Points of Contact

At CSLab, each research group has a computing support specialist assigned to it, called a "Point of Contact" (POC). As the name suggests, this person is intended to be the first "point of contact" for any computer issues. Some of the things a POC can do include: The current POCs for the department are:

GROUP(S) SERVED NAME EMAIL PHONE OFFICE Support Webpages
DGP John Hancock jhancock 416-946-8872 BA5169 DGP
Vision, ML, KR, CL, Bio Relu Patrascu pocai 416-946-8487 PT396C AI
SE, DB, NA, BUL Alan Rosenthal pocflaps 416-978-1976 BA3229 SE, DB, NA
Administrative Staff Lloyd Smith dcsadmin 416-978-0347 BA3250 Admin
Theory, Lecturers Ingrid Varga vargai 416-946-0197 SF4306C Theory
Systems, Networks Vladislav Sekulić pocsys 416-978-6763 BA5216 Systems

To reach your point of contact, simply send email. Of course, if you want to talk to your point of contact because your email is not working, you might prefer to call, using the number listed above. If you can't find your POC, and it is an emergency, you might try contacting your group's Administrative and Financial Services support person to see if the POC has made emergency contact arrangements with that person.

POC Biographies

John Hancock is presently the POC for the DGP group, since 2003. He possesses diverse experience in system administration, videoconferencing, software development, and computer diagnosis and repair, in both industry and academia. His experience in the software industry includes work at SignalRock Inc, where he helped develop a voice response system for the company, and Expresto Software, where he contributed to Creator, a Video editing application. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science (Software Engineering) from the University of Toronto.

Relu Patrascu presently serves as POC for AI. He has worked as an academic system administrator for Ryerson University, the Ontario Cancer Institute, the University of Waterloo and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. Relu first arrived in the department in 2003, as a postdoctoral fellow under Dr. Craig Boutilier, after having completing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He also holds an M.Sc from the University of Guelph, and a B.Sc. from Ryerson University.

Alan Rosenthal is the POC for the SE, NA, and DB groups, and is a senior system administrator for the DGP group in the department, a role in which he has served for over a decade. An academic system administrator with over twenty years of experience, he has also worked for the University of Toronto's Department of Economics, OISE, the Department of Psychology at McMaster University, and as a consultant in both the private and public sectors. In addition, Alan served as an academic lecturer for the department from 2000 to 2006.

Lloyd Smith has been a systems administrator with the Department of Computer Science since 1995, working in the department's teaching labs and supporting administrative staff computing needs. Projects he has been involved with include an internal website for resource booking, a content management system for the departmental website, an information system for recording graduate student data, and a web based faculty employment application system. Previously he has worked as a research technician in life sciences research.

Ingrid Varga is the POC for the theory group. Possessor of a diverse range of experience in business and the arts, including computer technical support, web design, database design and maintenance, software development, photography and cinematography, Ingrid has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and a Zentrale Mittelstufenprufung and a Zertificat Deutsch als Fremdsprasche from the Goethe-Institut in Toronto.

Presently the POC for the systems group, Vladislav Sekulić previously served the department for a year as a CSLab systems/network administrator in core, where he made significant contributions to the department's research network and web infrastructure. Prior to that, he provided technical support for the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, and Hospitality Tours in Toronto. Vlad holds a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto.