Presentations this week
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
PhD Seminar • Bioinformatics
AI Drug Discovery and the Limits of Proxy Optimization
Qianqiu Zhang, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
9:30 a.m. • Online PhD seminar
Supervisor: Professor Ming Li
PhD Seminar • Software Engineering
Automated Modernization of Machine Learning Engineering Notebooks for Reproducibility
Bihui Jin, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:30 a.m. • TBD
Supervisor: Professor Pengyu Nie
PhD Seminar • Software Engineering
Recovering Pull Request Revisions in Altered History
Gengyi Sun, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • DC 2564
Supervisor: Professor Shane McIntosh
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Systems and Networking
Cross-O-DU Detection of RRC Signaling Storms in 5G O-RAN Networks
Eimaan Saqib, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
4:00 p.m. • DC 2314
Supervisor: Professor Raouf Boutaba
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Seminar • Algorithms and Complexity
Collaborative Learning via Agreement
Ira Globus-Harris, Research Professor
Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society, Cornell University
12:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 1304 | Online seminar
Friday, October 2, 2026
2026 Cheriton Research Symposium
Our annual showcase of research excellence made possible by David R. Cheriton’s generous investment in education
10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
DC 1302 (presentations) • DC 1301 (invited lunch) • DC Atrium (poster session) • DC 1301 (awards ceremony)
Upcoming presentations
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
CrySP Speaker Series on Privacy
Mind the Gap: Policy vs Reality in Post-Quantum TLS Deployment
Arash Shaghaghi, Associate Professor
School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney
2:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 1304 | Online talk
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Master’s Thesis Presentation • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Distilling Legal Language Models with Limited Data through Synthesis and Attribution
Alireza Arbabi, Master’s candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 p.m. • Online master’s thesis presentation
Supervisor: Professor Xi He
PhD Seminar • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP)
Troll Patrol: Anonymous User Reporting of Bridge Censorship
Vecna, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • DC 3317
Supervisor: Professor Ian Goldberg
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
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
PhD Defence • Human–Computer Interaction
Where The Explanation Is: Building Shared Understanding Between Humans and AI
Marvin Pafla, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
11:00 a.m. • Hybrid: DC 2314 | Online PhD defence
Supervisors: Professors Kate Larson, Mark Hancock
Monday, October 19, 2026
Data Systems Seminar Series
Redesigning Cloud Databases for AI Data Centers
Qizhen Zhang, Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
10:30 a.m. • DC 1304
PhD Defence • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Understanding and Generating Visual Worlds with Foundation Models
Weiming Ren, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
1:00 p.m. • Online PhD defence
Supervisors: Professors Wenhu Chen, Jimmy Lin
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
PhD Defence • Systems and Networking
Architecting for Performance and Extensibility from Networking to Processors
Siyao Zhao, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • TBD
Supervisor: Professor Ali Mashtizadeh
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
PhD Defence • Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning
Approaches and Evaluation for Text Quality Improvement
Ankit Vadehra, PhD candidate
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
2:00 p.m. • Hybrid: DC 2584 | Online PhD defence
Supervisors: Professors Pascal Poupart, Olga Vechtomova