Current News

Miller Receives 2008-2009 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement

This June, faculty member Renée Miller received one of NSERC's Discovery Accelerator Supplements (DAS).  The DAS program was created to "maximize the impact of outstanding research programs" across the country, and gave $4 million dollars in support of various research projects this year.

Inaugural Winners Named for Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award

In 2007, the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on the Management of Data (ACM SIGMOD) established the Test-of-Time Award in memory of the late Professor Alberto O. Mendelzon. Alberto was a faculty member in DCS from 1980 to 2005, and an international leader in database theory. His impact on database research--through his research and publications, as well as his influence and mentorship of colleagues and students--has been profound.

Six DCS Students Funded by Google Summer of Code

Google's Summer of Code program was created to fund student developers working on open source projects over the next few months. Summer of Code becomes more competitive each year, receiving over 7,000 applications and selecting only 1,125 for the 2008 program. Six of the selected students were from DCS.

Recent PhD Graduate Lap Chi Lau Awarded 2007 CMS Doctoral Prize

The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) was pleased to honour 2006 graduate Lap Chi Lau for his dissertation, which addressed fundamental and difficult programs concerning connectivity in graphs.

PhD Student Bowen Hui Winner in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals

Bowen Hui was recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for her research on "Automatic Software Customization: A Methodology for Learning Individual Preferences."

Aaron Hertzmann Appointed CIFAR Scholar

Professor Aaron Hertzmann was named a Scholar in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)'s Neural Computation & Adaptive Perception (NCAP) Program, effective July 1, 2007. CIFAR is a private, not-for-profit institute of advanced study; its goal is to enhance both the quality of basic research in Canada and impact of specific fields of science and social science world-wide.

Recent PhD Graduate Richard Pancer Honoured with Prestigious CAIMS Dissertation Award

The Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS) awarded Richard Pancer the 2007 Doctoral Dissertation Award for his thesis, entitled "The Parallel Solution of ABD Systems Arising in Numerical Methods for BVPs for ODEs".

Strong Showing by DCS Team in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Finals

Toronto Team 1 (students Sean Henderson, Frank Chu and Mohammad Moharrami shown at right), advised by graduate student Igor Naverniouk, came in 14th place out of 88 other schools in the 2007 ACM ICPC Finals in Tokyo, Japan.

Faculty of Arts & Science Honours Professor Francois Pitt with a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Award

Francois Pitt is the recipient of one of five Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2005-06. This significant prize is awarded on the basis of excellence in teaching and contributions to undergraduate education during the past academic year.

Professor Ron Baecker Awarded the Bell University Labs Chair in Human Computer Interaction

This year, Ron Baecker's previous 5-year appointment to the Bell University Labs (BUL) Chair in Human Computer Interaction was renewed. The distinguished endowed chair is awarded in recognition of Baecker's renowned research achievements, lectures and publications.

Research in Action 2007 - DCS Research Showcase

For the first time, the department opened its doors to local industry representatives in an effort to inspire new collaborations and research partnerships.