Stephanie Whitney interviews Steve Woods
On April 17 and 18, students, faculty, and members of the community gathered to take part in the inaugural Research Discovery Days, a research showcase and networking event hosted by the Math Innovation Office.
The event, which featured both faculty and graduate student research presentations as well as discussions about entrepreneurship, aimed to connect industry partners with researchers doing exciting work in the Faculty of Mathematics.
On day one, attendees heard from researchers and current industry experts on cutting edge developments in three fields: health and medicine; security and privacy; and data integrity and trust.
During the health and medicine portion, Canada 150 Research Chair and Applied Mathematics professor Anita Layton presented a keynote concerning her research group’s ground-breaking work in kidney modeling. Michele Mosca, co-founder of the Institute for Quantum Computing, gave a keynote for the security and privacy portion of the program. Finally, Ihab Ilyas, Computer Science professor and Head of Apple Knowledge Platform, gave the data integrity and trust keynote.
The highlight of day two was the fireside chat-style keynote from Steve Woods, an alum of Waterloo’s Computer Science graduate programs and the founder of several successful tech companies. For more than a decade, Woods was one of the highest-ranking Canadians at Google.
Attendees also had the chance to take part in a workshop from the Zero Experience, a program founded by two Math alums that encourages students to collaborate quickly on some of the biggest problems facing contemporary society.
Applied Mathematics PhD student Maliha Ahmed shares her research into epilepsy during a lightning round talk
One of the highlights of the event was the opportunities it provided for graduate students to share their research. As part of the research highlights, audience members heard long-form presentations from three Computer Science graduate students. Master’s student Yue Lyu discussed the augmented reality game she is helping build to help autistic children practice social skills. PhD student Elham Akbari discussed her work into classifying encrypted network traffic, and PhD candidate Aida Sheshbolouki explained how she designs constantly-updating, or “streaming,” graphs that provide insights into rapidly changing data.
“It was my first time presenting my work live outside our research group,” Akbari says, “so that was exciting and meaningful for me as a researcher. It allowed me to officially put my work out there and get back about it from both academics and people from the industry.”
Lyu appreciated the collaborative environment, noting that “one of the highlights of the experience was the opportunity to network with other researchers and discuss ideas and potential collaborations.”
MMath student Lena Podina explains her research
Both days also featured poster presentations and lightning sessions from students, on everything from developing better research collaboration software to using mathematical models to better predict the progression of deadly brain cancer.
“Research Discovery Days was a true celebration of innovation and impact,” says Stephanie Whitney, Director for Research & Innovation Partnerships. “Our speakers and attendees brought together cutting-edge research and diverse perspectives to advance our understanding of critical issues. It was inspiring to witness the research excellence, energy, and enthusiasm on display, and I am confident that the connections made and ideas shared will continue to drive progress in the years to come.”
The Innovation team are excited about the opportunities Research Discovery Days created for connections between research and industry, and are already thinking about how they can expand the event in 2024. To learn more about the Math Innovation office and their other upcoming events, visit their website.