1st Annual Undergraduate Research Award RECAP
  Presented by the University of Toronto ACM Student Chapter

The Undergraduate Awards were a complete success! More than sixty students and faculty attended the informal evening; the first of its kind at the University. The seminar proceeded as follows:

  • An introductory speech by Chair Raymond Jang and Treasurer Reza Lotun, describing what the ACM and ACM Student chapter is. Most importantly, the introduction affirmed our goal of improving student-faculty interaction and undergraduate Computer Science research.
  • Presentation 1: Following this was the first presentation by Lee Holmes on computer vision and object recognition.
  • Presentation 2: Next up was our Chair Raymond Jang's presentation of web data extraction.
  • Presentation 3: Victor Petrovykh then presented his project, which was on multi-valued logic and related algorithms.
  • Presentation 5: Next was a presentation on web search engine rankings.
  • The evening closed with a decision by the panel of judges to award the $100 gift certificate prize to Tovi Grossman, whose presentation was on interface design while working at Alias Wavefront. Congratulations Tovi!

We thank all those who supported us in organizing such a landmark event, including Prof. C.C. Gotlieb and Karen Reid - their help was much appreciated. The ACM Chapter hopes to make the Undergraduate Awards a tradition long into the future. We hope to see you at next year's 2nd Annual Undergraduate Research Awards!
 
Date and Location
 Friday November 23, 2001. 2:30 - 4:00 PM. SF 3202.
Description
 A showcase of undergraduate Computer Science research, typically at the level of the CSC494 research course. The best presentation will be judged by a panel of five DCS professors, and a prize awarded. Refreshments will be served.
Speakers
 "Interaction Techniques for 3D Modeling On Large Displays."
Tovi Grossman
Supervisor: Prof. Ravin Balakrishnan
An alternate interface for 3D modeling for use on large scale displays is presented. The interface integrates several concepts specifically selected and enhanced for large scale interaction. These include 2D construction planes spatially integrated in a 3D volume, enhanced orthographic views, smooth transitions between 2D and 3D views, tape drawing as the primary curve and line creation technique, visual viewpoint markers, and continuous two-handed interaction.
"Model-based vs view-based object recognition."
Lee Holmes
Supervisor: Prof. Sven Dickinson
One argument that spans artificial intelligence, computer graphics, and cognitive psychology stems from our attempts on how to reason about human object recognition. At one end of the spectrum, computer scientists and psychologists argue that we recognize objects by comparing them to a set of remembered "views" of the object. At the other end of the spectrum,
proponents argue that we form internal 3d models of objects (based on simple primitives) and then compare these models to ones we already know. My project covers the two factions, and examines the topic in the context of computer-based implementation.
"Multivalued Model Checking."
Victor Petrovykh
Supervisors: Prof. M.Chechik, Prof. S.M. Easterbrook
Development and implementation of some of the algorithms for the multivalued model checker. "Abstract Interpretation is a technique that enables us to compute properties of infinite-domain programs in finite time. We are using this technique to analyze correctness of C programs. This technique is very light-weight, enabling quick estimation of values of variables at each point of the program. These values can then be used for quick but imprecise CTL model-checking". (excerpt from Prof. M. Chechik's site).
"Robust Web Data Extraction."
Raymond Jang
Supervisor: Prof. Alberto Mendelzon
TOPIC, developed at the University of Toronto, is a search process that, given the URL of a web page, outputs the topics on which the page has a reputation. The calculation of the reputation of a page on a topic is based on the content of the incoming links.
My project seeks to increase the robustness of TOPIC's implementation, with respect to changes in the layout of a search engine results page. Therefore, a robust TOPIC would continue extracting the desired information from an HTML page, even when the page has undergone changes in its structure or design.
"Further Results Ranking In Web Search Engines."
 
Supervisor: Prof. C. C. Gotlieb
Incomplete Abstract: A re-application of the experiment performed by Martin P. Courtois and Michael W. Berry on the accuracy of relevancy searches in web search engines, with new results.