UTC U of T’s Geoffrey Hinton and Allen Lau help kick off 2021 Collision conference Deep learning pioneer and University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton and Wattpad CEO Allen Lau, a U of T alumnus, joined more than 600 speakers at Collision this year (photo of Hinton by Daniel Ehrenworth; photo of Lau courtesy of Wattpad) Presentations by deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and University of Toronto alumnus and entrepreneur Allen Lau were among the highlights of the opening day at this year’s influential Collision technology conference. Hinton, a U of T University Professor Emeritus who now works at Google and has been dubbed the “godfather of deep learning,” spoke on Tuesday about his efforts to develop a new type of artificial neural network that can recognize and interpret images better than existing systems.