2026 Women in Engineering and Geoscience Champion Award Recipient

As a professional engineer and assistant professor at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, Dr. Mariana Bento’s healthcare research addresses the historical exclusion of women, racialized populations, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities from medical data and diagnostic tools.

Dr. Bento’s research improves diagnostic accuracy by addressing a fundamental limitation in many AI-based medical systems: models trained on narrow datasets often perform poorly when applied across diverse populations. Using data science and advanced brain-imaging methods, she develops AI systems that account for real-world variability in age, sex, anatomy, and scanning platforms. Her models evaluate bias and apply rigorous ethical safeguards to human data, and they are designed for low-cost, broad deployment, supporting reliable diagnoses across different clinical settings.

She co-created the international Calgary-Campinas Public Brain MRI Dataset, now the most accessed dataset on the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform and used globally by researchers and clinicians for brain age prediction, lesion segmentation, and fairness benchmarking in artificial intelligence.

Dr. Bento’s mentorship is as impactful as her research, starting with the inclusive language she uses in job postings. She promotes opportunities through platforms for disadvantaged groups, and she works with university accessibility offices to secure appropriate supports for trainees. She further strengthened this work in 2022 through participation in the WISE Planet Program, a year-long initiative focused on developing leaders equipped to address systemic inequities in engineering. Since 2021, Dr. Bento has served as a Women in Data Science Ambassador, organizing events and initiatives that promote the participation and recognition of women in data science at the University of Calgary and within the broader academic and professional community.

“I see my role as a mentor, supervisor, and engineer as enabling trainee success by tailoring experiences to their goals and motivations,” says Dr. Bento. “By welcoming diversity, we advance the development of responsible AI for healthcare applications.”

By integrating inclusive design into healthcare AI and investing in the development of future engineers, Dr. Bento advances both equitable medical innovation and a profession better equipped to serve a diverse public. Her leadership demonstrates how engineering excellence, guided by responsibility and inclusion, can shape systems that improve health outcomes for all.

Notable Achievements and Recognition

• Chair, Women in Data Science Worldwide Conference (2025, 2024, 2022)
• Recipient, Schulich Momentum Award, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary (2024)
• Recipient, Undergraduate Training Award, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary (2024)
• Ambassador, Women in Data Science (2023–present)
• Member, APEGA (2023–present)
• Member, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (2022–present)
• Member, Hotchkiss Brain Institute (2021–present)
• Chair, 17th International Symposium on Medical Information Processing and Analysis, University of Campinas (2021)