News 2014
Dan Zingaro received Ph.D.
Dan Zingaro, Lecturer of Computer Science in our department, received his Ph.D. in Education in November 2014 from OISE, University of Toronto. Congratulations, Dan!
Sue McGlashan completed Master of Education at OISE
Sue McGlashan, our System Administrator, has completed her Masters of Education at OISE and received the degree in June 2014.
UTM MCS students take part in The University of Toronto TechKnowFile IT Conference
Yihang Bao, Higor Ernandes, Ana Grullon, Alex Kornilenko and Luiz Gustavo Monclar, students from the MCS CSC358 networks course, helped Sue McGlashan, the MCS Systems Administrator, present at the 2014 IT Conference. The students moderated the audience discussion of Spear Phishing, and presented the results of their own Security Reports discussing solutions to the problem.
Canadian Math Kangaroo 2014 Contest


Inquiry-Based Learning
Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is a student-centered method of teaching Mathematics. At the college mathematics level one of the forms of IBL is the Modified Moore Method, named after R. L. Moore (an American topologist, 1882-1974).
In the past two years, the course MAT405 (Introduction to Topology), taught by Shay Fuchs, has been delivered using the IBL method. There were no lectures, and most of the class time was devoted to student presentations and discussion.
We are proud to be part of Greater Upstate New York Inquiry-Based Learning Consortium. UTM is the first (and so far only) Canadian participant in this Consortium.
Rochester Mathematics Olympiad
On Saturday, February 8, 2014, the following UTM students wrote the Rochester Mathematics Olympiad: Vinh-Khang Nguyen-Hu, Matthew Scicluna, Ahmed Mahmoud Ellithy, Mark Zietara and Ju Li.
March Break 2014
During March break, the UTM MCS department hosted a group of high school students who are interested in studying Math, CS and Statistics. Several members of the department came out to deliver engaging talks. Shay Fuchs, Alison Weir and Andrew Petersen spoke about the entry requirements to our programs, what to expect in the first year, and how to be successful as an MCS student. Craig Burkett gave a mock lecture showing students how Statistics can be used as a shield or a sword, and Daniel Zingaro gave a gentle introduction to cryptography.
Overall it was an exciting day for the students, and was made all the more so when the university shut down early due to the snow.
UTM MCS students win the best student app award for the Ontario Energy Challenge
We are proud to announce that three MCS Computer Science students, Zohaib Ahmed, Kumar Pandya and Rashaad Ramdeen have won the Best Student App Award for their Wattermelon App at the Energy Apps for Ontario challenge, hosted by MaRS Discovery District and funded by the Ontario Ministry of Energy.
Wattermelon monitors your energy usage by utilizing the Green Button technology that connects to smart meters. It does all the work of gathering and organizing your energy data, and provides meaningful goals and actionable tasks so property owners can get the most savings.
Wattermelon does a couple of unique things, as in calculating future usage based on previous gathered stats, and provides a social interface which allows property owners to compare their usage to their community. [Names] are currently working with various utilities (Hydro One, London Hydro, etc) to bring this to thousands of property owners.
The students thanked their professor, Arnold Rosenbloom, for his teaching "as this all could not have happened without you!"
Arnold had taught them in courses such as CSC309: Programming on the Web and CSC490: Capstone Design Course. A complete list if Computer Sciences courses can be seen here.
Sergey Gorbonuv receives MSR Fellowship in 2014
We are very happy to congratulate Sergey Gorbonuv as a 2014 Microsoft Research PhD Fellow. Sergey completed his H.B.Sc in 2011 in Computer Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, his M.Sc in 2012 at the University of Toronto, and started his Ph.D there. He recently transferred with his supervisor to complete his Ph.D at MIT.
In addition to his academic achievements, Sergey taught the fall 2013 Introduction to Inforrmation Security course.