As a leading research institution with nine accelerators, it should come as no surprise the University of Toronto is a hotbed of startup activity.

Over the past five years, more than 150 companies have been created. In total, they've generated more than $500 million in investment.

U of T News shared 10 exciting U of T startups to keep your eye on – and four have a computer science connection:

WinterLight Labs

The startup – founded by alumni Liam Kaufman, Katie Fraser, Maria Yancheva and Frank Rudzicz, an assistant professor of computer science and a rehabilitation scientist at the University Health Network – uses artificial intelligence, or AI, to monitor speech patterns of patients and look for signs of cognitive decline.

Deep Genomics

Deep Genomics, co-founded by U of T comptuer science alumnus Brendan Frey, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, is using the power of machine learning to help develop genetic medicines for diseases ranging from cancer to autism.

ROSS Intelligence

The startup, co-founded by Andrew Arruda, Pargles Dall’Oglio and Jimoh Ovbiagele, uses artificial intelligence and speech recognition technologies to speed up legal research, which currently relies on key word searches.

The idea was conceived as part of a course-based project after U of T’s computer science department was selected to take part in an international competition to find novel applications for IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform.

Blue J Legal

Co-founder and CEO Benjamin Alarie, of U of T’s Faculty of Law, was invited to be a judge on a panel for the U of T portion of the same IBM competition that spawned ROSS. It was there that Alarie recognized the power of AI to re-shape the legal profession.

Fast forward to today and Blue J has two different products on the market – one that uses AI to predict the outcome of tax law cases, and another that focuses on employment law.

Computer science alumni Yana Davis, Daniil Kouznetsov and Jonathan Webb have been part of the startup's development team.

Read the full story at U of T News