Dr. Aya Soffer

Dr. Aya Soffer is Vice President of AI Technologies and the Director of the IBM Research Lab in Israel. In her 26 years at IBM, Dr. Soffer has led several initiatives that grew into successful IBM products and solutions in the Big Data and AI space, including the original Watson system and Project Debater. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers, filed over 15 patents, and served as an invited speaker at many conferences. As a Vice President in IBM Research, Dr. Soffer works on shaping IBM Research strategy and execution, focusing on innovation that matters. From a technical perspective, she is currently looking at what it takes to provide safe, secure, and cost-effective AI solutions that enterprises can deploy and see tangible ROI.