On Wednesday, November 17, nearly 400 attendees from industry and academia came together in a virtual event space for the annual Applied Research in Action (ARIA) showcase, where students in U of T’s Master of Science in Applied Computing (MScAC) program shared their innovative research with a wide audience.
As part of the MScAC program, students participate in an eight-month applied research internship across a range of industries. ARIA serves as a forum for each cohort of MScAC students to showcase the innovations they’ve developed in collaboration with their industry partners.
For the first time, this year’s ARIA also included PhD students from the Department of Computer Science, whose original research acts as a springboard for technical innovation.
“Toronto has continued to thrive and emerge as a global tech hub, and the Applied Research in Action showcase is a demonstration not only of the technological innovation happening in Canada, but also how industry-academic collaboration can fuel developments across broader society,” remarked Arvind Gupta, Professor and Academic Director, Professional Programs in the Department of Computer Science. “Our students are already tackling local and global challenges, and we are extremely proud to see them contributing to building healthy, sustainable communities.”
“ARIA provided an interactive environment to get feedback on the projects from different perspectives both public and technical audiences and the discussions were so inspiring in terms of how to plan the next steps,” said Malikeh Ehghaghi, one of more than 60 MScAC students who presented projects at this year’s showcase. “I enjoyed networking with new faces and sharing our ideas on the challenging aspects of ML-oriented projects.”
“ARIA was also a wonderful reminder that the MScAC program, U of T, and Toronto tech communities remain strong, united, and supportive, excited to engage in the next great innovation and idea.” said MScAC student Divas Kapur.
Joe Roussy from industry partner Deloitte explained that working with MScAC students “gives us a chance to try more experimental approaches than we would usually do over a long period of time and create some really innovative solutions that help our clients in the long term.”
Andrei Petrov of industry partner Timeplay remarked that the showcase — normally held in person — translated well to a virtual format. “The students presenting their research work at ARIA were not only highly intelligent and creative in their thinking, they radiated with so much passion, it was truly inspiring,” he added.
Gupta reports that demand for the MScAC program continues to grow, both from prospective students and industry partners. And with that growth in demand, the program team already has its sights set on next year, planning for a return to a bigger and better in-person ARIA showcase.