Team

Dr. Shane Saunderson is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems with the Degroote School of Business at McMaster University and the Director of the Research on Artificial Persons (RAP) Lab. He holds Associate Memberships at McMaster with the Department of Computing and Software, Biomedical Engineering, and the School of Computational Science and Engineering. Shane also lectures with the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Center at York University and advises several technology startups and non-profit organizations. Shane received a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from McGill University, a MBA in technology and innovation from the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, and a PhD in robotics with a specialization in psychology from the University of Toronto. He is a former Vanier scholar and Junior Fellow with Massey College. Shane’s research focuses on the social and organizational implications of humanlike technologies, such as robotics and AI, with particular interest in topics such as trust, persuasion, and anthropomorphism.

Previously, Shane has spent time in industry running his own startups and consulting for Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft Canada, Ford, Lululemon, Samsung, Eli Lilly, and many more. He was the VP of Technology with Idea Couture, a strategy & innovation consultancy; chaired the Microsoft Canada Artificial Intelligence Partner Advisory Board (aiPAB); and co-founded Babbly, an AI-powered infant tech start-up. He founded and operates Artificial Futures, a digital strategy and user experience firm for the age of automation.

Chinonso is a doctoral student researching how technology design shapes human behavior and organizational systems. His scholarly work includes a Best Paper Award-nominated study at ICIS 2025 on quantum computing and a co-authored paper on compassionate health IT design at CHITA 2026. He holds a doctoral-level Design Science certification from VHB ProDok. Before academia, he built a strong technical foundation through industry certifications including MCSA, CompTIA A+, CCNA, MCTS, and MCP, before becoming a leading Web3 educator at Developer DAO, winning the Epic Hashnode Writeathon, and founding Decentrapress.com, one of Africa’s first Web3 education platforms. He later founded BusinessLeaders.ai to help executives make practical sense of AI. His research streams span design science, compassionate AI, and AI innovation dynamics — including the application of econometric methods to study how AI technologies emerge and diffuse across industries and ecosystems.

Narmeen is a BHSc. student and a Research Assistant in the RAP Lab. She is currently supporting the “Leadership and Team Formation with Artificial Persons” project, having conducted a literature review on AI and robotic systems in leadership roles, team dynamics, and trust in human-AI collaboration. Narmeen is especially interested in how AI challenges traditional ideas of leadership and social connection, and how human-machine interactions might reshape the dynamics of influence and collaboration.

Hamza is a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) student at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, and a member of the RAP Lab. He is a recipient of The Hawkrigg Family Scholarship in Business and The Robert Alan Kennedy Scholarship.