Jason Bernard, PhD (CS), BA (Music)

Dr. Jason Bernard is an Assistant Professor at Athabasca University with a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan. Before entering academia, he served as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and previously worked as a software developer, where he helped pioneer industrial applications of artificial intelligence. His varied professional background brings a practical, interdisciplinary perspective to both research and teaching.

Dr. Bernard believes in fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive research environment. He mentors students as emerging colleagues, helping them build not only technical expertise but also academic independence and professional confidence. Graduate students working with him can expect a balance of intellectual freedom and structured guidance, with opportunities to engage in research that bridges theory and application.

My primary research interests lie at the intersection of theory and application, with a focus on applied and theoretical grammars, grammatical inference algorithms, and optimization algorithms. I am particularly interested in how formal language theory can be used to build interpretable system models based on a system’s own data. In addition to core theoretical work, I have a strong interest in educational technology.

My current research explores the use of language models, and other AI techniques for automated question generation, question answering, and feedback. This work is conducted both from a general educational perspective and in specialized applications such as medical education. I welcome students interested in theory-grounded grammars and optimization algorithms, interpretable AI models, or adaptive educational systems to reach out and learn more about joining the research group.