Analyzing food content, genetic disorders, and who rules Pinterest

Twenty-two elite undergraduate students from a range of disciplines are conducting research and participating in a unique summer-long agenda of social events, student mentoring, and opportunities to present their research to an audience at the University of Toronto.

It's all part of a revitalized summer research internship program at the Department of Computer Science.

This new program allows recipients of the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) and the U of T Research Experience in Computer Science (UTRECS) to not only do exciting research projects with computer science faculty members, but also to receive mentorship from graduate students along the way.

“Networking is critical for undergrads,” says Peter Marbach, one of the faculty members on the program’s departmental steering committee. “Research is not only about the knowledge you acquire, but how to build contacts from the discussions you have with your research peers."

During the winter, undergraduate students sign up for the internship program. They are then matched with computer science faculty members and graduate students to do hands-on research throughout the summer, designing applications and contributing to real-world projects.

Students in the summer research program come from U of T and beyond, and are working on a variety of interesting projects. They include:

• U of T computer science undergrad Elaine Malit is analyzing social media site Pinterest, determining influential users who might provide interesting marketing opportunities
• U of T computer science undergrad David Hidru is working with researchers at SickKids, exploring ways to interpret genetic data to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases
• U of T electrical engineering student Phoebe Chang is designing an Android app that provides customized information about food content
• U of T computer science undergrad Steve Tsourounis is working with TAGlab on VocabNomad, a mobile app that helps with language learning
• Waterloo mathematics undergrad Tom Yan is improving an Internet encryption system – work that may impact how sensitive information is transferred via cloud computing.

For the first time, each student participating in the research program will present his or her work to the entire group, providing exposure to that critical aspect of research: being able to describe your work and explain its potential impact. A Graduate Student Organizational Committee matches each undergraduate researcher with a graduate student mentor in their subject area, and the department now offers student participants a number of networking opportunities that aim to build community amongst the aspiring researchers.

“We want to bring all the students together in one room to expose them to different facets of computer science,” says Marbach. “The events are created to communicate results, exchange ideas, and [ultimately] broaden their horizons.”

Diane Horton, another faculty member on the committee, is equally passionate about the new-and-improved summer research program: “The undergraduate experience is about more than just the courses. Having each undergrad student paired up with a graduate student lets them know what graduate school and life as a grad student is like. I hope this will inspire the undergrads to take their work further – some might publish an academic paper after this summer.”

For Engineering's Phoebe Chang, working on the Android nutrition app has been exciting.

“This summer, I am paired up with graduate students and a post-doc who have really provided me with great advice about my work," says Chang. "Also, the program provided me with the added bonus of really getting to know students in computer science – for me, being an engineering student, this was an opportunity I would not have had otherwise."

The summer students will present their research projects at a public showcase on Thursday, August 22 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology.

(Read more about the program.) (Read about U of T students and summer internships.)

Alice Han is a work-study student with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.