David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

2024 marked a year of research breakthroughs, entrepreneurship, and community building for the Cheriton School of Computer Science. From revolutionizing mental health care to unravelling the secrets of artificial intelligence, our staff, faculty, students and alumni continue to push the boundaries of human curiosity. To celebrate, we have composed a list of our most noteworthy stories from each month.

Freda Shi joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science 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.

What follows is a lightly edited transcript of a conversation with Professor Shi, where she shares insights into her research, advice for aspiring computer scientists, and her enthusiasm for joining the Cheriton School of Computer Science.

A multidisciplinary team of computer science researchers has been awarded $2 million from the Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence (ORF–RE) program to develop key infrastructure technology for next-generation mobile networks. ORF–RE provides funding to support the costs of major research projects of strategic value to the province.

The project is led by principal investigator Raouf Boutaba, University Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science, with Cheriton co-investigators Professors Martin Karsten, Samer Al-Kiswany and Kate Larson, along with Professor Chui Min Yeum of Waterloo’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.