Shaina Raza, PhD
Responsible AI Leader

Applied Machine Learning Scientist at Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Toronto · Expert in LLMs, Multimodal AI, Fairness & Bias, Green AI, and AI Governance

🏆 Responsible AI Leader of the Year 2025 Top 2% Scientist — Stanford/Elsevier 2025 EU Horizon AIXPERT Partner (€515K) 2,889+ Citations ICML 2026 Spotlight
Dr. Shaina Raza

Shaina Raza, PhD

Applied ML Scientist · Responsible AI
Vector Institute, Toronto

2,889+
Citations
55+
Publications
30+
Keynotes
15+
Mentored

News & Updates

May 2026
Keynote Speaker — GREEN-AI Workshop @ ICML 2026 (Helmholtz AI)ICML 2026 Spotlight
Presenting "Sustainable Open-Source AI Requires Tracking the Cumulative Footprint of Derivatives" — introducing the Data and Impact Accounting (DIA) framework. Accepted as a Spotlight Position Paper at ICML 2026. Paper →
Jan 2026
Panelist — AAAI 2026 AI Governance Workshop (AIGOV), SingaporeTalk
AI Governance, Safety and Responsible AI panel alongside IBM Research, Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research, Kush Varshney, and Francesca Rossi. Workshop →
Jan 2026
Journal: VLDBench: Evaluating Multimodal Disinformation with Regulatory AlignmentIF 18.6
Information Fusion (2026) — Q1, IF 18.6. Project →
Jan 2026
Journal: TRiSM for Agentic AI: Trust, Risk and Security in LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems
AI Open (2026). DOI →
Jan 2026
Journal: Review-based Recommender Systems: Survey of Approaches, Challenges and Future Perspectives
ACM Computing Surveys (2026). DOI →
Oct 2025
NeurIPS 2025 — 6 AcceptancesNeurIPS
Education ×2, Workshops ×1, Posters ×3:
· From Data to CO₂: The Hidden Climate Cost of AI — Education Materials
· Prompting Away Stereotypes? Evaluating Bias in Text-to-Image Models — GenProCC Workshop
· Trust, Risk and Security in Agentic AI — LAW@NeurIPS
· Bias in the Picture: Benchmarking VLMs with Social-Cue News Images — Poster
· LinguaMark: Do Multimodal Models Speak Fairly? — Poster
· HumaniBench: Human-Centric Framework for Multimodal Models — Poster
Oct 2025
Co-organizer, AI Governance Workshop — policy, risk, and audit for trustworthy AI. Site →
Oct 2025
Keynote at IEEE SMC 2025 — Responsible AI and Multimodal FairnessKeynote
Oct 2025
Recognized among Top 2% Scientists Worldwide — Stanford / Elsevier 2025 Update.Top 2% Dataset →
Sep 2025
Appointed Editorial Member, Springer Discover Computing Journal. Journal →
Aug 2025
Paper accepted at EMNLP 2025 Findings: HumaniBench: Responsible Multimodal Benchmarks
Jul 2025
Jun 2025
🏆 Winner — Responsible AI Leader of the Year, Women in AI Summit & Awards 2025 (North America)Award
Jun 2025
AIXPERT (EU Horizon) launched — Vector Institute selected as 1 of 3 from 137 global applicants. Grant No. 101214389, €515K. CORDIS →
Apr 2025
Journal: Developing Safe and Responsible LLMsIF 7.5
Machine Learning, Springer (2025). Paper →
Mar 2025
Green AI Benchmark released: Benchmarking Energy Footprints of AI Models

Research Projects

🌐

AIXPERT — EU Horizon

Trustworthy AI for industry. Vector Institute selected as 1 of 3 from 137 global applicants. Grant No. 101214389, €515K.

aixpert-project.eu →
⚖️

FairSense-AI

Comprehensive toolkit for fairness, sustainability, and explainability in large-scale AI systems. Bias auditing, emissions reduction, responsible AI compliance.

FairSense-AI →
🔬

HumaniBench

Human-centric benchmark evaluating fairness, social bias, and empathy in large multimodal models. Multilingual and adversarial test cases.

arXiv:2505.11454 →
📊

VLDBench

Benchmark for evaluating vision-language models on multimodal disinformation detection with regulatory alignment. Published in Information Fusion (IF 18.6).

VLDBench →
♻️

Green AI & Sustainability

Energy footprint benchmarking of AI models, sustainable LLM training, and carbon reduction research. Spotlight at ICML 2026 (Helmholtz AI Workshop).

GreenBench →
🛡️

UnBias-Plus

Next-generation bias detection and debiasing toolkit powered by fine-tuned LLMs (Qwen3-4B). Detects biased language segments, classifies type and severity, suggests neutral rewrites, and returns a fully rewritten unbiased article — all in one structured output.

GitHub →
🤖

FairSense-AgentiX

Agentic fairness and AI-risk analysis platform using ReAct reasoning loops with dynamic tool selection and self-critique. Multi-modal bias detection across text, images, and datasets. Production-ready FastAPI + WebSocket streaming + React UI. Funded by EU Horizon AIXPERT.

GitHub →
💉

Model Immunization

Techniques for immunizing LLMs against falsehoods and harmful content, improving robustness and factuality. Accepted at IEEE WCCI/IJCNN 2026.

arXiv:2505.17870 →
🏥

Equity in Public Health AI

Embedding fairness and equitable decision-making in AI systems for public health surveillance. CIHR HSI Fellowship ($175K) + AI4PH Award ($20K/yr).

CIHR Fellowship →

Selected Publications

Showing recent high-impact work. View all on Google Scholar →

VLDBench: Evaluating Multimodal Disinformation with Regulatory Alignment
Raza, S. et al. · Information Fusion (2026)IF 18.6 · Q1 · DOI →
TRiSM for Agentic AI: Trust, Risk and Security in LLM-based Agentic Multi-Agent Systems
Raza, S. et al. · AI Open (2026) · DOI →
Review-based Recommender Systems: A Survey of Approaches, Challenges and Future Perspectives
Hasan, E., Rahman, M., Ding, C., Huang, J., Raza, S. · ACM Computing Surveys (2026) · DOI →
A Comprehensive Review of Recommender Systems: Transitioning from Theory to Practice
Raza, S. et al. · Computer Science Review (2026) · DOI →
Sustainable Open-Source AI Requires Tracking the Cumulative Footprint of Derivatives
Raza, S. et al. · ICML 2026 (Spotlight Position Paper) · arXiv →
Developing Safe and Responsible Large Language Models
Raza, S. et al. · Machine Learning, Springer (2025)IF 7.5 · Q1 · Paper →
HumaniBench: A Human-Centric Framework for Large Multimodal Models Evaluation
Raza, S. et al. · EMNLP Findings (2025) · arXiv →
RESPECT: A Framework for Promoting Inclusive and Respectful Conversations in Online Communications
Raza, S. et al. · Natural Language Processing Journal (2025) · DOI →
MBIAS: Mitigating Bias in Large Language Models While Retaining Context
Raza, S., Raval, A., Chatrath, V. · ACL 2024, WASSA Workshop · arXiv →
NBIAS: A Natural Language Processing Framework for Bias Identification in Text
Raza, S. et al. · Expert Systems with Applications (2023)IF 8.5 · Q1
Fake News Detection Based on News Content and Social Contexts: A Transformer-Based Approach
Raza, S. & Ding, C. · Int. J. Data Science & Analytics (2022)IF 2.4 · 200+ citations
Progress in Context-Aware Recommender Systems — An Overview
Raza, S. & Ding, C. · Computer Science Review (2019)IF 13.3 · Q1

Invited Talks & Keynotes

ICML 2026
GREEN-AI Workshop · Helmholtz AI · Spotlight
"Sustainable Open-Source AI Requires Tracking the Cumulative Footprint of Derivatives" · Data & Impact Accounting (DIA) framework · Spotlight Position Paper
AAAI 2026
AI Governance Workshop · Singapore · Jan 2026
Panelist — AI Governance, Safety and Responsible AI · alongside IBM Research, Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research
IEEE SMC 2025
Keynote · Oct 2025
Responsible AI and Multimodal Fairness
NeurIPS 2025
AI Governance Workshop · Co-organizer
Co-organizer & Presenter — Policy, Risk, and Audit for Trustworthy AI
ResearchTrend.AI
Jun 2025
"HumaniBench: A Human-Centric Framework for Large Multimodal Models Evaluation"
Cohere, USA
Jul 2024
"Mitigating Biases in Text & LLMs — Challenges and Strategies"
Conestoga College
AI Symposium · Nov 2024
"AI and Data Privacy and Ethics"
ECIR 2024
Scotland · Mar 2024
"Dissecting News Narratives and Misinformation"
York University
Lassonde School · Mar 2024
"Enhancing Fairness in Large Language Models"
Rogers Catalyst
TMU · Jan 2024
"Cybersecurity and AI — Who Loses? The Case for More Inclusive Engagement"
AAAI 2023
Human-Medical AI Symposium · Aug 2023
"Fairness in Machine Learning Meets with Equity in Healthcare"
ICA 2023
Keynote · Jun 2023
"Accuracy Meets Diversity in a News Recommender System" · Keynote Address
Rice University
BRC Dept · Apr 2023
"Connecting Fairness in Machine Learning with Public Health Equity"

Professional Service

Program Committees

  • NeurIPS — Main Track + RegML, LAW, SoLaR, GenProCC, Position Paper Workshops
  • AAAI · ACL · ICLR · ICML · KDD
  • IJCAI · CIKM · ECCV · IEEE Big Data
  • AI Governance Workshop @ NeurIPS 2025 — Co-organizer
  • AAAI Workshop on Responsible LMs (ReLM 2024) — Co-lead

Editorial Roles

  • Springer Discover Computing — Editorial Member (2025–present)
  • Elsevier CS Portfolio — Transfer Manager & Scientific Editor (2021–present)
  • IEEE Transactions on AI — Review Editor (2023–present)
  • Frontiers in Big Data — Review Editor (2022–present)

Journal Reviewing

  • Nature · Nature Machine Intelligence
  • Lancet Digital Health · Science Robotics
  • JAMA Network Open · JAMIA
  • BMC Public Health · PLOS ONE
  • IEEE Trans. Knowledge & Data Engineering
  • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Grant Review Committees

  • CIHR Doctoral Research Awards — Peer Review Committee Member
  • National Killam Program — Peer Reviewer

Awards & Recognition

🏆
Responsible AI Leader of the YearWomen in AI Summit 2025 (North America)
🔬
Top 2% Scientists WorldwideStanford / Elsevier 2025 Update
🎖️
ICML 2026 Spotlight Position PaperGREEN-AI Workshop, Helmholtz AI
🎓
Governor General Gold Medal NomineeToronto Metropolitan University, 2021

Grants & Fellowships

EU Horizon AIXPERT€515K
Co-Applicant · Grant No. 101214389 · 2025–present
CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship$175K
2021–2023
CIHR-IPPH Postdoctoral Research Fellowship$85K/yr
2021–2023
CIHR Post-COVID Disparity Analysis$100K
Co-Applicant · 2023–2024
AI4PH Postdoctoral Award$20K/yr
CIHR IRSC · 2022–2023
Ontario Graduate Scholarship$15K/yr
Twice awarded · 2019–2021
NSERC Research Stipend$11K/yr
4 years · 2016–2020

Technical Expertise

LLMs & Vision-Language Models
Responsible AI & Fairness
Green AI & Sustainability
AI Governance & Policy
Multimodal AI Benchmarking
NLP & Text Bias Detection
Health Informatics & Equity
PyTorch · HuggingFace · AWS · MLflow