Named a “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Dr. Ackerman is a leading expert on artificial intelligence and computational creativity, with unique insight into the commercialization of cutting-edge research on human-AI creative collaboration. Her research has earned awards from the Association for Computational Creativity, U.S. Office of Naval Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, among other places. 

She is CEO/co-founder of WaveAI, an advanced musical AI startup. Its app, ALYSIA, allows everyone, everywhere to create original songs in minutes, through AI-powered assistance on the creation of original lyrics, melodies, and vocals.

Dr. Ackerman earned a bachelor's degree in math/computer science and combinatorics and optimization; a master's degree in math/computer science, and a Ph.D. in computer science, all from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. She had postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC San Diego, is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Computational Creativity, and has been invited to speak at venues including the United Nations, Google, IBM Research, and Stanford University.

Dr. Ackerman is also an opera singer and music producer