From left to right: Tovi Grossman, Karan Singh
Two University of Toronto computer science professors have received 2025-26 Connaught Innovation Awards, which support U of T researchers advancing emerging technologies with strong potential for real-world impact.
The award helps teams move their innovations closer to deployment, commercialization or broader public benefit.
Professor Tovi Grossman
Instructor-Aligned AI Tutoring for Programming Education
Grossman’s team developed LearnAid, an AI tutoring platform that gives students guided programming support aligned with course materials and instructor expectations. The system has been used by more than 4,000 students in U of T computer science courses, providing real-time, integrity-preserving assistance and offering instructors tools to review interactions and monitor learning trends. Connaught funding will help the team strengthen the platform, expand classroom pilots and advance the system toward institutional adoption.
Professor Karan Singh
Splotchy: Painting with 3D Gaussian Splat Brushes
Splotchy introduces an intuitive, painterly approach to editing photorealistic 3D environments captured with consumer devices. The tool allows artists to manipulate 3D Gaussian splat representations in real time, lowering technical barriers associated with traditional 3D modelling. Singh’s team demonstrated the technology at SIGGRAPH 2025, where it drew interest from visual-effects studios, virtual-production teams and spatial-computing developers. Collaborators include the National Film Board of Canada, NVIDIA’s Toronto AI Lab and Wētā FX.