Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia

06/04/2026

UBC Computer Science researchers Joanna McGrenere, Kevin Chow and Marvel Hariadi explain how focus apps are failing neurodivergent minds:

Many focus apps fail to consider neurodivergent strengths, such as the ability to hyperfocus.

06/03/2026

Congratulations to our graduating students Irmak Bayir and Selin Uz, who received the Bill Aiello Memorial Award in Computer Science. This award has been established in memory of former UBC Computer Science Department Head Bill Aiello for outstanding students who best combine academic excellence with leadership, community service or volunteerism.

06/02/2026

Congratulations to the recipients of our UBC Computer Science Awards for Academic Excellence! These awards are given to students graduating with the highest average in their program.

Computer Science Major (BSc): Jason Yang
Computer Science Combined Majors (BSc): Jaehwan Seok
Computer Science Honours (BSc): Emilie Ma
Computer Science Combined Honours (BSc): Michael Yang
Computational Intelligence and Design (BSc): Akira Kudo
Computer Science Majors (BA): Nathan Senyard
Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS): Horton Lai
Combined Major Business & Computer Science (BUCS): Torrin Pataki

We are so proud of you and your accomplishments!

06/01/2026

From a model to observe Earth to a new approach for scene reconstruction, UBC Computer Science researchers will be presenting new research at the 2026 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) this week in Colorado, USA.

CVPR is the premier computer vision conference for researchers to share the latest findings in areas such as AI, autonomous vehicles and robotics.

Read more about the papers in our new article: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/06/CVPR26

05/29/2026

A new campus-wide 100-level course, and separate degree option in computer science, are designed to help UBC students succeed in an AI-driven future.

This fall, UBC is launching two new educational offerings designed to give students the tools and insights they need to navigate the evolving scientific, professional, and ethical landscape presented by artificial intelligence (AI).

The first is the 100-level Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, a course open to all UBC Vancouver students that takes a holistic, interdisciplinary view of the burgeoning technology.

In addition, a new degree option will give students in computer science the opportunity to focus the last two years of their undergraduate degree on developing dedicated technical expertise in AI.

Read more in a new article in UBC Science news:

A new campus-wide 100-level course, and separate degree option in computer science, are designed to help UBC students succeed in an AI-driven future.

05/27/2026

Congratulations to UBC Computer Science Professor Kevin Leyton-Brown, who has been honoured with a major international computer science award for contributions to AI and machine learning!

The prestigious award is given each year to an individual with remarkable career contributions that have breadth within computer science or that bridge computer science and other disciplines.

"I’m extremely honoured to receive this award,” says Dr. Leyton-Brown. “AI can bring incredible benefits, and I believe we have both an unprecedented opportunity and a moral obligation to leverage AI to benefit all communities, particularly in the developing world.”

Read more: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/05/dr-kevin-leyton-brown-receives-acm-aaai-allen-newell-award

05/25/2026

Congratulations to UBC Computer Science Assistant Professors Hila Gonen, Mathias Lécuyer and Serena Wang on being selected as new Canada CIFAR AI Chairs and Assistant Professor Kelsey Allen on being selected as a CIFAR Global Scholar!

The CIFAR AI Chairs program provides long-term funding to support research programs to advance fundamental and applied AI research in Canada while CIFAR’s Global Scholars program supports early-career researchers in their ambitious projects and helps them in their first year as independent investigators.

Read more: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/05/cifar-ai-chairs-global-scholar

05/20/2026

Last week, we invited 4 of our UBC Computer Science alums to talk about how AI and agentic coding are transforming their work. Attendees heard about how leading teams are supporting new talents, which skills still matter, and how recent grads can build strong fundamentals in an AI-powered world. There were great discussions about where computer science is headed and what it takes to develop the next generation of talent.

Thank you to our wonderful panelists: Christine Legge, Giulia Mattia, Tom Jin, and Luke Kysow!

Thank you to everyone who came to the event!

05/20/2026

The BC AI Research-to-Adoption Summit, co-hosted by UBC Computer Science and SFU School of Computing Science, brought together leaders in academia, industry and government to strengthen collaborations across their sectors and bring awareness of BC as the forefront of AI innovation.

“We had an incredibly strong turnout and engagement at our AI Summit,” says UBC Computer Science Professor and Co-Head Joanna McGrenere, one of the lead organizers of the event. “It was inspiring to see a shared commitment to advancing AI research, collaboration and real-world adoption in BC.”

Throughout the panels, the messages were clear: BC has a strong AI ecosystem, with stellar AI researchers and a strong tech sector that is applying AI; there’s a strong appetite from academia and industry more broadly to improve how AI research is translated into applications; and that while industry and academia must strengthen its collaboration, more government support is needed to foster those relationships.

“The event was a success in large part thanks to everyone’s participation, engagement and thoughtful discussions,” says Dr. Oliver Schulte, SFU Professor and Director of the School of Computing Science and one of the lead organizers of the AI Summit. “Now is the time to harness the momentum of the field and build long-lasting partnerships to usher us into the new era of AI in BC.”

Read more in our new article: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/05/bc-ai-summit

05/14/2026

On an Easter long weekend, over a hundred students gathered in a large, sun-lit room on campus. Rows of white foldable tables were arranged with just enough space for them to squeeze through and rejoin their small group. Laptop keyboards clacked away and iced lattes were consumed at a leisurely pace.

Even though students were typing out lines of code in hopes of building something functional by the end of the 24 hours, this wasn’t a typical hackathon — this was a student-led hackathon that aimed to empower women and gender minorities.

“Our goal is to build an inclusive space for students who are underrepresented in tech,” says Lucy Lu, a UBC Bachelor in Computer Science student and Co-Lead of this year’s youCode event.

Nearly 80% of participants were women or gender diverse students, and many of them have never attended a hackathon before. In the week prior to the event, youCode organizers hosted various pre-hackathon workshops to help students who are new to coding or hackathons navigate the event.

“Many hackathons don’t give beginners the opportunity to test things out and learn what they’re doing,” says Amara Oriaku, a UBC Sauder student in Business Technology Management and Co-Lead of youCode 2026. “What makes our hackathon unique is the growth aspect — we help provide resources so any student can build a minimally viable product.”

Read more in our new article: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/05/youcode-2026