David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

Chris Trevisan, a fourth-year computer science student, is one of eight recipients — and the only recipient from a Canadian university — to receive the 2025 Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. The association’s top recognition honours exceptional undergraduate students from universities across North America who demonstrate outstanding research potential in the field of computing.

2024 marked a year of research breakthroughs, entrepreneurship, and community building for the Cheriton School of Computer Science. From revolutionizing mental health care to unravelling the secrets of artificial intelligence, our staff, faculty, students and alumni continue to push the boundaries of human curiosity. To celebrate, we have composed a list of our most noteworthy stories from each month.

Freda Shi joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in July 2024. In September 2024 she was named a CIFAR AI Chair and a faculty member at the Vector Institute.

What follows is a lightly edited transcript of a conversation with Professor Shi, where she shares insights into her research, advice for aspiring computer scientists, and her enthusiasm for joining the Cheriton School of Computer Science.