Applied science

Master of Science in Applied Computing (MScAC)

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• published: 19 Jan 2016
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From building a dataset for an intelligent fall detection system, to using machine learning and natural language processing to enhance in-app advertising, 24 students in the 2014-15 cohort of the Master of Science in Applied Computing program at the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science, showcased their 8-month industry-based internship projects at Applied Research in Action (ARIA), December 1, 2015. Professor Eugene Fiume welcomed all to the event. “I am the director of the Master of Science in Applied Computing program. And what we have decided to do, is to make this showcase a regular event, so that the students who are on internship could show-off their work.” “But, I think one of the things that I’ve noticed, is that a lot of companies have come to visit, and I see companies talking to one another. So, some announcement down the line that some companies met and decided to do a merger because of [their] meeting at one of these events.” “So the event gives us an opportunity to see some new minds, new ideas, and lots of passion and energy,” said Andrew Opala, Chief Operating Officer at Addictive Mobility. “What we looked for in, in this program is really business differentiators – things that can separate our products from our competitors. We like to give our students opportunities to work on hard problems where we’re not even sure that there is an answer but that if they find an answer, it will have a huge impact on our business,” said Geoffrey Peddle, VP of Research and Development at Riva Modelling Systems. Rohan Chandra, MScAC student at Vemba, said his project is “helping people find more relevant videos, more interesting videos for their audience.” “So if you have the user interest profiles built into your system, you already have some information about every user – based on his interests, and what kind of advertisements could be interesting to him – you can show him customized advertisements,” said Kanika Madan, MScAC student at Addictive Mobility. “The Applied Computing Program here at U of T is a perfect fit for Mitacs because what we do is fund research projects. And the corner stone of the internship component of the Master [of Science in] Applied Computing program is for the students to conduct the research projects on behalf of companies, that will ultimately benefit them,” explained Fiona Cunningham, Director, Business Development at Mitacs Inc. “I think it’s great to be able to show off what you’ve done. We’ve been worked for seven, eight months on it now, and worked really hard. So it’s nice to show it off a bit,” said Rachel Twiss, MScAC student at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.