Media Releases

New professional master’s program in computer science

August 12, 2010

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is launch­ing a new pro­fes­sion­al master’s degree in Com­put­er Sci­ence this Sep­tem­ber, aimed at edu­cat­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of tech­ni­cal lead­ers, inno­va­tors and entre­pre­neurs in turn­ing research into prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions.

The new Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Applied Com­put­ing pro­gram is one of only a hand­ful of sim­i­lar pro­grams in Cana­da. Unlike most of the country’s Com­put­er Sci­ence grad­u­ate pro­grams, the focus of this pro­gram will be on the con­crete appli­ca­tion and devel­op­ment of research results, rather than on con­duct­ing orig­i­nal research.

“After exten­sive out­reach, this pro­gram was cre­at­ed to address a num­ber of con­cerns,” says Allan Borodin, co-chair of the pro­gram’s steer­ing com­mit­tee. “First, many Cana­di­ans were not apply­ing for grad­u­ate pro­grams because they want­ed careers in indus­try and were not inter­est­ed in doing research. We were look­ing for ways to broad­en the appeal of a Com­put­er Sci­ence grad­u­ate degree to these stu­dents. Sec­ond, we were equal­ly eager to deep­en our rela­tions with indus­try, and in par­tic­u­lar, cre­ate a new vehi­cle for apply­ing our research. The M.Sc.A.C. will have a tremen­dous impact in each of these areas.”

The new pro­gram will be Canada’s first to empha­size tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer between acad­e­mia and indus­try, says Borodin. There will be a clear focus on apply­ing the lat­est, cut­ting-edge com­put­er sci­ence research in real-world sit­u­a­tions. Of 120 appli­cants to the pro­gram, six elite stu­dents were select­ed to enroll this year, but the pro­gram will grad­u­al­ly build to admit­ting two dozen stu­dents per year.

After study­ing with some of the country’s fore­most Com­put­er Sci­ence researchers for eight months, each stu­dent will spend eight months work­ing in an indus­tri­al intern­ship, where they will apply their aca­d­e­m­ic expe­ri­ence to real-world prob­lems, says Borodin.

“The pro­gram is advan­ta­geous for our indus­try part­ners because they’ll have access to the high­est cal­iber of grad­u­ate stu­dents for large-scale projects that can be devel­oped from incep­tion to com­ple­tion,” says Eugene Fiume, the new­ly appoint­ed direc­tor of the pro­gram. “For our stu­dents, it means the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in advanced aca­d­e­m­ic cours­es, work with lead­ing researchers in state-of-the-art labs and gain invalu­able indus­try expe­ri­ence.”

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Sara Fran­ca
Senior Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Exter­nal Rela­tions Offi­cer
Depart­ment of Com­put­er Sci­ence
416–978-3619
sfranca@cs.toronto.edu