Presentations this week
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
PhD Defence • Software Engineering
Exploring and Visualizing Fact-Based Software Models to Improve Program Comprehension
Rafael F. Toledo, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:30 a.m. • DC 2310
Supervisor: Professor Jo Atlee
Seminar • Artificial Intelligence
AI Foundation Models: The Art of Training for the Unseen
Zaid Harchaoui, Professor
Department of Statistics, University of Washington
10:30 a.m. • DC 1304
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Human–Computer Interaction
Semantic Ink: Annotation-as-Command for Steerable, Reusable AI Graphics Editing
Cara Li, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 2310 | Online master’s thesis presentation
Supervisor: Professor Jian Zhao
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
PhD Seminar • Algorithms and Complexity
Better Bounds for Semi-Streaming Single Source Shortest Paths
Janani Sundaresan, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
12:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 1304 | Online PhD seminar
Supervisor: Professor Sepehr Assadi
Thursday, February 19, 2026
PhD Seminar • Computer Graphics | Human–Computer Interaction
Computational Methods for Colour Palette Generation and the Psychophysiological Impact Thereof
Andreea Pocol, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:30 a.m. • Online PhD seminar
Supervisors: Professors Lesley Istead, Craig S. Kaplan
Seminar • Software Engineering
Correctness Matters: Automatic Software Engineering in the Age of Generative AI
Claire Le Goues, Professor
School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
10:30 a.m. • DC 1304
Upcoming presentations
Monday, February 23, 2026
Seminar • Computer Graphics
From Representation to Workflow: Computational Tools for Human Visual Creativity
Chenxi Liu, Postdoctoral Researcher
Dynamic Graphics Project, University of Toronto
10:30 a.m. • DC 1304
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Seminar • Systems and Networking
Runtime Context-Conditioned Control in Networked Systems
Anwar Walid, PhD
10:30 a.m. • DC 1304
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Seminar • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP)
Securing AI Systems Against Real-World Misuse
Xinyue Shen, PhD candidate
CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security
10:30 a.m. • Online seminar
Friday, February 27, 2026
PhD Seminar • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) | Threshold Cryptography
Golden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key Generation
Chelsea Komlo, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 a.m. • Online PhD seminar
Supervisors: Professors Ian Goldberg, Douglas Stebila
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Seminar • Software Engineering
The True Cost of AI Assistance to Programming of Software
Daniel M. Berry, Professor
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 a.m. • DC 3317
NB: Same seminar also offered on March 6 at 10:00 a.m. in DC 3317
Friday, March 6, 2026
Seminar • Software Engineering
The True Cost of AI Assistance to Programming of Software
Daniel M. Berry, Professor
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
10:00 a.m. • DC 3317
NB: Same seminar also offered on March 5 at 11:00 a.m. in DC 3317
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
On the Effect of Hyperparameters in Language Modelling for Linguistics
Ruoxi Ning, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:00 a.m. • Online master’s thesis presentation
Supervisor: Professor Freda Shi
Thursday, March 12, 2026
PhD Seminar • Human–Computer Interaction
Bare-Hand Continuous VR Locomotion Using Beyond-Field-of-View Unimanual Gestures Around the Head-Mounted Display (HMD)
Shaikh Shawon Arefin Shimon, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • Online PhD seminar
Supervisor: Professor Jian Zhao
Friday, March 13, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP)
Decentralized Traffic Correlation Using Programmable Switches
Gurjot Singh, Master’s candidate
David. R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • Online master’s thesis presentation
Supervisor: Professor Diogo Barradas
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
PhD Defence • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) | Threshold Cryptosystems
Practical Distributed Key Generation and Signatures
Chelsea Komlo, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 2310 | Online PhD defence
Supervisors: Professors Ian Goldberg, Douglas Stebila
Seminar
Presentation of the National Institute of Informatics, and Collaboration Opportunities
Dr. Emmanuel Planas
Deputy Director, Global Liaison Office
National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo
2:10 p.m. • DC 1304
Monday, March 23, 2026
PhD Defence • Information Retrieval | Natural Language Processing
Benchmarks, Data, and Evaluation for Robust Retrieval and Retrieval-Augmented Generation on Heterogeneous Domains and Languages
Nandan Thakur, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 a.m. • Hybrid: DC 2310 | Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Jimmy Lin
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
CrySP Speakers Series on Privacy
For All Tomorrow’s Survivors: Computer Security in Interpersonal Threat Models
Thomas Ristenpart, Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
1:30 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 1304 | Online talk
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
PhD Defence • Human–Computer Interaction | Artificial Intelligence
Leveraging Interactive Human–AI Collaboration Methods to Enhance Key Stages of Programming Workflows
Xuye Liu, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
10:00 a.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Jian Zhao
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
PhD Defence • Systems and Networking
Redesigning Datacenter Systems to Leverage Hardware-Acceleration
Sreeharsha Udayashankar, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
12:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 3317 | Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Samer Al-Kiswany