Miller's BIN Receives NSERC Strategic Network Grant
September 2009
The Business Intelligence Network (BIN), to be led by U of T computer scientist Renée Miller, will create a mechanism to enhance collaboration between the top Canadian knowledge and information management researchers and the top Canadian companies in business intelligence. NSERC has awarded this research $5 million dollars over the next five years."Business intelligence means using information to make informed decisions," says Miller, who is the Bell Canada Chair of Information Systems at U of T. "From a research perspective, it includes everything from strategy and policy management, to information retrieval, to data integration and data exchange. Our goal is to provide new solutions for businesses and government organizations to enable them to solve modern business problems and make decisions using integrated, trustworthy, and up-to-date data."
The network itself will be interdisciplinary, bringing together computer scientists, industrial engineers, and information managers to develop new systems for stewardship, curation, and information practice. In addition to Miller and other U of T computer scientists, the BIN network includes researchers from the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Ottawa and Waterloo, as well as Carleton and Dalhousie. Investigators are working with researchers at SAP, IBM, iAnywhere, Palomino, IC-Agency, Bell Canada, and Zerofootprint.
See the U of T story here. Congratulations, Renée!Brudno Receives ERA
September 2009
Michael Brudno was honoured with an Early Researcher Award (ERA) for his project, "Computational Methods for Next Generation Sequencing Technologies." In this round, the province funded a total of 82 projects (338 researchers), including 17 researchers from the University of Toronto. The ERA program was created to attract and retain the best research talent by helping promising early-career Ontario researchers build their research teams.See the U of T story on this round of ERAs here; see the listing of recipients on the Ministry of Research and Innovation site here. Congratulations, Mike!
Chechik and Koudas Receive IBM Faculty Awards
July 2009
This July, IBM announced the 2009 Faculty Award recipients. Out of 112 total award winners, 3 came from the University of Toronto, and 2 of those were Marsha Chechik and Nick Koudas from DCS.The IBM Faculty Awards is a competitive worldwide program intended to foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities worldwide, and promote courseware and curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in disciplines and geographies that are strategic to IBM. Winners have an outstanding reputation for contributions in their field. Congratulations on this achievement, Nick and Marsha!
Find more information on the Faculty Awards and a listing of recipients here.
Molloy and Zemel Receive NSERC DAS Awards
July 2009
This July, NSERC announced the recipients of the 2009-2010 Discovery Accelerator Supplements (DAS). 100 awards were given out, and 13 were awarded to U of T. Of those 13, two were awarded to DCS faculty members Mike Molloy and Richard Zemel.The DAS Program provides substantial, timely support to outstanding researchers who have a well-established research program and who show strong potential to become international leaders in their areas. Supplement holders may use their DAS for initiatives that will accelerate the progress of their research program. Mike Molloy received the DAS for his work in probabilistic graph theory and theoretical computer science; Rich Zemel received the DAS for his research on machine learning for image understanding and user modelling. Find more information about the DAS program and this year's recipients here.
Ioannidis Wins Second Place in ACM SRC Grand Finals
July 2009
At this year's ACM Awards Banquet in San Diego, Stratis Ioannidis was awarded 2nd place (Graduate Category) in the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) for his work "On the Distribution of Content Updates over a Mobile Social Network".
Stratis' work received the top honor for student research at ACM Mobicom 2008 conference in San Francisco, and he is one of the three graduate students who qualified for the ACM SRC Grand Finals at the awards dinner. Find more information on the ACM SRC here. Congratulations, Stratis!
Sam Hasinoff Named Recipient of the Fournier Ph.D. Thesis Award
May 2009
At the 2009 Graphics Interface (GI) conference, former DCS graduate student Sam Hasinoff was named the recipient of the 2008 Alain Fournier Award for the best Canadian thesis
in computer graphics. Sam's award-winning thesis, on Variable-Aperture Photography, was supervised by Kyros Kutulakos, and was honored by the committee for "the quality
of [Sam's] original contributions and [his] impressive publication
record."
More information the award, and a link to Sam's thesis can be found here. Congratulations, Sam!
Terzopoulos Wins Guggenheim Fellowship
April 2009
Adjunct faculty member Demetri Terzopoulos was awarded a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. The Guggenheim Foundation awarded 180 Fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars (from a group of almost 3,000 applicants). Demetri was the only computer scientist who received an award this year; his fellowship project is on "Realistic Human Simulation". His research encompasses computer graphics, computer vision, medical image analysis, computer-aided design and artificial intelligence/life.See the Guggenheim announcement here, and the UCLA announcement here. Congratulations, Demetri!
Mark Braverman Honoured with 2009 CMS Doctoral Prize
April 2009
New DCS faculty member Mark Braverman has been awarded the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) Doctoral Prize for 2009.
In the award citation, Mark's thesis is lauded for containing "ground-breaking work on the computability and complexity of Julia sets." His work has "opened up new avenues of research in dynamical systems and computer science, and will be of lasting significance to both fields." Mark takes on his faculty position at the U of T in July 2010. Find more information on the 2009 CMS Doctoral prize here. Congratulations, Mark!
Hinton Named U of T Distinguished Professor
February 2009
Governing Council is pleased to announce that Geoff Hinton has been named a University of Toronto Distinguished Professor.
This award is designed to advance and recognize individuals with highly distinguished accomplishments and those who display exceptional promise. The award will be held for a 5 year term, during which Geoff will hold the title of the Raymond Reiter Distinguished Professor of Artificial Intelligence, in honour of the department's esteemed colleague, the late Ray Reiter.
Cheng and Pankratov Receive 2009 CRA Undergraduate Awards
December 2008
This December, the Computing Research Association (CRA) announced the Outstanding Undergraduate Award Winners for 2009. These distinguished awards were given to individuals for demonstrating excellence in CS through a variety of ways, including research, scholarship and presenting at major conferences.
Denis Pankratov and Hao Yu (Alex) Cheng, the two nominees from DCS, were awarded Honorable Mentions in this year's competition. The CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Awards are extremely competitive, honouring the very best CS students in North America. Congratulations on this achievement, Denis and Alex!
Lilien Awarded Prestigious Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Grant
October 2008
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the recipients of the Grand Challenges Exploration grants, a program created to explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health. Ryan Lilien of DCS is one of six Canadians (104 researchers worldwide) receiving these grants.
The Gates Foundation's summary blurb about Lilien's award notes, "A major roadblock to treating many of the world's diseases is that resistance will arise to any novel therapy. Dr. Ryan Lilien... will attempt to computationally model the structural and functional effects of point mutations on a target protein's active site. With the development of predictive models of the pathogen evolution and the spread of resistance, this information can then be used to guide drug development and optimization." Congratulations, Ryan!
See the UofT story here.
Cook Awarded the Bernard Bolzano Medal
September 2008
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic awarded Steve Cook the 2008 Bernard Bolzano Honorary Medal for Merit in the Mathematical Sciences. The medal is given to distinguished scientists who have made a significant contribution to the development of the whole field and who have fruitfully collaborated with researchers in the Czech Republic.
Graduate Student Stratis Ioannidis Wins First Place in the ACM Student Research Competition at Mobicom
September 2008
PhD candidate Stratis Ioannidis' work, "On the Distribution of Content Updates over a Mobile Social Network", received the top honour for student research at ACM's 14th Annual Mobicom 2008 in San Francisco this September. Stratis will now go on to compete in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals with his work, which was originally developed during his internship at Thomson Research in Paris, France this past winter.
See more information on Mobicom, the Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, here. See more information about Stratis' work here.
Miller Receives 2008-2009 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement
June 2008
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.
For the 2008-2009 competition, 100 awards were given out in total. Renée's supplement was one of only 10 awards granted to researchers at the University of Toronto.
Hirst Honoured with the Canadian AI Association Distinguished Service Award
May 2008
This May, Professor Graeme Hirst received the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association, CAIAC (formerly the Canadian Society for the Computational Studies of Intelligence).
The award was given in recognition of Graeme's development of the magazine Canadian Artificial Intelligence in the 1980s. The Distinguished Service Award is given by CAIAC intermittently at the annual Canadian AI Conference to acknowledge extraordinary service to the organization.
Ganjali, Saroiu and Koudas Awarded CFI Grants
March 2008
This March, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) distributed $2.3 million in new funding to the UofT through CFI's Leaders Opportunity Fund. Two projects rewarded with grants are led by DCS faculty members.
Yashar Ganjali's funding will help equip the Advance Packet Switch and Network Laboratory. In this lab, research is conducted on high performance packet switch and network systems, supporting research on data communication systems.
Stefan Saroiu and Nick Koudas' grant will fund the Social Information Systems Laboratory, which will house research projects aiming to create new Internet search and content delivery technology leveraging online social networks.
CFI funding helps ensure that researchers have the necessary tools to conduct leading edge research.
Reid Wins A&S Outstanding Teacher Award
February 2008
Karen Reid has been awarded one of four Faculty of Arts and Science (A&S) Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2006-07. A&S established these awards in 1993 to highlight the great value it places on teaching, and the recipients are selected based on nominations from peers and students.
Karen's award is in recognition of her terrific performance in the classroom, her deep engagement in undergraduate research and project supervision, and her significant contributions to curriculum development and pedagogy. Congratulations, Karen!
See more information on the A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards here.
Enright Receives IFIP Silver Core Award
January 2008
Professor Wayne Enright was honoured with a 2007 Silver Core Award from the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
The Silver Core Award is granted to those who have made an impact at IFIP through activities such as serving on committees and assisting with conferences. Past DCS receipients of this distinguished award include Ken Sevcik and C.C. Gotlieb.
Zemel Made CIFAR Fellow
January 2008
This past December, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) named Professor Rich Zemel a Fellow of the Neural Computation & Adaptive Perception (NCAP) Program.
CIFAR's aim is to provide leading scholars with the time, direction, freedom and inspiration to pursue fundamental questions concerning society, technology, and the very nature of humanity and the universe. A number of DCS faculty members currently enjoy program membership at CIFAR. For more information on the institute, visit the site here. To see Rich's profile on the CIFAR site, click here. Congratulations to Rich on this great honour!
Terzopoulos Named 2007 ACM Fellow
January 2008
Demetri Terzopoulos, Professor at UCLA and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, was named a 2007 Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow. Demetri was a Professor at the University of Toronto for sixteen years prior to joining UCLA.
The ACM Fellows Program was established in 1993, and recognizes individuals for their achievements in computer science and information technology. Demetri was honoured for his contributions to computer graphics and vision. For more information on this distinguished program, visit the site here.
Borodin Wins 2008 CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize
December 2007
Allan Borodin received the 2008 CRM-Fields-PIMS prize in recognition of his exceptional achievement and fundamental contributions to many areas, including algebraic computations, resource tradeoffs, routing in interconnection networks, parallel algorithms, online algorithms, and adversarial queuing theory.
The CRM-Fields-PIMS prize was established in 1994, and is offered jointly by the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), the Fields Institute and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences to celebrate exceptional research in the mathematical sciences. Previous recipients of the prize are H.S.M. (Donald) Coxeter, George A. Elliott, James Arthur, Robert V. Moody, Stephen A. Cook, Israel Michael Sigal, William T. Tutte, John B. Friedlander, John McKay, Edwin Perkins, Donald A. Dawson, David Boyd, Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann and Joel Feldman.
For more information on Professor Borodin's award, see the press release here. For more information on the CRM-Fields-PIMS prize, see the Fields Institute webpage.
Adrian Dalca and Rhys Causey Recognized by CRA Undergraduate Awards
December 2007
This November, the Computing Research Association (CRA) announced the 2008 Outstanding Undergraduate Award winners.
These awards recognize students in North America who have shown tremendous potential in an area of computing research. Adrian Dalca was named as a finalist and Rhys Causey was granted an honourable mention in the competition. Throughout their undergraduate careers at DCS, Adrian and Rhys have demonstrated a high level of skill and dedication to their work. The department congratulates them on this great achievement!
Terzopoulos Recipient of Inaugural IEEE PAMI-TC Computer Vision Significant Researcher Award
November 2007
Demetri Terzopoulos, Professor at UCLA and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, was honoured with the inaugural IEEE PAMI-TC Computer Vision Significant Researcher Award at the Oct 2007 International Conference on Computer Vision in Rio de Janeiro.
Terzopoulos received this award for his "pioneering and sustained research on Deformable Models and their applications," work undertaken during his many years spent as faculty member in DCS at Toronto.
Five DCS Faculty Members Recognized by new NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement Grants
September 2007
Ravin Balakrishnan, Eyal de Lara, Sheila McIlraith, Toniann Pitassi and Sam Roweis were honoured by NSERC grants created as part of the federal government's new science strategy.
The Discovery Accelerator Supplements support faculty who are on the verge of research breakthroughs: Dr. Suzanne Fortier, President of NSERC notes, "These new grants target 50 outstanding researchers. Based on their success and accomplishments so far, we believe they are poised to make real breakthroughs in their fields, and we believe it is critically important to support them financially at this time."
DCS faculty members were recognized for their respective areas of work: Balakrishnan for "increased inputs for computer displays," de Lara for "radio fingerprinting support for pervasive environments," McIlraith for "customizing computer system components," Pitassi for "solutions to computational complexity" and Roweis for "practical recipes for machine learning." See the May 2007 Toronto Star article on the Discovery Accelerator awards here.
For more information on NSERC Discovery Supplement Grants, see NSERC's website.
De Lara Granted IBM Faculty Award
August 2007
Eyal de Lara received an IBM Faculty Award for his project, "Extensible middleware for continuous ubiquitous monitoring," and was nominated by IBM researcher Dr. Archan Misra. IBM gives these awards to foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities and those in IBM research, and to promote courseware and curriculum innovation.
Magen and Singh Receive Early Researcher Awards
August 2007
The latest round of the Government of Ontario's Early Researcher Awards (ERAs) included DCS professors Avner Magen and Karan Singh. These awards were created to assist promising Ontario researchers as they undertake cutting edge projects. Magen is examining the mathematically provable limitations of standard techniques for the development of approximation algorithms and, in the process, designing powerful new algorithms to improve current techniques. Singh is developing techniques for visualizing human anatomy while it functions. His work will provide new insights into the anatomy and how it works and will be of particular interest in anatomy education, clinical exploration and treatment, as well as animation.
John Mylopoulos Elected to the Royal Society of Canada
July 2007
Professor John Mylopoulos was named one of the 2007 Fellows of the Academy of Science in the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). He is so honoured as "the first and still most influential researcher to have made lasting and deep contributions to the three separate computer science fields of artificial intelligence, data management and software engineering. He pioneered the use of conceptual modelling within all three fields. His seminal work on requirements modelling has had a lasting impact on academic research and industrial practice, and provides a foundation for the popular software engineering practice of model-driven software development."
The RSC is Canada's oldest and most prestigious scholarly organization; the website notes that "Canadians have directly benefitted from the outstanding achievements of these individuals [who have been named Fellows]. The new Fellows of RSC are among those who, today, build the world we will live in tomorrow."
Ron Baecker Receives 2007 ORION Leadership Award of Merit
June 2007
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) celebrated ground-breaking innovations at their annual awards ceremony, held this evening at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto during the Ontario Research and Education Summit. ORION strives to foster collaborative research and education, and gives out distinguished annual awards for Discovery, Learning and Leadership.
Professor Baecker is one of only two individuals recognized by the 2007 Leadership Awards, given to those who have made "significant contributions to advancing research, education, science or discovery through the development an/or application of innovative information and communications technologies." Baecker received the Leadership Award of Merit "as one of the world's pioneers of computer animation and [a] leading authority in the field of human-computer interaction."
Recent PhD Graduate Lap Chi Lau Awarded 2007 CMS Doctoral Prize
May 2007
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. While Lau will be presented the 2007 CMS Doctoral Prize at the Society's Winter Meeting in London, Ontario this December, a statement from CMS praised his research, noting, "One novel feature of his work is the use of the heavy machinery of exact combinatorial optimization algorithms. His results will surely lead to further significant developments in this area."
Lau did his PhD work under Professor Michael Molloy, and now works as an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. More information on his impressive award can be found on the CMS site.
PhD Student Bowen Hui Winner in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals
May 2007
Bowen Hui was recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for her research on "Automatic Software Customization: A Methodology for Learning Individual Preferences." One of three winners in the graduate category, Hui is honoured with a one-year ACM Digital Library Membership, a cash prize and recognition at the prestigious Annual ACM Awards Banquet this June in San Diego. Fellow competitors for the Research Award included winners from various regional ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) competitions held in 2006.
Hui is pleased to have her work acknowledged by this distinguished organization and comments, "It's been a great experience participating in both the regional contest and the Grand Finals."
Recent PhD Graduate Richard Pancer Honoured with Prestigious CAIMS Dissertation Award
April 2007
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". This award is given on an annual basis to recognize an outstanding PhD thesis in Applied Mathematics defended at a Canadian University during the 2006 calendar year. To see the story on the UofT Scarborough website, click here. For more information on the CAIMS awards, visit the page. The department congratulates Pancer on this fine accomplishment!
Balakrishnan Honoured with 2007 Sloan Research Fellowship
February 2007
Professor Ravin Balakrishnan was awarded one of this year's Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. The distinguished awards are given to young faculty across North America, recognizing excellence in specified fields of science. Balakrishnan is one of only 16 faculty members honoured within computer science. For more information and a complete list of recipients, visit the site.
The Faculty of Arts & Science Honours Professor Francois Pitt with a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Award
February 2007
Francois Pitt is the recipient of one of five Faculty of Arts andScience Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2005-06. This significant prizeis awarded on the basis of excellence in teaching and contributions toundergraduate education during the past academic year. Nominations aremade by both peers and students, and recognize the ability to stimulatecritical thinking and enthusiasm in students; Pitt is honoured for histerrific performance inside and outside the classroom.
Professor Ron Baecker Awarded the Bell University Labs Chair in Human Computer Interaction
February 2007
This year, Ron Baecker's previous 5-year appointment to the BellUniversity Labs (BUL) Chair in Human Computer Interaction was renewed.The distinguished endowed chair is awarded in recognition of Baecker'srenowned research achievements, lectures and publications.
The BUL Chair in Human Computer Interaction is part of the BellUniversity Laboratories initiative, a collaborative research programfunded by Bell Canada and U of T. The chair provides continuousleadership in research and education, and in the Bell University Laboratories Program, which identifies emerging research areas and addresses technical issues vital to the information technology andtelecommunications industries of Ontario.
For more information on this honour, see Baecker's citation on the BUL website.
Professors Nick Koudas and Sheila McIlraith Awarded Prestigious Early Researcher Awards (ERAs)
November 2006
The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation honoured DCS faculty members Nick Koudas and Sheila McIlraith with ERAs in recognition of their academic achievements, showing a strong vote of confidence in their research efforts. Koudas and McIlraith were 2 of only 20 ERA recipients at the UofT and 104 winners throughout the province. The ERA program, supported by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, is part of the province's wider research and innovation strategy, which aims to attract and develop the best and most promising researchers.
Cook Receives John L. Synge Award
August 2006
Steve Cook is the winner of The John L. Synge Award of the Royal Society of Canada. This award is given for outstanding research in any of the branches of the mathematical sciences. To quote from the citation: "[Professor Cook's] work is characterized by its creativity and pervasive influence throughout his distinguished 40 year career and he continues to produce seminal contributions on feasible logics and complexity theory."
The Synge Award is a distinguished honour that is not given every year.
Levesque and Terzopoulos Named to the Royal Society of Canada
July 2006
Hector Levesque has been elected to the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada. Election to RSC is the highest honour that can be attained by scholars, artists and scientists in Canada. Hector's tremendous body of work on knowledge representation and reasoning has been recognized for its originality and impact, with the citation reading:
“Hector Levesque is a foremost authority in the area of Knowledge Representation, the sub area of Computer Science concerned with how ordinary, common-sense knowledge can be represented and used by computers. He and his collaborators have initiated important new lines of research in this area including the relationship between implicit and explicit belief, the tractability of reasoning, new methods for solving problems in logic and cognitive robotics.”
Demetri Terzopoulos, adjunct faculty with DCS (affiliated with UCLA), was also elected to the RSC for his pioneering work in computer vision and computer graphics while at the University of Toronto.
Hector and Demetri are two of only three computer scientists elected to the RSC this year.
Gotlieb Elected Inaugural CIPS Fellow
May 2006
We are pleased to announce that Kelly Gotlieb has been elected a founding Fellow of the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS). The CIPS Fellow Membership is awarded to professionals in the Information Technology (IT) sector who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the profession or industry in Canada. The Fellow is the highest class of membership offered by CIPS and was awarded for the first time this year