Jekaterina Novikova

Natural Language Processing (NLP) • Large Language Models (LLM) • Trustworthy AI (TrustAI) • Machine Learning for Healthcare (ML for Health) • Evaluation and Metrics (Eval) • Conversational AI (ConvAI) • Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

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I am a Principal AI Scientist at Vanguard, specializing in artificial intelligence research with a focus on computational models of natural language processing. My work includes AI-powered natural language generation, machine learning applications for detecting cognitive impairment and mental health issues, and advancing human-robot interaction through AI systems.

With a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bath, UK, I bring over a decade of experience in artificial intelligence research across industry, academia, and non-profit organizations. My machine learning solutions have created practical impact, from developing healthcare tools for clinical trials and senior care applications to programming a humanoid robot that engages customers in shopping environments using advanced natural language processing techniques.

As an advocate for open-source artificial intelligence, I have contributed to major AI projects including BLOOM LLM and BIG-Bench, working toward more reliable and accessible AI technologies. My work in machine learning research focuses on ensuring ethical AI development and has established me as a respected voice in the field.

My research has been recognised by the artificial intelligence and natural language processing community, with awards including being named among the Top 50 Most Extraordinary Women Advancing AI in 2024, the Top 25 Women in AI in Canada in 2022, and receiving the “Industry Icon Award” from the University of Toronto in 2021.

I was fortunate to work with brilliant researchers in the field. I have worked, among many others, with Joana Bryson (now at Hertie School in Berlin, Germany), with Verena Rieser (now at Google DeepMind), with Oliver Lemon at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, and with Frank Rudzicz (now at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada).

News

Sep 2025 I began serving as Chair of the Toronto ACM-W Professional Chapter
Aug 2025 I co-organized the First Workshop on LLM Security LLMSEC, held at ACL 2025
Apr 2025 I co-organized the HEAL Workshop on Human-centered Evaluation and Auditing of Language Models, which returned at CHI 2025
Mar 2025 I launched a new podcast, Women in AI Research WiAIR
Feb 2024 My team organized the ML4CMH2024 Workshop on Machine Learning for Cognitive and Mental Health at AAAI 2024

Select publications

  1. LLM
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    INCLUDE: Evaluating Multilingual Language Understanding with Regional Knowledge
    Angelika Romanou, Negar Foroutan, Anna Sotnikova, and 54 more authors
    In The Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations, 2024
  2. LLM
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    BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model
    BigScience Workshop, :, Teven Le Scao, and 391 more authors
    2023
  3. Eval
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    Why We Need New Evaluation Metrics for NLG
    Jekaterina Novikova, Ondřej Dušek, Amanda Cercas Curry, and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, Sep 2017