Researcher Profile – Researcher Profile – You can be a You can be a Researcher too!Researcher too!

Science Outcomes

This lesson will address the following outcomes from:

All Alberta Science Programs-Of-Studies (Grades 7-12):

Program Rationale and Philosophy

Goals:

• Provide students with a foundation in science that creates opportunities for them to pursue progressively higher levels of study, prepares them for science-related hobbies appropriate to their interests and abilities

• Develop in students of varying aptitudes and interests a knowledge of the wide spectrum of careers related to science, technology and the environment.

Introduction: Computer Science Researchers

When most people think of Computer Science Researchers a variety of images may come to mind:

Computer Science Researchers

The media’s stereotypes of computer science researchers are not entirely true. They are regular people on the streets like you and me!

In fact, students like YOU can be a computer science researcher at the University!

Your photo here

Computer Science Researchers

Here, we will talk to four computer science researchers working on the BioBank project at the University of Alberta’s Computer Science Center. These four researchers have a variety of backgrounds and achieved levels of education. One of them is a high school student!!

BioBank Project

The BioBank project is a collaboration between Alberta Ingenuity Center for Machine Learning (AICML) and Capital Health to design a client open source multi-platform client-server application. This is basically a software for doctors to freely share data that might be used for research in other hospitals.

The concept of open source means the software is free for anyone to use. This is similar to the FREE software you download off the web. Currently there is a large open source movement to provide users like you with more free software.

Machine LearningWe can program machines to do specific objects like picking up garbage, but it’s difficult to program a machine to do everything humans do. Our actions come very natural to us, but the task of programming everything we know into a machine seems impossible.

This is why the Alberta Ingenuity Center for Machine Learning (AICML) funds researchers to develop new programs for machines (like robots) to learn from the data they collect. This is new field of programming called Machine Learning. AICML is truly created learning machines!!!

Computer Science Researchers – Nelson

Name: Nelson Loyola

Education/Experience: Computer Engineering Degree from the University of Alberta then spend 6 years working at Nortel followed by 7 years of software design. In 2004 he moved back to Edmonton and started to work in the research lab

How did your interest in computers science start?

In junior high the ATARI and Coleco came out and I became interested in video games and figuring out how games worked. My mom also took a course in visual arts (basic programming) and got me really interested in programming. Then she bought a VIC-20, basically a low price computer that could program basic tasks like simple games. My interest grew out of that, I even switched high schools so that I could go to a school with a computer program (back then, not every school had computers, let alone a computer program!)

Computer Science Researchers – Nelson

What do you find rewarding about your job?

It’s medically related, so the project has potential to affect people’s health in a positive way.

What are some of the challenges?

There are many. I have been working for a year and a half on this project, but up until a few months ago it was just me working so that was really difficult trying to work on a multi-person project by myself. Another challenge was understanding the doctor’s lab, and translating this work flow into a software.

At AICML, you lead a team of people. Could you briefly describe how this team is structured and how it works to achieve your research goals?

Project lead is me, I look after the scheduling and develop code. Delphine and Aaron are programmers and are also responsible for design and developing code, they also need to testing their work to make sure it works. Thomas (a high school student) is creating a graphical user interface that can decode barcodes and allow clinics to save data into an organized spreadsheet that is easy to work with.

Computer Science Researchers – Delphine

Name: Delphine Degris-Dard

Education/Experience: Masters in Computer Science, then worked on a research team in Price with engineers followed by working in a computer department of a window company. Last year she came to Edmonton and 3 months ago started to work in AICML.

When did you first get interested in computer science and what got you interested?

Right after high school I went into computer science, and at first I didn’t know what I wanted to do and when I figured out I didn’t want to do math. I turned to computer science – there was enough logic in computer science for me to be proficient and enjoy doing it, I was successful at it and my interest grew.

Computer Science Researchers – Delphine

What do you find rewarding about your job? 

What you are doing is helpful for other people. It is not just about productivity, it is less about money and more about helping people.

Do you find programming a one person task? Not when you’re on a team, you always ask colleagues to help you even if you are not working on the same project. There are also meets to decide stuff, you always have to interact with each other to know the progress and make the project better.

Can you offer any advice to students preparing to study computer science at the post secondary level? Don’t have to be afraid to go into computer science even if you don’t have programming experience. Once you’re in computer science you will learn, you don’t need a lot of experience ahead of time. If you’re interested in it, you can succeed at it.

Computer Science Researchers – Aaron

Name: Aaron Young

Education/Experience: Recently completed his Computer Science Degree, and did an internship at AICML while working on degree.

When did you decide to pursue a career in research? Part of it was I had already worked here, beyond that there’s generally more interesting work to do here.

What do you find rewarding about your job? 

There are lots of cool projects to work on here, you’re also working for very smart people (professors). Being surrounded by them changes you as well, I got smarter just by doing my internship at AICML. My GPA (mark) went up significantly after interning here.

Computer Science Researchers – Aaron

When did you first get interested in computer science and what got you interested?

I had an Apple Classic 2 when I was young and used to play games on that, and generally loved to play with computers. When I got to high school, they offered programming courses, so I took those and ended up going far beyond what the course asked for and started to learn on my own.

Can you offer any advice to students preparing to study computer science at the post secondary level?

You want to do things on your own, the most brilliant people aren’t those who took the most courses, they were the ones trying stuff out. There’s a lot of confusion around what a degree will get you in computer science, a University degree is much more geered towards research than working in the industry, because you learn the fundamentals as opposed to the standards. Computing science will give you a broad view of the scientific concepts involved in computing, which are essential in research. Computing is about solving problems, not about programming. Computers are just the medium.

Computer Science Researchers – Thomas

Name: Thomas Polasek

Education/Experience: Student of Strathcona High School

When did you first get interested in computer science and what got you interested?

Through gaming, it started with a game called Byond (multi-programmer/player game) where I created games and played them with others.

What do find rewarding about your internship?  Learning new programming techniques, also getting a good inside look as to how things work at the university.

Can you offer any advice to students preparing to study computer science at the post secondary level?  Computers will be useful and people will need to learn to use it.

Career Connection Questions

1. Define the term Machine Learning.

2. Create a list of applications in the field of Machine Learning that may provide a benefit to society.

3. Using the information from this lesson, the Internet, and other resources to find out about the educational training needed to become a computer science researcher or a researcher in some other area of science that you are interested in. Discuss the various degrees required. Include the amount of time and money needed to achieve each degree. (You may want to visit your local University or Technology Institute’s website)

Centre for Mathematics Science and Technology Education (CMASTE)382 Education SouthUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton AB T6G 2G5www.CMASTE.caTo download: select Outreach, Alberta Ingenuity Resources and Centre for Machine LearningFilename: AICML6BrainTumourAnalysis

Centre for Machine LearningDepartment of Computing ScienceUniversity of Alberta2-21 Athabasca HallEdmonton AB T6G 2E8(780) 492-4828www.machinelearningcentre.ca

Alberta Ingenuity2410 Manulife Place, 10180-101 StreetEdmonton AB T5J 3S4(780) 423-5735www.albertaingenuity.ca