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In open source software repositories such as GitHub — an online platform for software development where developers store their projects and collaborate with other developers — the quality of a coder’s technical contributions is undoubtedly important. Such communities have long seen themselves as meritocracies where code is king and decisions are based solely on technical excellence.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science and Western University has developed a computational method that within minutes can identify and classify viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory pathogen responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent PhD graduate Priyank Jaini has been awarded second place in the Faculty of Mathematics Doctoral Prize competition. Now in its second year, these prizes are awarded annually to recognize the achievements of top graduating doctoral students in the Faculty of Mathematics. As a silver recipient, Priyank will receive $1,000.

As global COVID-19 lockdowns have us sitting through days of video conferences, it becomes clear that paying attention online is hard work.

In two new papers, researchers from the Cheriton School of Computer Science and Microsoft Research explore people’s attentiveness in video conferences to understand how to make the online meetings more comfortable and effective.

The University of Waterloo’s first-ever virtual Concept $5K competition challenged entrepreneurs to pitch to an online audience instead of a packed auditorium. Confident in the value of their creation, the founders of Reflect rose to the occasion and walked away with $5,000 to invest in their growing business.

The following was excerpted from an article published on the website of CS-Can/Info-Can, the nation’s professional society dedicated to representing all aspects of computer science and the interests of the discipline to Canadians.

Some jurisdictions in Canada and around the world are using cell phone data to track the spread of COVID-19. How would this work? What are the privacy concerns around using personal data for this purpose?

Professor Shai Ben-David has been appointed a University Research Chair in recognition of his outstanding contributions to machine learning theory, logic, the theory of distributed computation and complexity theory. This prestigious title may be held for up to seven years and is conferred to recognize the exceptional achievements of Waterloo faculty members and to acknowledge their pre-eminence in a field of knowledge.

A team of Waterloo computer science students have helped create a web-based data-gathering platform that has been promoted by the City of Montreal’s public health authority to its citizens in an effort to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases in that city.

In 1967, Canadians celebrated the country’s 100^th birthday and the future seemed full of hope and boundless potential. But at the University of Waterloo the future had already arrived in the newly built Math and Computer building’s Red Room. It was there that an IBM 360 Model 75 was housed — the most powerful computer in Canada at the time and the same model NASA used to do the critical calculations to send astronauts to the moon.