We are saddened to announce that our colleague and friend Farhad Mavaddat, retired Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, passed away peacefully on November 3, 2021 at the age of 80.
Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have developed a data-efficient pretrained transformed-based neural language model to analyze 11 African languages. Their new neural network model, which they have dubbed AfriBERTa, is based on BERT — Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers — a deep learning technique for natural language processing developed in 2018 by Google.
As a graduate student in the Cheriton School of Computer Science, Cameron Seth studies graph theory algorithms and complexity theory. As an athlete, he is among the top Canadian men’s squash players. He has been playing on the international professional tour since 2015, and during his undergrad, Cameron was a mainstay on the University of Waterloo varsity team.
A company founded by two University of Waterloo graduates is on track to become a giant in the Canadian business-to-business credit card market.
Float, which was co-founded by Cheriton School of Computer Science alums Griffin Keglevich and Ruslan Nikolaev, recently brought in a whopping $37 million CAD in new investments.
The company’s third co-founder and current CEO, Rob Khazzam, who joined Float in March 2021, brings a wealth of experience in business and finance, having previously worked for Uber and various venture capital advisory firms.
Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science are incorporating a deep learning network into a more accurate method to identify disease biomarkers. The new method achieves up to 98 per cent detection of peptide features in a dataset. That means scientists and medical practitioners have a greater chance of discovering possible diseases through tissue sample analysis.
Maura R. Grossman, JD, PhD, is a Research Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science, an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and an affiliate faculty member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. She is also Principal at Maura Grossman Law, an eDiscovery law and consulting firm in Buffalo, New York.
Shihabur R. Chowdhury has received the 2021 Alumni Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance in a doctoral program. Conferred by Alumni Relations, the prestigious institutional award, which consists of an individually crafted 24-carat gold-plated medal embossed with the university’s seal on the front, has honoured top graduating students at convocation since 1970.
Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science has again been ranked first in Canada according to the Maclean’s 2022 university rankings just released. Based on program and research reputation, computer science at Waterloo shared the podium for first place with the University of Toronto and University of British Columbia.
Smartphones have become an indispensable part of our daily lives and because of their portability we bring them everywhere, but viewing information on our devices isn’t always convenient, safe or possible.
If your phone is tucked into a briefcase, backpack, pocket or purse, it must be removed or unlocked to see a message or notification. And digging through pockets and packs is awkward during meetings, difficult when carrying items, and possibly hazardous when running, biking or exercising.
Part of being a PhD student is about confronting significant issues in a field of study. For Shenghao Yang, a second-year PhD student at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, it’s not just about tackling issues in his field, but also one of the biggest problems facing the world — COVID-19.