Governable systems
HTA researches the controls, audit practices, and institutional processes required for public servants and communities to understand, evaluate, and direct advanced technology.
Research for technology in service of humanity
Human Technology Alliance
HTA is a neutral public-benefit research organization working across AI, compute, data systems, cybersecurity, education, and strategic sectors so people and institutions can govern, build, learn, care, and create with dignity, accountability, and public purpose.
Public-benefit research institute
Human dignity, democratic capacity, and strategic resilience.
Research mandate
Advanced technology must expand human capability, preserve dignity, and strengthen democracy.
HTA conducts public-benefit research on AI governance, education, secure compute, data rights, cybersecurity, and strategic applications. We translate research into practical frameworks, curricula, evaluation methods, and institutional capacity.
Our work supports scientific progress, Indigenous rights and knowledge sovereignty, informed public participation, broad-based economic opportunity, and strategic resilience in Canada and internationally.
Institute purpose
Research, access, and governance for public capacity
Access that builds capability
The institute designs access models for researchers, founders, public institutions, and strategic sectors so compute, data, and expertise strengthen shared capacity, fair competition, and Canadian economic advancement.
Research connected to life
Programs connect governance and technical research to food security, defence, public safety, biosecurity, sustainability, education, public administration, energy, democracy, culture, and scientific discovery.
Institute workstreams
Research programs for human-centered technology
Governance for human dignity and democracy
Research on accountability, transparency, access to information, lawful implementation, public-sector obligations, and institutional responsibility for AI and other advanced technologies, including democratic institutions, news media, and public trust.
Compute, infrastructure, and access
Research on compute access, AI data-centre policy, cloud interoperability, sustainable infrastructure, institutional procurement, public-interest access models, resilience, and platform operations.
Data rights, privacy, and cybersecurity
Frameworks for Indigenous rights, Indigenous data sovereignty, community governance, consent, data residency, sensitive and public-sector data handling, audit logs, provenance, privacy, cybersecurity, access controls, and lawful data-sharing.
Model evaluation, auditability, and interoperability
Evaluation methods for traceability, auditability, interoperability, faithful reasoning and decision records, public-sector explainability, procurement standards, and model-agnostic governance tooling.
Strategic sectors and public benefit
Applied research programs across agriculture, defence, public safety, critical minerals, energy, health, biosecurity, public administration, cybersecurity, privacy, education, economic advancement, sustainability, competition, democracy, news media, arts and culture, multilingual access, French-language capacity, and research access.
Education, translation, and ecosystem capacity
Training, working groups, public-interest explainers, founder support, research translation, and practical materials that help public servants, researchers, companies, artists, journalists, communities, and the public use advanced technology well.
Applied programs
Strategic sectors and public-benefit domains
HTA connects governance research to the places where technology affects the conditions of life: food, health, safety, energy, materials, science, democracy, culture, economic participation, and public administration.
Agriculture and food security
Defence and public safety
Critical minerals and materials
Energy and nuclear-enabled compute
Health and biosecurity
Public administration
Education and research access
Cybersecurity and privacy
Economic advancement and competition
Sustainability and climate-aligned infrastructure
Indigenous rights and data sovereignty
Democracy and civic institutions
News media and information integrity
Arts, culture, and creative practice
Multilingual and French-language access
Research methodology
From human purpose to governed deployment
Each program begins with the people and institutions affected by the technology, then develops evidence, rights-protecting controls, access pathways, education, and evaluation practices that make responsible adoption practical across public, research, civic, cultural, and economic contexts.
Human dignity
Public capacity
Democratic accountability
Open inquiry
Strategic resilience
Economic advancement
People
Directors and Researchers
Sarah Hatcher
Founder and AI/ML Researcher
Sarah founded HTA and Kripke AI. Sarah has a background in logic, mathematics, privacy law, cybersecurity, and computer science, including as a SME for ISC2. Her AI governance work focuses on cybersecurity, privacy, auditability, interoperability, access to information, model governance, the preservation of human dignity, and the empowerment of the public and public servants through responsible AI education, research, and deployment.
Matthew Kalkman
Legal, regulatory, and interdisciplinary research
Matthew is a lawyer, author, and interdisciplinary scholar with two PhDs spanning history, philosophy, social science, religion, and semiotics, an LLB, and an MSc in Regulation from the London School of Economics. He has practised law in British Columbia and worked in strategy and business development for legal technology. His current research includes forthcoming co-authored work with Professor Terrence Deacon of UC Berkeley.
Roman Zupancic
Post-secondary technology and research support
Roman is a University of Toronto computer science alumnus who works at the University of Toronto in Information Technology Services, with experience supporting networking, data centres, cybersecurity, research computing, post-secondary technology environments, and institutional coordination.
Camilo Sierra
Applied research and technical sales architecture
Camilo is a Canadian-certified inventor and PhD candidate researching AI safety. He brings applied computer science and technical architecture experience spanning SQL, AWS, IBM Watson Cloud, Google Cloud, proof-of-concept deployments, and global technical sales cycles. His work was selected for the Shenzhen Innovation Competition, where he represented Canadian innovation in an international showcase organized in partnership with the City of Toronto and Shenzhen. He has also participated in Canadian commercialization programs through the DMZ at Toronto Metropolitan University and MaRS Discovery District, connecting AI safety research, cloud infrastructure, commercialization, and applied innovation ecosystems.
Partners and advisors
Partners and Advisors
Kripke AI
AI governance, privacy, cybersecurity, and auditability partner
Kripke AI develops foundation models and governance technology, including the Universe Model research program, with applications including in natural sciences, law, and defence. Kripke’s work advancing the natural sciences is reflected in its role as AI advisor and use-case partner to an established Bay Area natural-sciences lab for its application to the Genesis Mission. Kripke’s natural-sciences division has spoken at AGI House on automated research in the natural sciences, and its legal software work was a finalist at the Stanford CodeX LLM x Law Hackathon. Kripke contributes model-agnostic tooling for auditability, traceability, interoperability, privacy-aware workflows, and public-sector evaluation.
Connection Silicon Valley
Founder ecosystem and commercialization partner
Connection Silicon Valley brings more than a decade of work at the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, commercialization, and global market access. Led by Joanne Fedeyko, it has supported more than 600 Canadian founders across technology, AI, life sciences, and emerging sectors through founder immersion programs, commercialization support, cross-border market access, strategic introductions, ecosystem convenings, expert and investor engagement, talent-retention strategy, and Silicon Valley connectivity for Canadian companies and researchers.
Kaius
Human data infrastructure and Canadian founder ecosystem partner
Kaius is building human data infrastructure for advanced AI systems, focused on high-quality, real-world human data for AI labs, robotics companies, enterprises, and builders developing more capable, adaptive, and globally representative models. Kaius was founded by Nadia Genevieve Masri, a Toronto-born Canadian entrepreneur, five-time founder, and inventor with patents in bot prevention and mobile data-collection user experience.
Nadia brings HTA experience in company building, Canadian founder support, multimodal data, human intelligence, user experience, machine-learning infrastructure, and commercialization. Her C100 affiliation and Canadian ecosystem relationships add founder and community access relevant to HTA’s broader research and ecosystem work. Her work strengthens the institute’s focus on human-centered AI, responsible deployment, public-benefit technology, and the data systems needed for AI that reflects real-world human context across sectors and communities. She has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, CNBC’s Top 100 Startups, and Flybridge’s Top 100 Women in AI.
ShadowStack
University of Waterloo-connected research compute partner
ShadowStack is a Waterloo, Ontario technical partner whose team includes mathematics researchers and published academics conducting research at the University of Waterloo, with involvement in university governance and familiarity with academic research obligations, intellectual-property considerations, protection of research, teaching, and learning at Canadian post-secondary institutions, successful commercialization of technology, and the diversity of AI use cases. ShadowStack operates as a fractional CTO and technical staffing partner across high-performance computing, statistics, optimization, cybersecurity, technical diligence, staffing, and researcher-facing implementation.
Damien Kettud
Sovereign AI, AI infrastructure, life sciences, and Asia-Pacific advisor
Damien is a Stanford graduate and co-founder of Revelis Bio, a Stanford AI-for-drug-discovery and genomics spin-off with exit experience. He is a GP advisor with MirAI Venture Funds at Whiz Partners, a Japan-linked investment group founded by Japanese industry leaders with approximately $900M AUM and focused on AI infrastructure and life sciences. He has advised UCSF startups, served on the Wedu board, led AI investment and product strategy work at Mastercard, worked in venture impact investing at Omidyar Network, held private-equity roles at Aureos Capital / Abraaj, supported Asia Fund growth and healthcare exits, advised EDBI on biotech-hub development in Singapore, and built international networks across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, including connections to Mila and the Vector Institute.
Julius Ritter
Strategic Advisor, International Ecosystem & Capital Development
Julius is a German founder, investor, and ecosystem builder based in San Francisco. He supports HTA with sovereign-AI alignment, international strategic development, foreign-investment relationships, capital formation, and partnerships connecting Canada, Germany, and the wider technology ecosystem. His work spans founder and investor communities, frontier technology, talent development, and cross-border company building.
Julius helps lead growth at the Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute and supports the AGI House community in San Francisco. He previously founded AI Entrepreneurs at Berkeley and studied business, data science, and machine learning at the University of California, Berkeley, where his work included machine-learning research in the Department of Statistics. His experience connecting founders, researchers, investors, and international partners supports HTA’s work in allied sovereign-AI ecosystems, strategic capital, and the development of durable pathways between research and deployment.
Brigitte LoCicero
Grant writing, partnerships, market development, and data-centre ecosystem advisor
Brigitte supports HTA with grant writing, strategic partnerships, market development, commercial strategy, M&A, business development, public/private funding strategy, and Canadian data-centre ecosystem development. She brings experience advising early-stage companies, building business models and go-to-market strategies, supporting fundraising initiatives, and participating in ecosystem work connected to data-centre build-out pathways in small towns in Canada.
Michael Chase
Financial modelling, AI infrastructure, and deep tech investing
Michael Chase supports HTA with financial modelling, cost-scenario framing, supply-chain robustness, utilization planning, and technology-project assumptions for advanced infrastructure. He is an impact investor, public activist, and hedge fund principal focused on AI infrastructure and deep tech, and serves as Principal at Zero To One LP, a crossover fund investing in frontier technology. His background includes research experience at NASA and RMS, advisory work with Endiatx and Stillcore Capital, AI research and investing at Outliers Fund, work with frontier ventures including Vast Space, Astroforge, and Paradromics, secondary-market angel investing in SpaceX, and experience underwriting and negotiating 5+ cross-border transactions in high-level defence-oriented contexts.
Michael Kocourek
Strategic Advisor, Technology Infrastructure & Supply Chain Development
Michael Kocourek is a mechanical engineer and strategic advisor with more than 28 years of experience supporting the development, procurement, and deployment of advanced technology infrastructure throughout Canada. He has worked with hospitals, universities, government agencies, data centers, telecommunications providers, and private-sector organizations, developing a broad network across technology, infrastructure, and construction ecosystems.
His expertise spans the full lifecycle of large-scale digital infrastructure projects, including strategic planning, supply-chain development, technology sourcing, procurement optimization, preferred pricing and sourcing pathways, data-center infrastructure, power systems, networking, storage, server platforms, software solutions, systems integration, operational readiness, and scalable deployment. He maintains established relationships with manufacturers, distributors, integrators, infrastructure providers, engineers, construction professionals, technology architects, and operational experts, supporting access to current technologies, best-in-class resources, efficient procurement pathways, competitive sourcing, and practical guidance from concept through deployment and ongoing operations.
Kourosh Esfandiari
Artist-in-Residence and Ecosystem Advisor
Kourosh brings more than 14 years of professional artistic practice alongside arts and culture advisory, international ecosystem scouting, venture sourcing, market access, strategic introductions, and business-development work across AI, software, advanced materials, infrastructure, energy, and defence-adjacent industrial networks.