Patrick Pilarski, PhD, BASc, ICD.D
Pronouns: he/him
Personal Website: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~pilarski/
Contact
Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Deptment of Medicine - PhysMedRehab
- pilarski@ualberta.ca
- Phone
- (780) 248-5636
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Artificial Intelligence Bionics and Biorobotics Upper-limb Prostheses Rehabilitation Technology Reinforcement Learning Continual Machine Learning Human-Machine Interaction Intelligence Amplification Assistive Robotics Internet of Body Things (IoBT)
About
Dr. Patrick M. Pilarski is a Canada CIFAR Artificial Intelligence Chair (Amii), past Canada Research Chair in Machine Intelligence for Rehabilitation, and a Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta. He is a Fellow and Board Member of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), co-leads the Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control (BLINC) Laboratory, and is a principal investigator with the Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (RLAI) and iSMART at the University of Alberta. Dr. Pilarski received the B.ASc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2004, the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta in 2009, and completed his postdoctoral training in the Computing Science with Dr. Richard S. Sutton at the University of Alberta in 2014. He graduated from the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program (DEP) in 2024, and is a holder of the Institute of Corporate Directors Director designation.
Dr. Pilarski’s research interests include reinforcement learning and decision making, artificial intelligence, real-time machine learning, human-machine interaction, intelligence amplification, rehabilitation technology, and assistive robotics. He leads an interdisciplinary initiative focused on creating intelligent artificial limbs to restore and extend abilities for people with amputations. As part of this research, Dr. Pilarski has developed and made prominent machine learning techniques for continual sensorimotor control and prediction learning on prosthetic devices. These include some of the first published approaches to ongoing user training of upper-limb prosthesis control systems via reinforcement learning, and he pioneered the use of general value functions in prediction learning to continually adapt myoelectric control interfaces in real time. Dr. Pilarski’s research programme continues to explore human-device interaction and communication, long-term co-adaptation and joint action between agents, patient-specific device optimization, and constructivism in tightly coupled human-machine interfaces. He has also created techniques for rapid cancer and pathogen screening through work on biomedical pattern recognition, robotic micro-manipulation of medical samples, and hand-held diagnostic devices. With over 20 years of experience in AI and machine learning, Dr. Pilarski is the award-winning author or co-author of more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and has been supported by provincial, national, and international research grants.
In 2017, Dr. Pilarski was one of three Amii researchers who brought the first international research office of Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary DeepMind to Edmonton, Alberta. He served as the office’s co-lead and a Senior Staff Research Scientist until 2023. Dr. Pilarski currently serves as a director on the board of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii; 2017-present) one of three national not-for-profit institutes established as part of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Prior to its incorporation, he served on Amii’s management advisory board within the University of Alberta (2014-2016). He also serves as a director on the board of Silvacom Holdings Corp. Dr. Pilarski regularly delivers invited keynotes to boards, business organizations, policy makers, and the general public on the growing impact of artificial intelligence on medicine, industry, and society. He previously founded a startup company, actively engages in consulting and venture investment, has created multiple arts organizations, and has further governance experience in the arts sector on steering councils and advisory boards of regional and national creative arts organizations.
Research
For a detailed summary, please see: https://pilarski.github.io/#projects
- Rehabilitation Technology
- Prosthetics and Artificial Limbs
- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
- Reinforcement Learning
- Assistive Robotics
- Bionics and Biorobotics
- Internet of Body Things (IoBT)
Teaching
Recent Courses
- CMPUT 607, Applied Reinforcement Learning, Winter 2017
- CMPUT 609, Reinforcement Learning in Artificial Intelligence, Winter 2015
- CMPUT 496, Fall 2014
- CMPUT 605, Fall and Winter 2015, 2016
- REHAB 599, Fall 2014
Featured Publications
Evan Campbell, Fabio Egle, Marius OßWald, Ulysse Côté-Allard, Patrick M. Pilarski, Nicolò Boccardo, Roberto Meattini, Ivan Vujaklija, Levi Hargrove, Michele Canepa, Ethan Eddy, Alessandro Del Vecchio, Claudio Castellini, Erik Scheme
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 2025 January; 10.1109/TNSRE.2025.3602397
Heather E. Williams, Ahmed W. Shehata, Kodi Y. Cheng, Jacqueline S. Hebert, Patrick M. Pilarski
PLOS ONE. 2024 May; 10.1371/journal.pone.0291279
Heather E. Williams, Ahmed W. Shehata, Kodi Y. Cheng, Jacqueline S. Hebert, Patrick M. Pilarski
2024 February; 10.1101/2024.02.05.578477
Alex Kearney, Anna J Koop, Patrick M Pilarski
Adaptive Behavior. 2023 June; 10.1177/10597123221095880
A. Kalinowska, P. M. Pilarski, T. D. Murphey
Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems. 2023 January; 6 10.1146/annurev-control-070122-102501
NeurIPS HiLL Workshop. 2023 January;
Neural Computing and Applications. 2023 January; 10.1007/s00521-022-07948-1
Alexandra Kearney, Anna Koop, Johannes Günther, Patrick M Pilarski
Conference on Lifelong Learning Agents - arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.06485, 2022. 2022 August; n/a
H. E. Williams, J. Guenther, J. Hebert, P. M. Pilarski, A. W. Shehata
2022 IEEE 17th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), July 25-29, 2022, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 2022 July; n/a
P. Faridi, J. K. Mehr, D. Wilson, M. Sharifi, M. Tavakoli, P. M. Pilarski, V. K. Mushahwar
2022 IEEE 17th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), July 25-29, 2022, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 2022 July; n/a
Williams H., Shehata A.W., Dawson M., Scheme E., Hebert J., Pilarski P.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING. 2022 July; 69 (7):2243-2255 10.1109/TBME.2022.3140269
Aleksandra Kalinowska, Elnaz Davoodi, Kory W Mathewson, Todd Murphey, Patrick M Pilarski
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 2022 July; 44 n/a
Kearney A., Koop A.J., Pilarski P.M.
ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR. 2022 June; 10.1177/10597123221095880
Nathan J Wispinski, Andrew Butcher, Craig S Chapman, Matthew M Botvinick, Patrick M Pilarski
The 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM2022). 2022 June; n/a
A. Kalinowska, E. Davoodi, K. W. Mathewson, T. D. Murphey, P. M. Pilarski
The 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM2022), June 8-11, 2022, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. 2022 June; n/a
Trejos A.L., Atashzar S.F., DiMaio S.P., Pilarski P.M., Tavakoli M.
Frontiers in Robotics and AI. 2022 June; 9 10.3389/frobt.2022.886926
NM Ady, R Shariff, J Günther, PM Pilarski
The 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM2022) . 2022 June; n/a
Tavakoli, M., Atashzar, S. F., Trejos, A. L., DiMaio, S., Pilarski, P. M.
Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. . 2022 June; 10.3389/978-2-88976-473-0
D. J. A. Brenneis, A. S. Parker, M. B. Johanson, A. Butcher, E. Davoodi, L. Acker, M. M. Botvinick, J. Modayil, A. White, P. M. Pilarski
Adaptive and Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop at AAMAS 2022, 9-10 May 2022, Auckland, NZ. 2022 May; n/a
A. Butcher, M. B. Johanson, E. Davoodi, D. J. A. Brenneis, L. Acker, A. S. R. Parker, A. White, J. Modayil, P. M. Pilarski
Adaptive and Learning Agents (ALA) Workshop at AAMAS 2022, 9-10 May 2022, Auckland, NZ. 2022 May; n/a
K. W. Mathewson, P. M. Pilarski
ICLR 2022 Workshop on ML Evaluation Standards,. 2022 April; n/a
Scott A. Stone, Quinn A. Boser, T. Riley Dawson, Albert H. Vette, Jacqueline S. Hebert, Patrick M. Pilarski, Craig S. Chapman
bioRxiv. 2022 April; 10.1101/2021.10.22.465332
A. Kalinowska, E. Davoodi, F. Strub, K. Mathewson, T. Murphey, P. M. Pilarski
5th Workshop on Emergent Communication (EmeCom) at ICLR 2022. 2022 April; n/a
Pilarski, Patrick M. ; Butcher, Andrew ; Davoodi, Elnaz ; Johanson, Michael Bradley ; Brenneis, Dylan J. A. ; Parker, Adam S. R. ; Acker, Leslie ; Botvinick, Matthew M. ; Modayil, Joseph ; White, Adam
arXiv:2203.09498. 2022 March; n/a
Kearney A., Günther J., Pilarski P.M.
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. 2022 March; 5 10.3389/frai.2022.826724
J. L. Castellanos-Cruz, M. F. Gómez-Medina, M. Tavakoli, P. Pilarski, K. D. Adams
Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering. 2022 February; 10.1177/20556683221079694
A. K. Kearney, A. Koop, J. Günther, P. M. Pilarski
NeurIPS 2021 Workshop: Self-Supervised Learning - Theory and Practice, Dec. 14, 2021. 2021 December; n/a
Dammika P. Manage, Jana Lauzon, Linda M. Pilarski, Patrick M. Pilarski, Lynn M. McMullen
Micromachines. 2021 August; 12 (8):959 https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12080959
A. W. Shehata, H. E. Williams, J. S. Hebert, P. M. Pilarski
IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE. 2021 July; 38 (4):46-53 10.1109/MSP.2021.3075931
Scott A. Stone, Quinn A. Boser, T. Riley Dawson, Albert H. Vette, Jacqueline S. Hebert, Patrick M. Pilarski, Craig S. Chapman
ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA '21 Adjunct). 2021 May; https://doi.org/10.1145/3450341.3458880
Adam S. R. Parker, Patrick M. Pilarski
Workshop on Reinforcement Learning for Humans, Computer, and Interaction (RL4HCI), ACM CHI 2021. 2021 May; https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn
Heather E. Williams, Craig S. Chapman, Patrick M. Pilarski, Albert H. Vette, Jacqueline S. Hebert
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation. 2021 May; 18 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-021-00855-x
Jonathon S. Schofield, Marcus A. Battraw, Adam S.R. Parker, Patrick M. Pilarski, Jonathon W. Sensinger, Paul D. Marasco
Frontiers in Neurorobotics. 2021 April; 15 10.3389/fnbot.2021.661603
Johannes Günther, Elias Reichensdörfer, Patrick M. Pilarski, Klaus Diepold
PLoS One. 2020 December; 15 (12):e0243320 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243320
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