Faculty of Computer Science: Spring 2016 Magazine

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9 | SPRING 2016

REDEFINING THE REALMS OF POSSIBILITY

FINDING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE GENES USING GENOME SEQUENCES TO MAP ATLANTIC SALMON

Finding your way through the genes When you think of all the possibilities for new discoveries that have opened up with the ability to decode the gene sequences of living organisms, you might envision some scientist in a white lab coat, surrounded by an array of test tubes.

The process of decoding DNA sequences produces an avalanche of data - and finding the meaning and knowledge hidden in that data is a challenge being tackled today by computer scientists. They’re the researchers who work with algorithms and focus on interpreting genetic data instead of the messy business of samples and test tubes.

A BIOINFORMATICIAN UNPACKS THE DATA Robert Beiko is one such researcher.

Specializing in Bioinformatics, Dr. Beiko leads a team of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in a range of projects with direct applications to real-world problems.

Biological data are noisy, confusing, and incomplete, offering up different challenges in each project this team takes on.

The genetic material of many organisms is unknown or known only in fragmentary form; and the crucial patterns sought by bioinformaticians are buried in billions of letters of DNA that have changed through billions of years of evolution. Trying to correlate a specific gene sequence with a particular trait is also plagued by the complexity of how genes function: the story is rarely as simple as a one-to-one connection between a gene and any traits it might influence.

FISHING FOR GENES Dr. Beiko is collaborating with scientists at the Department of

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Fisheries and Oceans to try to understand the North Atlantic salmon; specifically, how many distinct populations exist. Although all Atlantic salmon belong to the same species, there are distinct breeding groups that rarely interbreed.

The project is a vital component of conservation strategies. Managing all salmon as a single unit could lead to the overfishing and destruction of local populations. The differences between populations may be invisible to us, but genetics can lead us to a better understanding of who breeds with whom, and where.

Policy makers have to take account of this information in order to produce effective conservation strategies.

Linking genes to traits like temperature preference can also provide clues about how salmon will survive and migrate as climate change alters the environment of the North Atlantic.

By comparing the genomes of individual salmon, information to identify distinct breeding groups can be discovered. But teasing the informative patterns out of this data is no easy task. PhD student Praveen Nadukkalam Ravindran is currently working on this challenge. He is building graph-based algorithms to identify the key similarities and differences between salmon populations. After applying his new algorithms to hundreds or thousands of salmon, Praveen and the research team use statistical methods to draw lines where one population ends and another begins and identify regions shared by two or more populations.

THE ACGTS OF DAIRY CATTLE For generations, farmers have pursued selective breeding to improve the quality of their dairy stock. Over the years, it has been discovered that selecting for high volumes of milk production has led to a diminished reproductivelongevity, which means that cattle produce for a shorter period in their lifespan. Dr. Beiko’s group is working on a collaboration with Performance Genomics Inc. (PGI) to identify gene sequences which are correlated with reproductive longevity in dairy cattle.

“We are working on a genomic selection approach, a new era in genetic improvement, which allows us to do a faster job of improving productivity as well as health, reproduction and longevity,” says Jyoti Joshi, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Beiko’s lab. “This project is extremely promising for animal breeding industries. To improve the reproductive life of Holstein cattle and increase the overall genetic profile of the herd would increase the overall benefit of the project to the agriculture sector.”

PGI was founded from a remarkable experiment in which populations of mice were selectively bred for reproductive longevity over dozens of generations. While it might seem strange to use mice to learn about important genes in cattle, many of their genes (and our genes!) are remarkably similar, and what is true for mice is often true for other mammals as well.

The bred mice did indeed achieve a longer reproductive lifespan, and genetic analysis showed important genetic

differences when these mice were compared to “normal” mice. But the effects were subtle, and a deeper genetic study with new sequencing technologies was required. Dr. Beiko’s team carried out parallel studies with genomic data from hundreds of mice and cattle, and compared the results to find the most promising leads.

A subtler understanding of the genes involved should allow for the selection of a desired trait without also having to accept a disadvantageous trait as a side effect. The team’s discoveries are currently being tested on thousands of cows, to see how well the top statistically-performing genes in their analysis line up with reality. If successful, the genes will be integrated into a test panel that farmers and companies use to decide which animals should produce the next generation of dairy cattle.

HUMAN MICROBIOME More complex still is the task of understanding the human microbiome, the ecosystem of single-celled organisms that live on and inside humans.

Bacterial DNA extracted from human gut and oral samples may contain fragments from hundreds or thousands of species, most of which have not been studied in a lab. And yet, it may be that correlations can be found with such general problems as periodontal disease and health problems associated with ageing.

Such correlations might suggest specific organisms to focus on more closely.

“It may sound like needles and haystacks,” says Dr. Beiko, “but with the right tools and especially the right people, we can find crucial patterns that point toward accurate diagnostics and targeted interventions."

He’s helping to develop a method to predict the role different microbes might be playing in the gut, based on comparisons with close genetic relatives. He’s produced a paper on the issue, which has already been cited over 300 times.

Dr. Beiko is also pursuing practical applications of the microbiome, co-leading (with Dr. Ken Rockwood, a professor of Geriatric Medicine and physician at the QEII Health Sciences Centre) a pilot survey of microbiome variability in an

assisted-care facility. The research team is currently examining the links between age, frailty, and the microbiome in a population of 45 individuals who were sampled weekly for a month. Among the hundreds of microbial species the research team has detected, there are several that show correlations with patient age. Analysis is ongoing, and many more patterns remain to be discovered in this rich dataset.

The project spans a range of disciplines. Postdoc Akhilesh Dhanani, an expert in probiotics such as Lactobacillus, is leading the sample collection and DNA sequencing efforts.

Michael Hall, a Master of Science (Computational Biology and Bioinformatics) student who will be starting his PhD in the fall, has developed new methods to probe the stability - or instability - of the microbiome over time.

“Genetic technologies are advancing at a bewildering rate; the rate at which DNA can be sequenced quickly and cheaply is dramatically outpacing Moore’s Law,” Dr. Beiko says. “New applications are emerging all the time in human health, biodiversity, and industry. And as more data and new data are produced at an unprecedented pace, advances in bioinformatics will be vital in making sense of the patterns buried in biological systems.”

ABOVE: Students Emma Sylvester (master's in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics) and Praveen Nadukkalam Ravindran (PhD in Computer Science) use a combination of network, machine learning, and visualization approaches to identify genetically distinct groups of Atlantic salmon that may occupy different habitats.

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“We’re experiencing a shift where computing is really becoming, along with theory and experimentation, the third leg of science.”

Andrew Rau-Chaplin DEAN, FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE Andrew Rau-Chaplin brings more than 20 years of teaching, research and industry experience to his role as dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, a position he assumed in July 2015.

Dr. Rau-Chaplin is excited to apply his knowledge and leadership abilities to a faculty he believes is primed for growth and success.

“It’s such a period of opportunity for the Faculty of Computer Science,” says Dr. Rau-Chaplin. “We’re experiencing a shift where computing is really becoming, along with theory and experimentation, the third leg of science. We have these fantastic opportunities if we’re willing to reach out and grab hold of them.”

Growing the faculty’s already strong relationship with industry is one of Dr. Rau-Chaplin’s key objectives.

He believes strong industry partnerships benefit students, companies, the university and the economy.

“We educate students who then go out and do great work in Canadian industry. They create new technologies, help business deploy and manage complex software systems, and found the start-ups that are inventing our future. Then they come back to us

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looking for the next generation of talent,” Dr. Rau-Chaplin explains. “And of course, when they come back, they inform and engage the next generation of students.

It’s a sustainable feedback loop between education and professional practice.”

Dr. Rau-Chaplin cites the undergraduate co-op programs as valuable assets for students in this regard, as these programs allow them to alternate between terms of academic study and practical co-op placements.

“We give students opportunities to interact with the whole gamut of software companies from global market leaders to local software startups.”

Nurturing a culture of coding is high on Dr. Rau-Chaplin’s agenda. He is proud to have taught graduates that have gone on to assume academic research chairs and senior positions in industry heavyweights like Google and Microsoft, but takes special pride in the faculty’s track record of producing a steady stream of students that can both excel in Canadian industry and flourish as successful entrepreneurs.

“It’s important not only to reach out to the established industries, but also to the startup community here and grow that,” he says. “You just have to look

at the number of software companies locally – to look at the founders and count how many are our alumni. They have been incredibly successful.”

Dr. Rau-Chaplin is also looking to better differentiate the faculty’s two undergraduate programs. Where the Bachelor of Computer Science degree builds development capacity, the Bachelor of Informatics degree focuses on how technologies are deployed and managed in organizations and society.

"By clearly articulating each program's respective value," he says, "the Faculty can better inform students and prospective employers about the knowledge and skill sets graduates possess."

Other assets of the faculty include Dal’s Institute for Big Data Analytics, which Dr. Rau-Chaplin says has “caught one of the waves that’s driving technology – and we were there early.”

This leadership, combined with industry partnerships, outstanding research programs, and academic excellence, are the pillars of what he believes will be a prosperous future.

“We’re doing very well for our size,” he says. “Now it’s a matter of building scale and engineering growth into the faculty.”

New Master of Applied Computer Science program New Master of Applied Computer Science (MACS) program now offers internship, entrepreneurship, and project streams for a September 2016 start date.

This degree prepares students for careers in the software industry.

Students develop their technical skills through core courses in systems, communications, data management, and a wide variety of elective courses.

The program finishes with a paid industry internship, entrepreneurship work term, or research project, providing valuable real world experience.

MACS is well suited for students coming from a STEM background, or foreign-trained IT professionals looking to gain technical education and experience in Canada. This degree can be completed in as little as 16-months or as a more in-depth 24-month program.

INTERNSHIP STREAM The internship stream offers students the opportunity to connect their academic training to paid work in Canada. With the help of our placement office, students secure internships at leading Canadian and international companies in software development, systems design, software testing, network management, network engineering, and web and mobile computing.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP STREAM For students interested in joining the startup ecosystem, the entrepreneurship stream offers a mix of deep technical skills, entrepreneurship training, and the opportunity to interact with local startups and accelerators.

Students in this stream take additional courses in the Starting Lean methodology and New Venture Creation, and then complete a 4-8 month entrepreneurship

work term. We provide space and support for student-based startups in our ICT sandbox: ShiftKey Labs. This stream helps students to take their ideas to the next level as a CTO or startup founder.

RESEARCH PROJECT STREAM Students in the research project stream have the opportunity to work in research labs at the forefront of technical innovation. They work hand in hand with other graduate students and faculty members to gain technical experience in the context of established research groups.

THE MACS ADVANTAGE By offering coursework in demand by organizations today, connections to industry, and the opportunity to be a part of a vibrant network of students, alumni, and local companies engaged in the start-up world, we’re ensuring our students are graduating with the skills and experience needed to thrive in today’s software industry.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR NEW MASTER OF APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM TODAY: DAL.CA/MACS

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A computer game for a cause Mimi Cahill and her classmates have created a computer game. Unlike most games, this one was designed to help tackle one of the world’s most serious and challenging problems: the continued recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Mimi Cahill (centre) with classmates (from left) Brian Yip, Jacquelyn Salloum and Aleysha Mullen.

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Like all students in the Informatics program, Mimi takes an Integrated Studies course each term that gives her the opportunity to work on a practical project. Working with teammates from her program, as well as Computer Science students (the course is cross-listed as Community Outreach for the Computer Science students), she’s made valuable contributions to several non-profit organizations.

For the fall term, Mimi chose to join five other students in wrapping up a computer game project that has spread across three terms over the past year. The game was built for the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, a Dalhousie-based organization founded by retired Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire in 2007 that aims to progressively end the use of child soldiers through a security sector approach. It's designed to serve as an interactive training tool for security sector actors who may have direct contact with child soldiers.

“I sought this project out specifically, because I wanted a little bit of gamebuilding experience and because it’s a meaningful project,” Mimi says, adding that she’s been interested in human rights and particularly child soldiers since she was about 13. “It’s a pretty deep subject, despite the fact that it’s a game.”

A TRAINING TOOL According to Mimi, the project’s original purpose was to develop a game that would raise awareness about the plight of child soldiers, but evolved to focus on the training aspect. Recognizing that first-person interaction with child soldiers presents difficult choices and potential danger for security sector actors, subsequent groups chose to address the need for preparation.

“The game is meant to be a training tool,” says Mimi, explaining that the training begins with players being

“I sought this project out specifically, because I wanted a little bit of game-building experience and because it’s a meaningful project,” Mimi says, adding that she’s been interested in human rights and particularly child soldiers since she was about 13. led through a primer of the situation in Somalia and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the country and peacekeeping context for which the game was created. Players then encounter a series of interactions with child soldiers and make choices that lead to varying results.

“The game leads you through these different situations where you see a child soldier and interact with them and you’re choosing which dialogue to go with,” Mimi says. “Depending on your choices, you might end up making the child angry and you’ll lose the game.

“It’s up to you whether you want to be heavy-handed or mild. As you go along, you learn which ways are the best.”

Mimi believes that this kind of interactive learning can be of unique benefit for security sector actors.

“It doesn’t take too long to play, but it does give you a quick feel for those situations,” she says. “It’s content that people in these organizations need to learn. And maybe it’s an easier way to take that information in than reading a huge document.”

developers have added functionality that allows users in different countries to alter the settings and game play to suit other nations. “Whoever’s working with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative can customize it depending on what they need it to be at the time,” Mimi says.

Josh Boyter, communications officer for the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, says students like Mimi have created a meaningful piece of a larger plan to address this challenge to the international community.

“Working together on the game project, we have created a student-developed tool that will have a direct impact on the work the Dallaire Initiative does around the globe to prevent the use of children as weapons of war” says Boyter.

Along with practical technical experience and the chance to work with the Dallaire Initiative, Mimi and her colleagues gained the satisfaction of creating something that can make an important impact across the globe.

“It’s a global project in a lot of ways,’ she says. “It’s a game, but we didn’t want to make it trivial. We wanted to make it useful.”

MAKING AN IMPACT Although originally designed to apply to Somalia and the AMISOM peacekeeping mission, student game

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Sharing expertise, making an impact Last spring the Governor General’s wife, Her Excellency Sharon Johnston, attended an event on the west coast. After watching a presentation on mental health, she was impressed with how the content was packaged and pushed, and how it employed creative engagement solutions and strategies.

Johnston had seen a multitude of representations for similar initiatives but she hadn’t seen this type of execution before, and she wanted to know who was behind it.

So who were the creative thinkers that Johnston was looking at? Halifax’s own Faten Alshazly (BSc [Computer Science] ’99) and the team at WeUsThem, a strategic marketing communications, advertising, and public relations firm with an emphasis on digital work. Their partnerships with health-care organizations have been causing quite a stir lately, and people have begun taking note.

“It was amazing to get this call and have someone tell you they saw your work at the other end of the country and wanted to take a trip just to meet you in person… it was mind-blowing,” Alshazly says. “We showed Her Excellency a world map of where our work had traveled to (138 countries so far), across many different countries. It was lit up everywhere. We do the work and we get the measures, but it’s rare to see it laid out altogether like that. It was a bravo moment for our team.”

Alshazly’s agency consults with local and foreign governments, heads of states, multi-national corporations and small businesses in fields such as academia, hospitality, health care, real estate and other industries. The team combines strong creative and technical arms to produce work bound in expertise that is aesthetically pleasing and consumable by the general public. As the firm’s Principal and Chief Creative Officer, Alshazly tries to bring new creative techniques using visual communications to represent a brand, a project, an initiative or a campaign for small or large businesses.

The work being highlighted was that done by WeUsThem for TeenMentalHealth.Org and Dalhousie’s Dr. Stan Kutcher from the Department of Psychiatry. Recently WeUsThem won the first Webby Honouree in the region for TeenMentalHealth.Org. Under Alshazly's leadership, WeUsThem has also brought another first to the East Coast, with the first Gold Davey recognizing the use of Experience by Design on Mobile Apps for McMaster University.

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“With the creative work we do, we have a very strong base in strategy — we’re trying to see how creative work can produce a return on investment when executed correctly,” she says.

FORGING CONNECTIONS At the centre of that strategy, and the majority of work that Alshazly immerses herself in, are the people around her. Last fall she was named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women, the first woman from Nova Scotia to receive that honour in Arts and Communications. The Top 100 Awards celebrate professional achievements of remarkable female leaders across the country in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. Most recently she was also noted as one of Canada’s top 5 Women of Inspiration by the Canadian Immigrant Magazine, and a Woman of Excellence by the Canadian Progress Club.

The award is proof of Alshazly’s wide-reaching impact — not only in the field of Arts and Communications, but as a leader in her community and as an influencer. In addition to her role as creative lead at WeUsThem, the proud Dal alumnus is also an adjunct professor, business advisor, mentor and board member for businesses. Alongside Ashwin Kutty — fellow Dal alumnus, professor and WeUsThem co-founder — Alshazly reflects on her success by her ability to give back.

“I wished I had this type of mentorship when I was at Dalhousie. You end up trying multiple channels until you find where your heart is and what you want, and sometimes you want something and you have no idea how to get to it,” Alshazly says. “I feel I could help make people’s lives easier, especially as they’re getting settled into the real world after graduation.

I want to do that.”

A PRESENCE ON CAMPUS For the past three years, Alshazly has been a strong presence within the Women in Technology Society (WiTS) at Dalhousie. The society exists to support and celebrate female students pursuing technology-based degrees at the university, and strives to promote equality of gender and race within science, technology, engineering and mathematic organizations.

To establish a strong culture of female tech enthusiasts within the university and the larger Halifax community, WiTS invites successful women with backgrounds in IT to mentor

“We showed Her Excellency a world map of where our work had traveled to, across many different countries. It was lit up everywhere.”

new graduates or undergraduate students by participating in their events. This mentorship helps provide young women with knowledge and advice about next steps and how to move forward in their careers after graduation.

Beyond her commitment at Dal, Alshazly also mentors outside of the university through the Women's Executive Network, the Women's Employment Outreach (WEO), the Halifax Partnership Connector Program, and as a Business Advisor with e3 (formerly Entrepreneurs Forum). She also brings students and mentees to the agency to let them witness and experience opportunities and challenges first-hand.

Some of them have even become long-term members of the tightly-knit team at the firm.

“This is how it is, you succeed and you share. I didn’t succeed just by trying. I had great mentors and people giving advice and support,” Alshazly says. “Sometimes all it takes is for one person to listen and give support, and that’s my focus, to see how I can help people in any way that I can.”

Faten Alshazly (BSc [Computer Science] ’99)

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Hack Attack

Dal-hosted Shiftkey Labs and IBM partner on Open Data Competition The Dal-hosted ShiftKey Labs and IBM teamed up to offer post-secondary students from across Nova Scotia the opportunity to find compelling, innovative uses for government data.

The “hackathon” event, held on International Open Data Day (March 5), saw students using an IBM cloud-computing platform and data sets available through the Nova Scotia Government’s Open Data Portal (ODP) as they competed for $2,250 in prize money.

The idea was simple: students would build analytical applications that leveraged the rich data sets available through the ODP — public government data covering areas such as business and economy, communities and social services, government administration, and nature and environment. It was up to the teams to decide whether to use one data set, or a combination of many, to define a challenge and develop an innovative solution.

The event was held at ShiftKey (the Dal-hosted information communications technology sandbox space) in the Goldberg Computer Science Building, and kicked off with an introduction from the Honourable Labi Kousoulis, Nova Scotia's Minister of Internal Services. He welcomed the 20 student participants, mostly undergraduates, who showed up despite a snowstorm.

PARTNERSHIP AND CONNECTION Their tool for the day was IBM's Bluemix, a cloud platformas-service that combines IBM software, third party and open technologies. A key piece of the Bluemix platform revolves around analytics: in order to build apps and services that can intuitively respond to behaviours — and the world around them — people need to be able to establish context and create a personalization of data.

“Bluemix provides DevOps in the cloud – an open, integrated development experience that scales,” says Stephen Perelgut, IBM Canada's cloud-business development manager. “DevOps services help developers, independent firms, and enterprise teams get started to build enterprise applications more quickly and effectively.”

With the help of IBM experts, students used the Bluemix platform to tackle their challenges and data sets. By Sunday, teams had to create a good idea and a basic prototype of an app or service. IBM and other industry partners completed the judging.

"I was very impressed by the participants,” adds Perelgut. “[They] took in a three-hour demonstration and applied it in many different ways to develop solutions that merged multiple data bases, ran on desktops, tablets, and smartphones, and addressed the challenge successfully at many levels.”

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ABOVE TOP: The end of a successful weekend. ABOVE LEFT: Students Zara Palevani and Konstantyn Volotka. ABOVE RIGHT: The Honourable Labi Kasoulis, Minister of Internal Services and Grant Wells, Program Manager, ShiftKey Labs

AND THE WINNER IS… A team of three third- and fourth-year Computer Science and Informatics students (Dylan Pomeroy, Eric Desjardins, and Wilson Chiang) was behind the winning app, Food Piper, designed to connect customers to local restaurants.

Food Piper uses publicly-available data to locate food establishments, while also highlighting specials and package deals. The team used Bluemix’s capabilities to scrape data, quickly build a database and model it into a map suitable for a number of different devices. The team behind Food Piper intends on trying to develop their idea into a commercial product supported by ShiftKey Labs.

Other products included an extreme-event app that used a published open data set describing abandoned mines; an app that blended open-data listings of all hospitals and clinics with a plan of acquiring real-time data about emergency care wait times; an app to identify when rising sea levels would cause an area to be underwater; and one designed to share areas of items of interest (schools, jobs, etc.) with people moving to a new neighbourhood.

“First- and second-year students generated very interesting ideas and created very impressive prototypes, showing how competitive they were with senior undergraduate and graduate students,” says Grant Wells, program manager of ShiftKey. “In

particular, it was fascinating to see the first- and secondyear team, Settlr, read through dozens of data sets to pull together five for their product, whereas most other teams only implemented one or two data sets.”

HELPING STUDENTS EXPAND THEIR SKILLS Speaking about the event, Minister Kousoulis described the Government of Nova Scotia’s goal of allowing individuals, businesses, students and researchers alike to use the Open Data Portal to apply fresh eyes to public problems or to create jobs and business opportunities.

"It’s my hope the students who took part in the hackathon used data to look at a problem through a different lens – or used two seemingly unrelated datasets to spur a business idea they can grow in Nova Scotia," he said.

Opportunities like the hackathon also allow for more collaboration within industry and give students the opportunity to explore really rich publicly available data. With no context set in place, students have the freedom to be innovative.

“The ultimate goal of events like these is to drive innovation,” says Andrew Rau-Chaplin, dean of the Faculty of Computer Science.

“They not only bring together students from diverse backgrounds and institutions to tackle a challenge in a very short period of time, they inspire creative thinking around problem solving — something we want to instill in our students.”

STUDENT RESEARCH PROFILE

EMAN ALYAMI WORKING TOWARDS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PhD, RESEARCHING HOW WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND HOW IT IS CHANGING THEIR LIVES.

Social media in the Middle East The increasing interpenetration of computer science into the widest range of research topics across the university has meant that an interdisciplinary approach has become increasingly common amongst our students. Many research questions these days cannot be answered from only one perspective. One such student is Eman Alyami, working towards an interdisciplinary PhD researching how women in the Middle East are using social media and how it is changing their lives. This broad topic draws on sociology, management studies, and computer science, where her supervisors are Dr. Stan Matwin, Dr. Carolyn Watters, Dr. Chris Helland and Dr. Dawn Jutla.

In the beginning, the interdisciplinary approach created a confusing situation, with different libraries for each different discipline; requiring her to create her own library drawing from all three sources.

Her research began with a look at women’s issues, such as power, politics and social life, but also necessitated a study of the background of this diverse geographical area. The computer science aspect of her research concerns the huge amounts of data, Twitter traffic in this case, which must be tracked and processed. The volume of data is so large that keeping up with it is a real problem.

Algorithms to deal with large volumes of text are one of the big data tools that is required. There are also language problems with differences between modern standard Arabic and more informal spoken variations. Help from colleagues is also necessary to confirm Arabic/English translations, and Twitter traffic also does not always explicitly identify the gender of the writer and so methods to identify or infer gender have to be adopted or created.

Eman came from Saudi Arabia in 2010 to do her Master of Electronic Commerce. When she completed her degree and was looking to doctoral studies, Dr. Vlado Keselj pointed her in the direction of the interdisciplinary program. She started her PhD in 2014. Her great ambition after she graduates is to teach, and so along with her research she has been working on her teaching skills through the Dalhousie Centre for Learning and Teaching and through Teaching Assistantships.

Eman would like to go back to Saudi Arabia and become a professor. Although Canada is different in many ways to Saudi Arabia, she has enjoyed its open and multicultural society, as well as the abundant natural environment.

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Tell us what you'd like to see happen in the group, what you want to hear from us, and how else you might want to connect with the FCS community. alumni@cs.dal.ca TOP: A very active & full Women in Technology Society (WiTS) at their We Talk Tech career fair. MIDDLE LEFT: DCSI 2015 welcomes the Honourable Kelly Regan, Minister of Labour & Advanced Education, President Florizone, and Alumna Kori Inkpen to Women in Computing Luncheon (sponsored by Microsoft). MIDDLE RIGHT: Celebrating this year’s Schulich Scholars with the Goldberg family. BOTTOM LEFT: CoReCS hosts CS World Café.

42101015 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Marketing, Communications & Alumni Officer Faculty of Computer Science Dalhousie University PO Box 15000 Halifax NS B3H 4R2 Canada

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