UBC students launch first-ever, student-led computer science research conference
Undergraduate and graduate student researchers congregate for day of posters, presentations and networking
UBC Computer Science students held a student-led computer science research conference for the first time on February 27, 2026. The UBC CS Student Research Conference, organized by the Computer Science Graduate Student Association (CSGSA) and the Computer Science Student Society (CSSS), brought together around 150 computer science students, faculty and staff for a full day of posters, presentations and networking.
For students, this was a chance to experience going to a research conference, presenting their project in a supportive environment and learning about other research projects within the department.
“We wanted to build a stronger sense of community within the department,” says Rúbia Guerra, Co-President of the CSGSA and co-organizer of the conference. “Research can be pretty siloed. You work with your supervisor and your lab, but you don't always know what the person down the hall is working on. This conference was a way to get everyone involved and talking to each other.”
Attendees heard a keynote presentation from Dr. Kelsey Allen, UBC Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Psychology, who talked about her research journey in industry and academia and her current research on how humans and machines tackle complex challenges using tools and problem-solving.
The conference included a 3-Minute Thesis competition, organized by PhD student and conference Co-Chair Matt Oddo, in which three students were challenged to present their research projects simply and succinctly. Angie DeMarco, a Master’s student supervised by Dr. Joanna McGrenere and Dr. Aastha Mehta, was named the winner. Her talk on privacy of contact tracing apps scored top points with a panel of judges, advancing her to UBC’s semi-final competition. Hanson Liang, a PhD student supervised by Dr. Aastha Mehta, won the Audience Choice Award with his presentation on mitigating side channels in data centres. PhD student Daniel Ajisafe (supervised by Dr. Kwang Moo Yi) presented his research project on AI video models.
“Student presenters get a chance to practice communicating their research, get constructive feedback and add a real conference experience to their CV, whether they're undergrads or grad students,” says Sean Bocirnea, Co-President of the CSGSA and co-organizer of the conference.
Nearly 30 students presented their work through posters or oral presentations. Undergraduate student Emilie Ma won the best presentation award for her talk on an AI-powered framework that uses TLA+ formal specification to find bugs in system code. PhD student Ali Balapour won the best poster award for his project with Dr. Faraz Hach on training 3D anomaly detection models.
The conference also included time for students to network and learn about different careers. The research career panel included UBC Computer Science alums Tim Straubinger (now at Light & Magic) and Nodir Kodirov (now at Huawei Canada) as well as Saurabh Saxena from Google DeepMind.
For the conference organizers, putting together the event was an opportunity to develop skills outside of coursework and research and gain experience in project management, outreach, working with sponsors and coordinating reviewers.
“The conference is genuinely shaped by what students actually need, rather than being top-down,” says Belal Mohammed-Nur, CSSS Conference Chair and co-organizer of the conference. “There's something empowering about seeing your peers build something this substantial. It sends the message that students aren't just passive participants in academia — they can shape the community they're part of.”