David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
The Cheriton School of Computer Science is named for David R. Cheriton, who earned his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in 1978. In 2005, Professor Cheriton made a transformational gift to the school that supports named chairs, faculty fellowships, and graduate scholarships.
News
New AI system turns sketches into code
Instead of typing furiously and constantly hitting backspace, what if you could code by just drawing out your ideas?
This vision is becoming a reality thanks to Ryan Yen (MMath ’24), a recent master’s graduate of the Cheriton School of Computer Science, and Professors Jian Zhao and Daniel Vogel. While at Waterloo, Yen co-developed Code Shaping, an AI-powered software that allows programmers to edit their code through free-form sketches.
TTIC's Spotlight on Professor Freda Shi
Professor Freda Shi was featured in Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago's (TTIC), alumni highlight series.
Freda Shi, Ph.D. graduate from TTIC’s class of 2024 (advised by Professors Karen Livescu and Kevin Gimpel), joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo 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.
Freda’s research focuses on computational linguistics and natural language processing, aiming to deepen the understanding of both natural language and human language processing. She explores how these insights can enhance the design of more efficient, effective, safe, and trustworthy NLP systems. She is particularly interested in learning language through grounding, computational multilingualism, and related machine learning aspects.
Waterloo students win nearly $100k USD at ETHDenver 2025
Seventeen students from the University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University dominated ETHDenver, held from February 23 to March 2, 2025.
ETHDenver is the world’s largest and longest-running Ethereum event. Since 2018, it has hosted blockchain-focused events, including panel discussions, workshops, networking sessions, and boot camps. Their main event is #BUIDLathon, a hackathon where attendees can team up to develop their own blockchain projects.
Events
Master’s Research Paper Presentation • Systems and Networking • 5GProvGen: 5G Provenance Dataset Generation Framework
Please note: This master’s research paper presentation will take place in DC 2314.
Amr Abouelkhair, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Supervisor: Professor Noura Limam
Seminar • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) • Adversarial Robustness and Privacy Measurements using Hypothesis-tests
Please note: This seminar will take place in DC 1304.
Mathias Lécuyer, Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) • Finding Behavioural Biometrics Scripts on the Web Using Dynamic Taint Analysis
Please note: This master’s thesis presentation will take place in DC 2314 and online.
Alexandru Bara, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Supervisor: Professor Urs Hengartner