Presentations this week
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
PhD Defence • Algorithms and Complexity
Graph Property Testing and the Container Method
Cameron Seth, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:00 a.m. • Hybrid: DC 2314 | Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Eric Blais
PhD Seminar • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Pixel-space Multimodal Modelling in Unified Multimodal Models
Weiming Ren, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
10:00 a.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Wenhu Chen
PhD Defence • Computer Algebra | Symbolic Computation
On the Effective Algebraic Geometry of Determinantal Varieties
Sriram Gopalakrishnan, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 a.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Éric Schost
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Master's Thesis Presentation • Data Systems
DIO: Dynamic Memtable Index Organization for LSM Storage Engines
Mingkun Ni, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
12:00 p.m. • DC 3301 (DSG Lab)
Supervisor: Professor Khuzaima Daudjee
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Systems and Networking
DNATree: Dynamic Tree Adaptation for Multi-Tenant In-Network Aggregation
Qi Fan (Eric) Yan, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • Online master’s thesis presentation
Supervisor: Professor Raouf Boutaba
Seminar • Machine Learning
Can NNs Learn Computational Algorithms That Generalize OOD? Perspectives from the Interplay Between Architecture and Computational Structure
Yusu Wang, HDSI Endowed Chair Professor in Data Science
Halιcιoğlu Data Science Institute, University of California, San Diego
2:00 p.m. • DC 1304
Friday, September 11, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Cryptography, Security and Privacy
Inside the Crypto Laundering Machine: A Taxonomic Study of Crypto Money Laundering Schemes and Countermeasures
Hesam Sarkhosh Sarkendi, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
10:30 a.m. • DC 2314
Supervisor: Professor Diogo Barradas
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Data Systems
Approximate Nearest Neighbour Search Using IVF-Based Indices on Memory-Disaggregated Platforms
Arman Davoodi, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • DC 3301 (DSG Lab)
Supervisor: Professor Tamer Özsu
Upcoming presentations
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
PhD Defence • Systems and Networking
Data-driven Fault and Performance Management of Virtualized Networks
Seyed Soheil Johari, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
3:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 1331 | Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Raouf Boutaba
Thursday, September 17, 2026
PhD Defence • Software Engineering
Performance Optimizations for AI-assisted Coding with CodeLLMs
Kishanthan Thangarajah, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:30 a.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Mei Nagappan
Friday, September 18, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Data Systems
MADBench — Measuring Agentic Databases: Quantifying the Protocol Tax of MCP-Mediated Query Workloads
Yaseen Ahmed, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • DC 3301 (DSG Lab)
Supervisor: Professor Tamer Öszu
PhD Seminar • Systems and Networking
Learning-based Joint Slice Admission Control and Virtual Network Embedding in 5G and Beyond Networks
Muhammad Sulaiman, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • DC 1304
Supervisor: Professor Raouf Boutaba
Monday, September 21, 2026
Data Systems Seminar Series
Beyond Sets and Bags — The Behavioral Perspective in Data Management
Matthias Weidlich, Professor
Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam
10:30 a.m. • DC 1302
Monday, October 5, 2026
PhD Defence • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Data for Language Agents: Rewards, Trajectories, and Interfaces
Dongfu Jiang, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
12:30 p.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisor: Professor Wenhu Chen
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
PhD Defence • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Enhancing Neural Network Efficiency: Novel Approaches to Knowledge Distillation
Aref Jafari, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:30 a.m. • M3 3001
Supervisor: Professor Ali Ghodsi