Oded Cohn is a Vice President at IBM, serving as the Director of IBM Research – Haifa. The Haifa lab plays a leadership role in IBM’s Research division, contributing transformative technologies for Artificial Intelligence, cloud, security, blockchain and Quantum computing is a major industry on which the lab is focused, in particular, leveraging AI in medical imaging and evidence based medicine. Under Oded’s leadership the lab took upon itself the grand challenge of Project Debater – the first AI system that can debate humans on complex topics. Debater has received broad media coverage and recognition, including the 2019 Edison social innovation award for Artificial Intelligence.
Oded is also a member of the IBM Research Senior Leadership Team and IBM’s Technology Leadership Team. Before becoming Director, Oded led research and development in a variety of areas, including: data & storage, network design, distributed computing, healthcare, and services automation. He also served as a lecturer in the Computer Science department at the University of Haifa. Oded sits on several academic industry advisory boards. Through his activity in the Israeli forums, he is well connected to Israel’s technology eco-system, which embraces the high-tech multinational R&D; sites as well as the vibrant local startup community. Oded received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science from the Technion –Israel Institute of Technology. He is the author of over a dozen US patents and has been awarded IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement and Outstanding Invention Awards. Oded feels passionate about “Innovation that Matters”, often giving talks and participating in panels on this captivating topic.