Research Areas in Computing Science

Artificial Intelligence

The AI group at SFU works in several important subareas of the field, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, knowledge representation and reasoning, constraint optimization, and robotics.

Research Areas:

Yagiz Aksoy

Area: Computer Vision, Computer Graphics

M. Stella Atkins (emerita)

Area: Medical Image Analysis

Angel Chang

Area: Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics

Mo Chen

Area: Robotics

Ryan D'arcy

Area: Neuroscience

James Delgrande (emeritus)

Area: Knowledge Representation

Yasutaka Furukawa

Area: Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Geometric Deep Learning

Ghassan Hamarneh

Area: Medical Image Analysis, Computer Vision, Machine Learning

Maxwell Libbrecht

Area: Computational Biology, Machine Learning

Hang Ma

Area: Robotics

David Mitchell

Area: Algorithms & Complexity, Logic & Reasoning

Fred Popowich

Area: Natural Language Processing

Manolis Savva

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Geometric Deep Learning

Andrea Tagliasacchi

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Geometric Deep Learning

Sharan Vaswani

Area: Machine Learning

KangKang Yin

Area: Computer Animation, Humanoid Robotics

Kay C. Wiese 

Area: Computational Biology, Evolutionary Computation, Machine Learning

Ke Li

Area: Machine learning, Computer Vision, Algorithms & Complexity, Computer Graphics

Angelica Lim

Area: Robotics, HCI, Machine Learning

Ali Mahdavi-Amiri

Area: Visual Computing, Artificial Intelligence

Jason Peng

Area: Reinforcement Learning, Computer Animation, Robotics

Anoop Sarkar

Area: Natural Language Processing

Oliver Schulte

Area: Machine Learning, Logic & Reasoning

Eugenia Ternovska

Area: Logic & Reasoning, Knowledge Representation, Algorithms & Complexity

Richard Zhang

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Computational Design & Fabrication, Geometric Deep Learning

Computational Biology, Biomedical Computing and Medical/Health Informatics

The explosion of huge biological and medical data sets creates the opportunity to drive innovations in the life sciences through computational approaches such as machine learning, sequence algorithms, image analysis and others. Computational biology researchers at SFU CS are working to develop tools for analysis of genome sequencing data, gene regulation, epigenomics, single-cell assays, medical images, medical records, and others.

Research Areas:

M. Stella Atkins (emerita)

Area: Medical Image Analysis

Maxwell Libbrecht

Area: Computational Biology, Machine learning

Ghassan Hamarneh

Area: Medical Image Analysis, Computer Vision, Machine Learning

Kay C. Wiese

Area: Computational Biology, Evolutionary Computation, Machine Learning

Data Science, Databases and Data Mining

In many application domains, such as social networks, business, and healthcare, increasingly large amounts of data are being collected requiring sophisticated computational tools to discover the hidden "golden nuggets."

Our researchers in data science, databases, and data mining address the corresponding research challenges with a broad range of methods  and systems from data collection, storage, cleaning, management, analytics, knowledge extraction, and representation. They are international leaders in topics such as data cleaning, big data systems, database query answering, graph and network mining, privacy preserving data analytics, spatial and temporal data processing, and various applications.

Research Areas: 

Martin Ester 

Area: Databases, Data Mining

Jiannan Wang

Area: Database Systems

Tianzheng Wang

Area: Databases, Distributed Systems

Jian Pei

Area: Databases, Data Mining 

Ke Wang

Area: Databases, Data Mining

Programming Languages, Software Engineering, Networks and Systems

The group focuses on applied research in systems, networking and computer architecture. Primary subareas covered include network modelling, network security, operating systems, parallel and distributed computing, real-time systems, wireless, multimedia, and peer-to-peer communication. Research in programming languages and software covers subareas such as Formal Verification, Static Program Analysis and Model Checking, Concurrent and Mobile Systems, Functional and Logic Programming.

RESEARCH AREAS:

Alaa Alameldeen

Area: Computer Architecture, Computer Security

Saba Alimadadi

Area: Software Engineering

Ouldooz Baghban Karimi 

Area: Computer Networks

Robert D. Cameron

Area: Software Engineering, Programming Languages

Qianping Gu 

Area: Computer Networks, Algorithms & Complexity

Steven Ko

Area: Mobile Computing, Software Engineering

Jiangchuan (JC) Liu

Area: Computer Networks, Mobile Computing

Joseph Peters (emeritus)

Area: Computer Networks, Algorithms and Complexity

William (Nick) Sumner

Area: Software Engineering, Computer Security

Tao Wang

Area: Computer Security

Yuepeng Wang

Area: Programming Languages

Uwe Glässer

Area: Software Engineering

Mohamed Hefeeda

Area: Multimedia Systems, Computer Networks

Anders Miltner

Area: Programming Languages

Arrvindh Shriraman

Area: Computer Architecture

Keval Vora

Area: Distributed Systems, High-Performance Computing, Operating Systems

Tianzheng Wang

Area: Database Systems, Distributed Systems

Theory

The Algorithms and Complexity Group is interested in the theoretical aspects of computing science and in the application of this theory to modern industrial uses. Important subareas include computational geometry, parallel algorithms, distributed algorithms, operations research, and graph algorithms. We have a particular interest in the development of algorithms for optimization problems. Some of our current projects have applications in the areas of biomedical image processing, geographical information systems, communication networks, scheduling, robot motion planning, pattern recognition, and VLSI layout. In addition to our own research, we consult for industry and advise other academic researchers.

Research Areas:

Matt Amy

Area: Quantum Computing 

Andrei Bulatov

Area: Algorithms & Complexity, Logic & Verification

Qianping Gu

Area: Network Communications and Algorithms

Pavol Hell (emeritus)

Area: Algorithms and Complexity

David Mitchell

Area: Algorithms & Complexity, Logic & Reasoning

Igor Shinkar

Area: Algorithms & Complexity

Steven Pearce

Area: Quantum Computing

Valentine Kabanets

Area: Algorithms & Complexity

Ke Li 

Area: Machine learning, Computer Vision, Algorithms & Complexity, Computer Graphics

Thomas C. Shermer

Area: Algorithms & Complexity

Eugenia Ternovska

Area: Logic & Reasoning, Knowledge Representation, Algorithms & Complexity

Joseph Peters (emeritus)

Area: Computer Networks, Algorithms and Complexity

Visual and Interactive Computing

Visual computing encompasses all scientific and computational disciplines that deal with visual data such as images, videos, 3D shapes, and virtual environments. Core areas of visual computing include computer graphics, computer vision, image processing, computational photography, computational design and fabrication, and data and information visualization. Interactive computing encompasses areas of computing that involve human interaction or interactive computational systems.  Core areas are human-computer interaction, multimedia systems, user-centered software, and interactive visualization.

Research Areas:

Yagiz Aksoy

Area: Computer Vision, Computer Graphics

Sheelagh Carpendale

Area: HCI, Visualization

Angel Xuan Chang

Area: Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics

Parmit Chilana

Area: HCI

Mark Drew (emeritus)

Area: Computer Vision

Yasutaka Furukawa

Area: Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Geometric Deep Learning

Lawrence Kim

Area: Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction

Angelica Lim

Area: Robotics, HCI, Machine Learning

Jason Peng

Area: Reinforcement Learning, Computer Animation, Robotics

Andrea Tagliasacchi

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Geometric Deep Learning

KangKang Yin

Area: Computer Graphics, Machine Learning

Richard Zhang

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Computational design & Fabrication, Geometric Deep Learning

Eugene Fiume

Area: Computer Graphics

Ghassan Hamarneh

Area: Medical Image Analysis, Computer Vision, Machine Learning

Ke Li 

Area: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Algorithms & Complexity, Computer Graphics

Ali Mahdavi-Amiri

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Computational Design & Fabrication, Geometric Deep Learning

Manolis Savva

Area: Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Deep Learning

Xing-Dong Yang

Area: Human-Computer Interaction