Project Team

The AI-Learn Open Source Project is led by Alfred Essa, Kinshuk, Shahin Mojarad, and Kathleen Hertenstein.

Alfred Essa

Alfred Essa is Founder and CEO of Drury Lane Media, LLC, an AI startup which is currently in stealth mode. Essa is the recent author of Practical AI for Business Leaders, Product Managers, and Entrepreneurs, published by DeGruyter (April 2022). He is organizer and lead instructor for Python for Absolute Beginners, Data Science for Absolute Beginners, and Machine Learning for Absolute Beginner’s Meetups. His most recent research publications have focused on theoretical models and computer simulations of learning, adaptive learning systems design, and closing the achievement gap in education with educational technology.

Kinshuk

Dr. Kinshuk is the Dean of the College of Information at the University of North Texas. Prior to that, he held the NSERC/CNRL/Xerox/McGraw Hill Research Chair for Adaptivity and Personalization in Informatics. His work is dedicated to advancing research on the innovative paradigms, architectures and implementations of online and distance learning systems for individualized and adaptive learning in increasingly global environments. He is Founding Chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technologies, Founding Editor of the Educational Technology & Society Journal, and one of the Founding Editors of Springer’s open access Smart Learning Environments journal.

Shahin Mojarad

Shahin Mojarad is a Director of Digital Transformation and Innovation at CIBC where he leads end-to-end process of data analytics and modeling including scoping analytics, identifying required data extract and developing machine learning models. Previously he was a consultant at McGraw-Hill where he worked with the R&D team on developing advanced data visualizations and machine learning algorithms.

Kathleen Hertenstein

Kathleen Hertenstein is CEO of a small consulting firm based in St. Paul, MN. For the past 15 years Kathleen has focused her work in state government and university settings providing expertise in program and project management, process improvement, strategic planning, operations streamlining, employee training and succession planning. The last five years Kathleen has worked with the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development in the Unemployment Insurance and Workforce Development/Career Force divisions. This experience highlighted the struggles of unemployed citizens to find affordable and focused training to land their next job and for state staff to figure out what training is most needed and how to deliver that training across the state.