News

Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have elucidated a key piece in the puzzle to detect early invasive skin melanoma. Using computational models of the skin to simulate the complex biophysical changes during early stages of tumour progression, the research holds the potential to improve non-invasive diagnostic methods, particularly in resource-limited regions.

Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have developed a small modification to the Linux kernel that could reduce energy consumption in data centres by as much as 30 per cent. The update has the potential to cut the environmental impact of data centres significantly, as computing accounts for as much as 5 per cent of the world’s daily energy use.

Kate Larson, Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, has been named a 2025 Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Newly joined faculty member Professor Anamaria Crisan was recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)’s Computer Graphics and Applications (CG&A) for her trailblazing research on data design practices and tools for novice users.

Professor Crisan was part of a team that received the runner-up recognition from the journal, an award conferred to a research paper for its novelty, number of downloads, citations and impact. They were recognized for their paper, Finding Their Data Voice: Practices and Challenges of Dashboard Users.

Imagine controlling apps with your feet while you walk. This concept is the focus of new research which explores using gait gestures — intentional variations in how you walk — as controls for augmented reality devices.

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.

A multidisciplinary team of computer science researchers has been awarded $2 million from the Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence (ORF–RE) program to develop key infrastructure technology for next-generation mobile networks. ORF–RE provides funding to support the costs of major research projects of strategic value to the province.

The project is led by principal investigator Raouf Boutaba, University Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science, with Cheriton co-investigators Professors Martin Karsten, Samer Al-Kiswany and Kate Larson, along with Professor Chui Min Yeum of Waterloo’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Professors Khuzaima Daudjee and Sujaya Maiyya of the Cheriton School of Computer Science have been awarded $220,000 from the Ontario Research Fund–Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI) program. This amount was matched by the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (CFI-JELF), bringing total funding to $440,000.

The project, titled Scalable Infrastructure for Data-Intensive Systems, will address foundational challenges in managing and analyzing large-scale data.