Student Awards

 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF UTEA, NSERC, and MCSRA Awardees for Summer 2023

June 2023

Congratulations to the undergraduate students who were awarded a Summer 2023 research award! The students below were awarded one of three summer research awards to work on an exciting project under the supervision of an MCS Faculty member. Students either won a U of T Excellence Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering (UTEA-NSE), a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Student Research Award (NSERC USRA) or a Mathematical and Computational Sciences Research Award (MCSRA).

More information about these awards can be found here.

UTEA-NSE

Student Name: Andrew Jonathan William Magnuson
Division and/or programs: Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; Division of Engineering Science
Year of Study: 2
Supervisor: Prof. Florian Skhurti (CSC)
Title of Project: Imitation Learning, Task and Motion Planning

Student Name: Ivy Tan
Division and/or programs: Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; Division of Engineering Science
Year of Study: 2
Supervisor: Prof. Lueder Kahrs (CSC)
Title of Project: Sim2Real Reinforcement Learning with a 7 Degree Freedom Robot

Student Name: Victoria Valeeva
Division and/or programs: UTM; Mathematical Sciences Specialist
Year of Study: 3
Supervisor: Prof. Duncan Dauvergne (MAT)
Title of Project: Epidemic models built on random walks

 

NSERC-USRA

Student Name: Nathanael Dov Chwojko-Srawley
Division and/or programs: UTM; Mathematical Sciences Specialist, Computer Science Minor
Year of Study: 4+; Convocated June 2023 with high distinction
Supervisor: Prof. Yevgeny Liokumovich (MAT)
Title of Project: Parametric Dehn's Lemma

Student Name: Taqieldin Hamoda
Division and/or programs: UTM; Computer Science Specialist, Business, Science and Entrepreneurship Minor
Year of Study: 4
Supervisor: Prof. Jessica Burgner-Kahrs (CSC)
Title of Project: Optimizing Cosserat Rod models to reduce computational load for real-time application

Student Name: Anna Ly
Division and/or programs: UTM; Applied Statistics Specialist, Mathematical Sciences major
Year of Study: 4
Supervisor: Prof. Luai Al Labadi (STA)
Title of Project: Assessing multinomial distributions with a Bayesian approach

 

MCSRA

Student Name: Mohammed Hamlili
Division and/or programs: UTM; Computer Science Specialist, Applied Statistics Major, Mathematical Sciences Minor
Year of Study: 4
Supervisor: Prof. Luai Al Labadi (STA)
Title of Project: Testing Uniformity with Varentropy and Varextropy Bayesian Estimators

Student Name: Anthony Jia-Hao Lem
Division and/or programs: Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; Division of Engineering Science; Minor in Robotics and Mechatronics completed
Year of Study: 4
Supervisor: Prof. Florian Skhurti (CSC)
Title of Project: Pedestrian Trajectory Forecasting for Socially-Aware Sidewalk Robot Navigation

Student Name: Travis Shao
Division and/or programs: UTM; Computer Science Specialist
Year of Study: 4
Supervisor: Prof. Florian Skhurti (CSC)
Title of Project: ICP: Mapping a point cloud of UTM

Student Name: Raghav Sharma
Division and/or programs: UTM; Computer Science Specialist, Mathematical Sciences Major
Year of Study: 4+; Convocated in June 2023 with High Distinction
Supervisor: Prof. Ahmed Ashraf (CSC)
Title of Project: Investigating the Efficiency of Deep Learning Models


Congratulations to Linghao Feng, who received the 2021-22 Olga Fraser Award

Awarded to an outstanding UTM Statistics student who completed STA220H5. 

Award Recipient:

  • Linghao Feng

Congratulations to James Ferguson, who received 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 completing their third year of study.

Award Recipient:

  • James Ferguson

Congratulations to Jesse Bing Han, who received the 2021-22 June Scott Award

This award was originally established in 1990 by UofT faculty, staff and students 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 and has an average of at least 75%. 

Award Recipients:

  • Estelle Oceane Foo-Fat
  • Ivan Olegovych Shevchenko


Congratulations to Alexander Ryabchenko, who received the 2021-22 Doris Geddes Scholarship

This award was originally established by colleagues, family and friends of Doris Geddes, 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 the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).

Award Recipient:

  • Alexander Ryabchenko

Two MCS students receive 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 her student's academic progress, particularly those who struggled with Calculus but had a strong desire to master its intricacies.

This scholarship is awarded to a male and female UTM student who meets the following conditions. The student was awarded the most improved student in MAT135H5 or MAT136H5. The student must have 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 course completion. 

Award Recipients:

  • Zhuotong Sharmey Peng 
  • Hajun Ju

Congratulations to our two students who received 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 a poster at the 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 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 receive the 2020 University of Toronto Student Leadership Awards

March 2020

Congratulations to Dariya Darvin (Math Major) and Nikki Sigurdson (Math Specialist and CS Minor) for being among the 18 UTM students receiving this distinguished award that 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 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, October 22, the Department again held the MCS Awards Reception. 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 was 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 received the  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, Professor Florian Shkurti's student, 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 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 for first place in the 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/