October 2009 Graduate Studies in Computing Science at the University of Alberta

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3 Edmonton

4 Weather & Cost of Living Average annual snow fall – Boston – 41 inches – Pittsburgh – 43.5 inches – Washington DC – 22.3 inches – Edmonton – 50 inches Cost of living CDN$20,000 in Edmonton comparable to US$25,000+ in US metropolitan centers.

5 Alberta Icons

6 Opened in ,000 Graduate students 30,000 Undergraduate students 4-6 th ranked university in Canada

7 Computing Science Department Algorithmics | Artificial Intelligence | Bioinformatics | Networks | Computer Graphics | Computer Vision | Database Systems | Robotics | Software Engineering | Software Systems

8 Facts & Figures Research Personnel 47 faculty 25 postdoctoral fellows 12 research associates 65+ trust support staff 200+ graduate students This Year ( ) 57 new grad students 24 Ph.D M.Sc. 42 male + 15 female scholarships: 8 (NSERC, QE II, etc.)

9 We look for a GPA of at least 3.5/4.0 (min. 3.0/4.0) Three very good reference letters. GRE minimum of 700 on both quant. & analytical [ if degree received outside Canada ] TOEFL minimum of 600 (250 if computer based) [ if no degrees received from English-speaking Institution ] Application deadline: January 15th Graduate Program Admissions

10 Funding Sources Departmental support (when offered): – ~$25.7k/yr. Ph.D. (typically 3 years), – ~$24.2k/yr. M.Sc. (typically 2 years). iCORE ICT Grad. Student Scholarships – $3 million (annually) program for graduate students in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at Alberta universities. –Competitive top-ups for NSERC scholarships. Plus the usual Federal & University scholarships. –Several UofA entrance scholarships for intl. students as well as for Canadians + perm. res.

11 Collaborative VR Environments Collaborative Computational Physics Over WestGrid Infrastructure 3D Content Creation and Processing VR and Human Perception Tele-Immersion Responsive Avatars And Environments Advanced Man-Machine Interfaces (4)

12 Algorithmic Graph Theory Combinatorial Algorithms Approximation Algorithms Computational Complexity Automated Proof Checking Algorithmics (9)

13 Machine Learning Computer Games Heuristic Search Natural Language Processing Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Cognitive Modelling Believable Agents AI and Robotics Artificial Intelligence (16)

14 Proteome Analyst, Pathway Analyst The Human Metabolome Project Whole Genome Phylogeny NMR Protein Structure Determination Polyomx (SNPs, microarrays, etc.) Bioinformatics (6)

15 Network Design & Optimization Wireless Communication Protocols Wireless Sensor Networks Scheduling Networks (5)

16 Data mining, web mining Clustering Spatio-temporal databases Content-based Image Retrieval Data Management Issues on the Web Data Management in Sensor Networks Databases and Data Mining (6)

17 Image-based Rendering Texture Mapping and Synthesis Efficient online visualization of 3D multimedia 3D panoramic image acquisition and visualization and much more… Graphics, Vision, Multimedia (9)

18 Robotics (3)

19 Software reverse engineering, re-engineering & reuse Software architecture + formal methods Service-oriented Architecture Web services & Service systems Software processes for small organizations Architecture recovery Legacy Migration Logic for capturing design intent Reuse via frameworks Design Evolution Analysis UMLDiff Software Engineering (4)

20 Generative Design Patterns Optimizing Compiler Technology Parallel/Distributed Computing High Performance Computing 20 years worth of computation completed in 48 hours Software Systems (4)

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22 Is There (Cultural) Life in Edmonton? “ - How do I say this? I have an offer to go to Edmonton to do “Cats” - It's a small role, but I've got to take it. “ Steve Martin's “Bowfinger” (1999) Nature around Edmonton is sublime (including a number of provincial parks a short drive away). But if you feel like staying indoors, Edmonton is home to ~20 theater companies and dozens of acting co-ops. (Yes, we do have Opera and Symphony too.)