News

  • March 4 – PhD Thesis defence – Melanie Denommé Stauder

    Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | By

    Melanie Denommé Stauder, a Doctor of Philosophy candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences, will defend her thesis titled “Analyzing common husbandry practices and potential indicators of welfare in Pogona vitticeps ” on Wednesday, March 4 at 10 AM, in Plaza 600F.

    The examination committee includes Michael Owen, Chair; Glenn Tattersall, Supervisor; Noam Miller, External Examiner (Wilfrid Laurier University); Dustin Duncan, Internal External Examiner; Cheryl McCormick, Gaynor Spencer, and Georgia Mason (University of Guelph), Committee Members.

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  • Aug 23 – Master of Science Thesis Defence – Clement Frimpong Osei

    Tuesday, August 20, 2024 | By

    Master of Science thesis defence in Computer Science

    Clement Frimpong Osei, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Computer Science, will defend his thesis titled “Application of L-Fuzzy Relation to Social Choice Theory” on Friday, August 23 at 11 AM., in PL600F.

    The examination committee includes Melanie Pilkington, Chair; Michael Winter, Supervisor; Ke Qiu, External Examiner (Brock University); and Beatrice Ombuki-Berman and Renata Queiroz Dividino, Committee Members.

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  • Aug 23 – Master of Science Thesis Defence – Clement Frimpong Osei

    Tuesday, August 13, 2024 | By

    Master of Science thesis defence in Computer Science

    Clement Frimpong Osei, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Computer Science, will defend his thesis titled “Application of L-Fuzzy Relation to Social Choice Theory” on Friday, Aug. 23 at 11 a.m.., in Plaza building room 600F.

    The examination committee includes Melanie Pilkington, Chair; Michael Winter, Supervisor; Ke Qiu, External Examiner (Brock University); and Beatrice Ombuki-Berman; and Renata Queiroz Dividino, Committee Members.

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  • COSC Student Awarded Prestigious Vector Institute Scholarship

    Tuesday, May 28, 2024 | By

    Exciting News from Sam Langdon!

    Join us in congratulating Sam from the MSc thesis program in Computer Science, a recipient of the prestigious 2024-25 Vector Scholarship in AI!

    With a $17.5K award towards her master’s degree, Sam has demonstrated exceptional promise and dedication to advancing AI innovation. This recognition underscores the Vector Institute‘s commitment to nurturing the next generation of AI talent and pushing the boundaries of what’s achievable in this remarkable field.

    We can’t wait to see the impact Sam will make as she enhances her AI skill set and contributes to the forefront of AI innovation. Congratulations, Sam!

    https://vectorinstitute.ai/24-25-vector-ai-scholarship-announcement/?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Programs

    This is a Cross-Post from the Department of Computer Science.

    https://brocku.ca/mathematics-science/computer-science/2024/05/09/cosc-student-awarded-prestigious-vector-institute-scholarship/

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  • May 14 – Master of Science Thesis Defence – Elyse Aubry

    Tuesday, May 07, 2024 | By

    Master of Science thesis defence in Biological Sciences

    Elyse Aubry, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences, will defend her thesis titled “Determining the effect of different cover crops on nematode communities in vegetable production” on Tuesday, May 14 at 1 PM., in GSB 305.

    The examination committee includes Ian Patterson, Chair; Ping Liang and Tahera Sultana, Co-Supervisors; Vaughn Mangal, External Examiner, Chemistry and Biotechnology; and Oualid Ellouz, Committee Member.

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  • Trace-of-Thought: Enhancing Arithmetic Reasoning in Small Language Models Through Distillation of Reasoning

    Tuesday, May 07, 2024 | By

    Join Us Wednesday May 8 for an online presentation:

    Speaker: Tyler McDonald

    Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) are an emergent tool in many disciplines, with commercially accessible language models providing a simple interface to help solve a variety of problems & daily tasks. While these models are optimized for various common tasks, such as arithmetic reasoning, the exhaustive employment of commercialized language models comes with many challenges, such as potential resource unavailability, cost burdens, and constraints on flexibility. To aid in cultivating a support for open-source language modeling, an often more accessible alternative that allows for scale and size flexibilities, we introduce Trace-of-Thought Prompting: a simple, zero-shot prompt engineering technique responsible for creating observable and rational subproblems designed for delegation to smaller-scale systems. By harnessing the joint benefits of large-scale reasoning with small-scale accessibility, we aim to produce small language models – those below 7 billion parameters – capable of enhanced & transparent reasoning skills on arithmetic reasoning tasks. Our applications of Trace-of-Thought on these arithmetic reasoning problems yields gains as large as 125% on small language models, while providing observable reasoning pathways that are easily corrected on tasks of increasing difficulty. Our findings introduce a critical paradigm towards leveraging the myriad abilities of language models at a variety of scales for accessible problem solving.

    Time: 11:00 – 11:45 (Online) Wednesday, May 8

    Teams Meeting info:

    ________________________________________________________________________________
    Microsoft Teams Need help?
    Meeting ID: 289 571 693 504
    Passcode: DwRdJk

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  • May 10 – Doctor of Philosophy Thesis Defence – Christopher Wicks

    Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | By

    Doctor of Philosophy Thesis Defence in Chemistry

    Christopher Wicks, Doctor of Philosophy candidate in the Department of Chemistry, will defend his thesis titled “Towards the total synthesis of semi-synthetic opiate species

    and presilphiperfolan-1-ol” on Friday, May 10 at 11 AM., virtually.

    The examination committee includes Elizabeth Vlossak, Chair; Costa Metallinos, Supervisor; Michael A. Kerr, External Examiner (Western University); Ian Patterson, Internal External Examiner; Dustin Duncan and Louis Barriault (University of Ottawa), Committee Members.

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  • May 7 – Master of Science Thesis Defence – Maneesha Wijesundara

    Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | By

    Master of Science thesis defence in Chemistry

    Maneesha Wijesundara, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Chemistry, will defend her thesis titled “Synthesis and Properties of π-Extended Phenoxyl Radicals” on Tuesday, May 7 at 11:30 AM., in GSB 305, in hybrid format.

    The examination committee includes Melanie Pilkington, Chair; Martin Lemaire, Supervisor; Kenneth Maly, External Examiner, Wilfrid Laurier University; and Melanie Pilkington and Art van der Est, Committee Members.

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  • Dec 21 – Project Presentation – Sachini Abeysekara

    Tuesday, December 12, 2023 | By

    Sachini Abeysekara, Master of Science candidate in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will present her project titled “Fixed Point Methods in Convex Minimization for Large Data” on December 21 at 2:00 pm., in MC J404.

    Examination committee includes Dr. Hichem Ben-El-Mechaiekh, Supervisor; Dr. Omar Kihel, Supervisory committee member.

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  • Dec 18 – Master of Science Thesis Defence – Yage Zhang

    Tuesday, December 12, 2023 | By

    Master of Science thesis defences in Computer Science

    Yage Zhang, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Computer Science, will defend her thesis titled “Aligning Language Models Using Multi-Objective Deep Reinforcement Learning” on Monday, December 18 at 2 PM., in MC H313.

    The examination committee includes Cheryl McCormick, Chair; Yifeng Li, Supervisor; Shengrong Bu, External Examiner (Brock University); and Ali Emami and Robson De Grande, Committee Members.

    Alanna McNulty, a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Computer Science, will defend her thesis titled “Swarm Intelligence and Evolutionary Algorithms for Real-World Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization ” on Tuesday, December 19 at 1:00 PM., virtually.

    The examination committee includes Brian Ross, Chair; Betty Ombuki-Berman, Supervisor; Kyle Harrison, External Examiner (The University of Newcastle); and Yifeng Li and Shahryar Rahnamayan, Committee Members.

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