This is the homepage of Lisa Zhang.
Me In a Nutshell

I am an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga. My office is located at DH3078.
I held many roles during my career: startup founder, data scientist, machine learning researcher, pure math student, and now a computer science educator. I am passionate about machine learning, computer science education, writing, and still have a soft spot for great data visualization and nerdy humour.
I am a member of the CS Education Research Group at the University of Toronto.
Teaching
In the upcoming year 2022-2023, I will be teaching:- CSC324 (fall 2022) with Prof. Louisa Harutyunyan
- CSC311 (fall 2022) with Prof. Sonya Allin
- CSC413 (winter 2023) with Prof. Florian Shkurti
Past courses and archived course websites
- CSC311 Introduction to Machine Learning
- CSC263 Data Structure and Analysis
- CSC413 Neural Networks and Deep Learning
- CSC338 Numerical Methods
- CSC324 Programming Languages
- Fall 2021 (UTM)
- Fall 2020 (UTM) with Andi Bergen
- Fall 2019 (UTM)
- Fall 2018 (UTM) with Daniel Zingaro
- CSC321 Neural Networks and Machine Learning
- Winter 2020 (UTM) with Pouria Fewzee
- CSC290 Communication Skills for Computer Scientists
- APS360 Fundamentals of AI
- CSC108 Introduction to Programming
- Summer 2018 (St. George) with Mark Kazakevich
- CSC411/2515 Introduction to Machine Learning
Undergraduate Research/Project Courses
I frequently work with undergraduate computer science students at the University of Toronto Mississauga on research or implementation projects as part of CSC398/492/493 Independent Study Courses and Research Opportunity Programs. Prof. Larry Zhang has a very informative FAQ about these project courses. Courses with me tend to have more of a research slant.
Most (but not all) students I worked with have taken a programming languages or machine learning course with me and have done very well. The project idea can come from either you or me. To get a sense of the type of projects that I supervise, please scroll through the list of publications below. Almost all of the recent papers/posters/workshops are collaborations with students.
I am hoping to supervise several student projects in Winter 2023 on projects related to:
- Machine Learning education: identifying factors that contributes to student success in a machine learning course; identifying ideas that machine learning studends find challenging
- PiazzaBot: Using machine learning to help the course staff answer Piazza questions more quickly.
- Evaluation of computer science writing interventions: Statistical evaluation the result of writing instruction and feedback in first- and second-year computer science.
- Student-lead implemenation projects in machine learning and/or programming languages.
If you are interested, please reach out with a description of the project you are interested in, your unofficial transcript, and your resume if you have one. Please reach out earlier rather than later if you can, so I can plan ahead.
Publications
Publications in CS/AI Education
Posters/Workshops in CS/AI Education
Programing Languages Workshop
Machine Learning
Contact
You can email me at lczhang [at] cs [dot] toronto [dot] edu. If you are emailing me regarding a course, please include the course code in the email subject. Please mention if you are a current or past student.