Amy Loutfi new programme director of WASP

12 November 2024

Anders Törneholm

Professor Amy Loutfi will take over as programme director for the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP). She succeeds Professor Anders Ynnerman from Linköping University, who will take on the role of chairman of the board for WASP.

Portrait (Amy Loutfi) — Amy Loutfi will take over as programme director of WASP. She has been active within WASP for years, most recently as the Co-director of Recruitment. Photographer: Jesper Eriksson/Örebro universitet

Amy Loutfi will divide her time between a professorship at Linköping University and her role as programme director for WASP, as well as her current position at Örebro University, where she is a professor of computer science and Pro Vice-Chancellor for AI.

“I am enthusiastic and ready for the task to step into the role of programme director for WASP, the largest research initiative in Sweden. This programme is a transformative opportunity to drive meaningful progress in AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software through research excellence and by bridging knowledge, innovation, and impact on a scale,” says Amy Loutfi.

New chairman of the board

The current programme director, Anders Ynnerman, professor of scientific visualization at Linköping University, will instead take on the role of chairman of the board for WASP at the turn of the year.

“It has been a true pleasure to lead WASP during five eventful years. A growing graduate school, numerous recruitments of researchers to Sweden, investment in strong research constellations and collaboration with other research programmes are a few of our achievements. WASP is now an important player in the development of AI in Sweden, and catalyses collaboration between academia, industry, and society,” says Anders Ynnerman.

WASP is research initiative launched in 2015 and will continue at least until 2031. Funding in total 6,5 billion SEK, whereof 5,1 billion SEK is donated by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the rest is co-funding from partner universities and Swedish industry.

The programme has five partner universities: Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Umeå University and Linköping University as its host. In addition, there are affiliated research groups at Örebro University, Uppsala University and Luleå University of Technology.

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