Vu Ha
About Vu Ha
Vu Ha is the Technical Director at AI2 Incubator, with a background in AI research and development, and a history of leadership roles at Microsoft and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Current Role at AI2 Incubator
Vu Ha has served as the Technical Director at AI2 Incubator since 2017 in Seattle, Washington. In his role, he advises startups on leveraging artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems. Vu provides technical expertise and supports entrepreneurs in building AI-first companies. His work at AI2 Incubator highlights his commitment to fostering innovation and guiding new ventures in the artificial intelligence space.
Experience at Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
Vu Ha held several significant positions at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). From 2016 to 2017, he was a Research Lead, and prior to that, he co-founded and led the development of Semantic Scholar from 2014 to 2016. SemanticScholar.org, developed under his leadership, became a notable platform for academic literature, demonstrating his ability to oversee large-scale AI projects. His contributions at AI2 included working on the Aristo grand challenge and exploring chatbot and AI dialog systems.
Previous Roles at Microsoft
Vu Ha accumulated extensive experience at Microsoft, where he held multiple leadership roles between 2006 and 2014. As Principal Development Lead for Bing, he contributed to enhancing search capabilities from 2012 to 2014. Before that, he served as Principal Development Lead for Targeting and Audience Intelligence from 2010 to 2012, and as Applied Research Lead at Microsoft AdCenter Labs from 2006 to 2010, focusing on online advertising and audience targeting.
Academic Background in Computer Science and AI
Vu Ha holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied from 1995 to 2001. He earned his M.S. in Computer Science from Eötvös Loránd University from 1991 to 1995, and his B.S. in Computer Science from Debreceni Egyetem from 1988 to 1991. His comprehensive academic background laid a strong foundation for his contributions to the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence.
Technical Contributions and Areas of Expertise
Vu Ha's engineering and applied research expertise spans information search, discovery, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and deep learning. He has applied his skills to various domains, including web search, online advertising, academic literature, conversational AI, and real-time object detection in videos. Vu's dedication to advancing AI technologies is also reflected in his blog posts, where he discusses topics such as generative voiceover and AI development challenges.