Dr. Colin Bellinger

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Biography

Colin Bellinger is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research lies at the intersection of reinforcement learning (RL), robotics, and artificial intelligence with a particular focus on sample-efficient, generalizable RL algorithms for real-world systems that learn from limited data. Dr. Bellinger earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa in 2016 and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) and Dalhousie University. From 2018 to 2025, he served as a Staff Scientist at the National Research Council Canada, where he led fundamental research into reinforcement learning, imbalance, and learning from limited data, particularly in applications related to health and medicine, as well as AI, science, and robotics. He has authored over 75 publications in top venues including NeurIPS, IEEE ICDM, IEEE ICDE, and leading journals such as Environment International and Expert Systems Applications. Dr. Bellinger has also co-organized workshops at ICLR and KDD and served as Co-Program Chair for the Graduate Students’ AI Symposium, actively reviewing for premier machine learning conferences and journals.

Research Interests

Experience

Associate Professor

2025-09-01 — Present

University of Ottawa • Ottawa, ON, Canada

Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Staff Scientist

2018-01-01 — 2025-08-31

National Research Council Canada • Ottawa, ON, Canada

Led fundamental research in reinforcement learning, including applications in health and medicine.

Requirements for University of Ottawa

Master Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3
IELTS
Listening
Required:6
Reading
Required:6
Writing
Required:6.5
Speaking
Required:6
Overall
Required:6.5
TOEFL
Listening
Required:20
Reading
Required:20
Writing
Required:22
Speaking
Required:22
Total
Required:86
Prerequisites
Honours BA in History or equivalent
Application Checklist
  • Official Transcripts
  • Two letters of recommendation
  • Resume
  • Statement of Interest
Specialization Notes

Department of History