Dr Ira Ktena is a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, where she focuses on safe and reliable machine learning and the application of AI in science. Previously, she was a Senior Machine Learning Researcher at Twitter UK, where she worked with the Cortex Applied Research team on real-time personalisation and conducted research at the intersection of recommender systems and algorithmic transparency. Her work has been featured in The Economist and the BBC, among others.
Dr Ktena received her PhD in Medical Image Computing from Imperial College London, under the supervision of Professor Daniel Rueckert, as part of the High Performance Embedded and Distributed Systems (HiPEDS) Doctoral Training Programme, where she now serves on the Advisory Board. Her doctoral research focused on developing methods for modelling and analysing graph-structured neuroimaging data, using both traditional graph-theoretical techniques and geometric deep learning.
She visited the Stroke Group at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where she was supervised by Professor Natalia Rost and Dr Markus Schirmer, supported by an EMBO Short-Term Fellowship. Passionate about community outreach and increasing diversity in technology, she developed a six-week Data Science course for Code First Girls.