can lead to biased results: for example, a medical model that works better for men than for women, or for the young than for the elderly. As part of his research, Professor Aïvodji intends to develop methods that will enable the systems to self-correct these imbalances, without necessarily needing to know in advance which groups need to be protected. He is also interested in artificial intelligence personalization, namely in the field of healthcare. How can a system’s recommendations be adapted to the characteristics of each sub-group (for example, according to age or gender) without harming others? His research proposes solutions that enable personalization without sacrificing equity.
Another key aspect of his research deals with the need for seamless algorithmic decisions. He is currently assessing the risks of ethics washing in explanation processes and developing reliable explicability techniques. Finally, he is addressing the challenges of privacy protection in AI, whether through vulnerability analysis or the design of privacy-preserving mechanisms.
In short, Ulrich Aïvodji imagines AIs that are not only high-performance, but also responsible, fair and attentive to the needs of individuals. This is essential at a time when AI is playing an increasingly important role in our daily lives.
About Ulrich Aïvodji
Ulrich Aïvodji is a research professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology at École de technologie supérieure. His interests include cybersecurity, protection of personal information and trustworthy artificial intelligence, with a special focus on privacy, algorithmic fairness, explicability, interpretability and algorithmic collective action.
He collaborates with several of Canada’s leading artificial intelligence research institutions. He is a member of IVADO’s R4 (Responsible AI Implementation and Governance) and R5 (Ethics, EDI and Indigenous Engagement) strategic research clusters. He is also an associate academic member of the Institut québécois d’intelligence artificielle (MILA), and a regular member of the Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l’AI et du numérique (OBVIA). Professor Aïdvoji is a full member of the International Laboratory on Learning Systems (ILLS). He is also a senior expert to the CIFAR-Mila AI Insights for Policymakers program, participating in discussions on AI governance and policy.
Prior to joining ÉTS, Professor Aïvodji was a postdoctoral researcher at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he focused on artificial intelligence ethics and privacy issues.
He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier and the LAAS-CNRS, where he developed privacy protection technologies for shared mobility. He also holds a State Diploma in Computer Engineering from Morocco’s École Nationale des Sciences Appliquées.
