Student Awards

Congratulations to Linghao Feng who is the recipients of the 2021-22 Olga Fraser Award

Awarded to an outstanding UTM Statistics student who completed STA220H. 

Award Recipient:

  • Linghao Feng

Congratulations to James Ferguson who is the recipients of the 2021-22 Peter Fantham Memorial Scholarship

Awarded to an outstanding UTM Mathematics student who is returning to UTM. Preference will be given to a student who is completing the third year of study.

Award Recipient:

  • James Ferguson

Congratulations to Jesse Bing Han who is the recipients of the 2021-22 June Scott Award

This award was originally established in 1990 by faculty, staff and students at UofT to honour June Scott's retirement in 1989. She taught at the University of Toronto Mississauga (formerly Erindale College) for 19 years. It is awarded annually to the University of Toronto Mississauga student with the highest mark in STA256H5. This is awarded to a UTM student with the highest mark in STA256H5. The student must otherwise be in good standing.

Award Recipient:

  • Jesse Bing Han

Congratulations to our two students, Estelle Oceane Foo-Fat and Ivan Olegovych Shevchenko, who are the recipients of the 2021-22 Elizabeth and William Star Award.

This scholarship is awarded annually to a student registered full time in a Mathematical and Computational Sciences program, who has completed their second year of study, who has an average of at least 75%. 

Award Recipients:

  • Estelle Oceane Foo-Fat

  • Ivan Olegovych Shevchenko

Congratulations to Alexander Ryabchenko who is the recipients of the 2021-22 Doris Geddes Scholarship.

This award was originally established by colleagues, family and friends of Doris Geddes who was a Mathematics Instructor at the University of Toronto when she retired in 1996. It’s awarded annually, upon Departmental recommendation, to the student with the highest achievement in a first-year mathematics course. This scholarship is awarded to a UTM student with the highest achievement in a first-year MAT course based on the recommendation of the Chair, UTM Mathematics & Computer Science, in consultation with the Mathematics Faculty, UTM Campus Council, and University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).

Award Recipient:

  • Alexander Ryabchenko

Two MCS students become the recipients of the 2021-22 Anne Holden Memorial Scholarship.

The family and friends of Anne Holden endowed this scholarship. Anne, a graduate of the University of Toronto Mississauga and a long time lecturer and instructor, was deeply interested in and supportive of the academic progress of her students, particularly those who struggled with Calculus but had a strong desire to master its intricacies.

This scholarship is awarded to one a male and female UTM student, who met the following conditions. The student was awarded to the most improved student in MAT135H or MAT136H. The student has a minimum final grade which exceeds 70% and minimum tutorial participation of 80%. The student must be registered at UTM in the fall term following completion of the course. 

Award Recipients:

  • Zhuotong Sharmey Peng 
  • Hajun Ju

Congratulations to our two students who are the Recipients of the 2020-21 Top UTM Undergraduate Student Awards. July 2021

 

  • David Zhiyang Cui (Math Major) wins the E.A. Robinson Medal.
  • Syeda Zehra (CS Specialist and Math Minor) is recognized for Top Outstanding Program Performance in 2020-21, by the UTM Office of Vice-Principal Academic and Dean.

More information can be found here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/2018-19-top-utm-undergraduate-students-award-recipients

Congratulations to Jennifer Thompson, 4th year CS Specialist, for winning the CUR Award for best poster. 

Jennifer Thompson is announced as the winner of the Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) award for poster at SIGCSE 2021 entitled: "Exploring How Students Use an Online Learning Environment." Co-authored with Professor Andrew Petersen, the contents of the poster can be found at the SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Congratulations to our two graduating students who won the top UTM Undergraduate Student Awards 2019-20. 

  • Dariya Darvin (Math Major) wins the Founders Gold Medal awarded to an outstanding graduating student, whose personal qualities are considered along with excellence in academic achievement. Dariya was nominated by Professor Michael Yampolsky and is also the recipient of this year's Rose Sheinin Award and the 2020 University of Toronto Student Leadership Award. 
  • Kaveh Parsaie (CS Specialist and Math Major) is recognized for Top Outstanding Program Performance in 2019-20, by the UTM Office of Vice-Principal Academic and Dean.

More information can be found here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/2018-19-top-utm-undergraduate-students-award-recipients

MCS student wins Rose Sheinin Award.

Dariya Darvin, a Math major, Geographical Information Systems minor, and Biology minor and a June 2020 graduate at MCS, wins the Rose Sheinin Award, a U of T-wide award given to an outstanding female student in a Science program. Read this article on Dariya in UTM News. Congratulations Dariya!

Two MCS students win the 2020 UTM Principal's Involvement Award.

Congratulations go out to Anna Nicolaou (MAT major, STA specialist) and Misha Ali (STA major, CSC major) for being among the 25 UTM students recognized for their significant efforts to enhance the quality of student life at UTM. Please read more here.

Two MCS students become the recipients of the 2020 University of Toronto Student Leadership Awards. March 2020

Congratulations go out to Dariya Darvin (Math Major) and Nikki Sigurdson (Math Specialist and CS Minor) for being among the 18 UTM students receiving this distinguished award which recognizes outstanding student leadership. Please read more here.

Mahika Phutane, 4th year CS & CCIT major, wins a prestigious Dennis Washington Graduate Leadership Scholarship. February 2020

Congratulations to Mahika Phutane for winning this prestigious scholarship and for being the first Canadian to win this award, provided by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. Please read more here & here.

2019 MCS Awards Reception. October 2019

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, the Department held the MCS Awards Reception again. We had more than 50 students, parents, donors, and staff, join us in celebrating and recognizing students and faculty for their achievements. Here is the list of the 2018-19 academic year award winners.

Congratulations to our two graduating students who won the top UTM Undergraduate Student Awards 2018-19. May 2019

  • Jarvis Kennedy (Math major) wins the Founders Gold Medal awarded to an outstanding graduating student, whose personal qualities are considered along with excellence in academic achievement. Jarvis was nominated by Professor Yael Karshon and is also the recipient of the Peter Fantham Memorial Scholarship in 2018 and the Elizabeth and William Star Award in 2017. 
  • Christopher Chianelli (Computer Science major) is recognized for top outstanding program performance in 2018-19, by the UTM Office of Vice-Principal Academic and Dean.

More information can be found here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/2018-19-top-utm-undergraduate-students-award-recipients

Sadia Sharmin, Professors Daniel Zingaro, and Lisa Zhang receive Program Chair's  Award at CompEd 2019. May 2019

This award is given to the best conference paper where the first author is a student. This work investigates the effect of using open-ended, exploratory assignments in an introductory computer science course. The paper is available here: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3309532. 

Assistant Professor Florian Shkurti's student to receive a 2019 University of Toronto Excellence Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering (UTEA-NSE). April 2019

Congratulations to Yuchen Wu, a student of Professor Florian Shkurti's, on winning a well-deserved 2019 University of Toronto Excellence Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering. This award allows undergraduate students to develop an appreciation for the investigative methodology in areas of particular interest, and to make informed decisions about pursuing careers in research. More information on the award can be found here.

Assistant Professor Furkan Alaca's students to tie first place in CyberSCI-Toronto cybersecurity challenge. January 2019

A tight race between the Seneca College teams and the two MCS teams represented at the CyberSCI-Toronto cybersecurity challenge on Jan. 19, 2019, ended in a first-place tie between team "Blue Canary" (MCS UTM) and "Bash Daddies" from Seneca College. Congratulations to our CS students on this great achievement! Find out more at: https://cybersecuritychallenge.ca/cybersci-toronto/

2018 MCS Awards Reception. October 2018

On Thursday, Oct. 18, the Department held the MCS Awards Reception again. We had more than 45 students, parents, donors, and staff, join us in celebrating and recognizing students and faculty for their achievements. Here is the list of the 2017-18 academic year award winners.

Information Security Students won First Place at the 2018 Toronto Cyber Security Challenge.  April 2018

Darren Hobin, Nimesha Jayawardena, Darshan Mehta, and Rajdeep Nanua, winners of the 2018 Toronto Cyber Security Challenge: http://cybersecuritychallenge.ca/. Prizes for first place included a trophy, security training, gift cards, and first crack at internships at Bell, CIBC, EY, Secure Sense, and Security Compass.

Congratulations are due to our UTM Information Security Students and their supervisor Arnold Rosenbloom!

Abdulwasay Mehar and Vaishvik Maisuria won the first-place prize for the "Best Use of Blockchain" in U of T Hack V. January 2018

MCS undergraduate students Abdulwasay Mehar and Vaishvik Maisuria won the 1st-place prize for the "Best Use of Blockchain" in the fifth annual U of T Hacks on Jan. 20, 2018. Their project, named Single Truth, applies the ethereum blockchain technology to the insurance industry and creates an organized system for transferring information among brokers, insurance companies and the reinsurers. The first-place prize of 1-ETH (a cryptocurrency unit worth about $1,300 CAD) was awarded by ChainSafe Systems.

Geneva Liwag won the Dean's Excellence Award in Writing. January 2018

MCS student Geneva Liwag won the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Writing, University of Toronto Mississauga, for her essay " Mathematics and Medicine: not as disjoint as you might think" that she wrote in MAT392H5 ("Ideas of Mathematics" ) in the winter of 2018. Her essay can be found here.

Geneva Liwag was nominated by Professor Yael Karson.

2017 MCS Awards Reception. October 2017

On Thursday, Oct. 19, the department held the MCS Awards Reception, celebrating and recognizing students and faculty for their achievements. We were delighted to have two of our donors, Olga Fraser and Doris Geddes, join us in congratulating the award winners. Here is a link to the photos: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlenechu/albums/72157688099629754

Charlene Chu won the Best Poster Presentation at UTM Graduate Research Colloquium 2016 Event. June 2016

Math graduate student Charlene Chu won the first prize for Best Poster Presentation for her presentation on “Polygons on a Lattice” on Monday, May 2, 2016, at the UTM second annual Graduate Research Colloquium.

MCSS (Mathematical & Computational Sciences Society) won the Student Organizations' Awards. February 2016

MCSS was one of six student organizations to win the 2015-2016 Student Life "Program of the Year" Award for our Hackathon in October 2015.

More information can be found here.

Peggy Cao won the Principal's Involvement Award. February 2016

Pegg Cao,  MCSS 2015-2016 President, was one of 25 students to win the 2015-2016 Student Life "Principal's Involvement Award" for her involvement in MCSS, Residence, and other activities.

2015 MCS Awards Reception. October 2015

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the department held its first-ever MCS Awards Reception, celebrating and recognizing students and faculty for their achievements. Some of the awards received were Governor General's Medal and Founders Gold Medal for graduating students, NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award and Dean's Excellence Award, Anne Holden Scholarship, Doris Geddes Scholarship, Elizabeth and William Star Award, June Scott Award, Olga Fraser Award and Peter Fantham Scholarship for current students, as well as Excellence in Teaching awards for faculty. We are so proud to have such students and faculty in our department!

Here is a link to the photos: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlenechu/albums/72157660181905495

Razvan Andrei Moraru, Andrew Meyers, and Michael Ang won the Dean's Excellence Award in Creative Activity. May 2015

MCS students Razvan Andrei Moraru, Andrew Meyers, and Michael Ang won the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Creative Activity, University of Toronto Mississauga.  The Committee was impressed with this group project, "Persistence of Vision Globe". The Committee elaborated, "the ingenuity and attention to detail that went into the making of this project, and the simple but dazzling result made it a clear winner in this category."

This group of three students was nominated by Professor Daniel Wigdor.

Anqi Lu has been awarded the Governor General's Medal and the Rose Sheinin Award. May 2014

MCS Statistics student Anqi Lu took home the prestigious Governors General’s Medal for undergraduate academic excellence. She also won the Rose Sheinin Award as an outstanding female student graduating in a science program.

Anqi Lu, a statistics graduate, was presented with the university’s top awards at convocation ceremonies on June 5, 2014. Anqi also captured four awards that were presented during a ceremony on May 27:

  • Best Student – Honours B.Sc.
  • Award for Outstanding Performance – Mathematical & Computational Sciences
  • The Founders Gold Medal
  • The E.A. Robinson Medal - Sciences

Thanks to Professor Alison Weir for nominatingAnqi for the Founders Gold Medal and the Governor Generals Medal.

Robbie Nohra won the Dean's Excellence Award in Research Excellence.  May 2014

MCS student Robbie Nohra won the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Research Excellence, University of Toronto Mississauga. The Committee was impressed with his paper entitled, "Smirnov's Theorem Simplified: Crossing Probability on a Hexagonal Lattice". The Committee regarded his report as very well written, with clear explanations and a clear structure. Well done, Robbie!

Robbie Nohra was nominated by Professor Ilia Binder.

UTM Team Placed 6th at International Capture the Flag (ICTF) 2013. December 2013

International Capture the Flag (ICTF) is a distributed, competitive computer security competition. During the contest, teams of students from across the world attempt to keep their own network services running while exploiting security holes in the services of other teams.

This year, the UTM team placed sixth of 122 teams (and second in North America). Full standings are here:

https://www.ictf2013.net//scoreboard_public#/overview?volume_id=207&auto_update=true

The UTM team was composed of seven current and former students:

       Lance Blais (alumni)

       Michael Bennett (alumni)

       Cristian Poll (alumni)

       Yuliya Cherenkova

       Mark Dobrowolski

       James Lahey

       Christopher Primerano

Nicolay Doytchev won the Dean's Excellence Award in Experiential Learning. April 2013

MCS student Nicolay Doytchev won the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Experiential Learning, University of Toronto Mississauga, for work performed at RIM while on PEY. The committee was impressed with Nicolay Doytchev's report on his PEY Internship and commented, "This student looks like a superstar programmer." The Committee regarded his performance at RIM as excellent. Well done, Nicolay!

Nicolay Doytchev was nominated by Professor Arnold Rosenbloom.

Sabin Sadeh, Mark Zaky, and Andrew Kim won first place at the 2013 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge (YEC). January 2013

MCS fourth-year students Sabin Sadeh, Mark Zaky, and Andrew Kim presented a virtual jukebox app called eJuked at the competition held on campus in January. They won first place — and a prize of $2,500 — at the 2013 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge (YEC), where students pitched business ideas to a panel of corporate executives, Dragons’ Den style. Here's a link to an article with more details about it: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/computer-science-students-win-2013-young-entrepreneurs-challenge

The winning project was one of the projects done through the CSC490H5 course in the Fall semester of 2012.

Congratulations Sabin, Mark, and Andrew and their supervisor Professor Arnold Rosenbloom!

Mariya Boyko won the Dean's Excellence Award in Writing 2011

MCS student Mariya Boyko won the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Writing, University of Toronto Mississauga, for her essay " Mobius Transformations" that she wrote in MAT392H5 ("Ideas of Mathematics" ) in the fall of 2010-2011. The award committee was impressed with the essay and commented on the quality of the writing and how Mariya Boyko was able to advance a mathematical idea within the context of a very well-written essay. 

David Farahany won the Dean's Excellence Award in Research 2012

MCS student David Farahany won the Dean's Excellence Award in Research, the University of Toronto Mississauga, for his project "Change of variable formula and the Brouwer fixed point theorem," which he did under Professor Yael Karshon's supervision in the summer of 2011.

Abdul Rahman Ayoub Wins TAPA Award. July 2012

MCS Student Abdul Rahman Ayoub has won this year's Teaching Assistants' Training Program (TATP) Teaching Excellence Award!

TATP received 433 nominations on behalf of 197 Teaching Assistants. Abdul was one of only four winners this year. It is quite a remarkable achievement for him and MCS.

Congratulations Abdul!!