News

Surprise. That’s the name of the game when it comes to playing Inscryption. Well, the name of the game is in fact Inscryption. It’s that element of surprise that led Queen’s School of Computing alumni Daniel Mullins to win the strategic minds of gamers and earn the “Best Desktop/Console Game” award at the  Unity Awards 2021 for his game Inscryption. As you play the game, you may think you’re playing a regular old card game and everything is generally predictable. However, the next moment you’re in the woods and you run into a floppy disk! Inscryption has been described on Steam as “an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. “ This unique and creative  game has been reviewed as overwhelmingly positive among the gaming community.

Continue reading “Alumni Spotlight: Daniel Mullins Wins the “Best Desktop/Console Game” Award at the Unity Awards 2021”

“It can feel daunting to be a woman in computing, but we’ll tell you that it’s not as scary as it seems. The number of women in technology is increasing every year and it has created so many supportive communities, such as QWiC!”

Emily & Maya, Co-Chairs of Queen’s Women in Computing

When one hears the Queen’s University club name, “Queen’s Women in Computing” (QWiC) it is understandable that what comes to mind is women … in computing, but the truth is much more inclusive. Current Co-Chairs, Emily Zhao, and Maya Steckly, say that QWiC is expanding their reach to students in any faculty who are interested in technology, not only those in School of Computing. Even more surprising, the club is not entirely female! QWiC is not gender-exclusive; it is a community for anyone passionate about technology, underrepresented minorities, as well as the women.

So, what’s with the name? Computer science is a male-dominated industry, which is one of the biggest obstacles for females and minorities. “Queen’s Women in Computing,” as a club title, represents a goal to create awareness about gender equality in the technology industry, not to act as a gender barricade.

QWiC provides students with a safe and supportive environment to explore all that tech has to offer. There is a warm welcome-home ambiance in the nurturing club; a “leave no woman behind” strength; and the exciting energy of women and minorities reclaiming their historical and future place in computer science. Queen’s Women in Computing is an open resource:  students can go to the club with tech questions related to academics and courses, jobs, or anything else. Awareness and community are built through events and workshops, such as hackHer, an annual virtual hackathon for beginners; QWiC Week, a week-long series of events surrounding International Women’s Day; Bit-Byte Buddies, a mentor program pairing lower years with upper year students; the CAN-CWiC Conference, and multiple events with IBM, such as “Practical Microservices” and “Preparing for Your Technical Interview,” to name only a few.

“By supporting students, we hope to create the next generation of technology leaders.”

To build the next generation of technology leaders, some of QWiC’s future goals are:

• Increase presence on campus and in the tech community by focusing on expanding their reach on different social media platforms to faculties outside of computer science and engineering
• Strengthen their community network within Queen’s by continuing to foster an enticing, supportive, and resourceful group through their community Instagram page and community events
• Host 5+ high caliber industry events and workshops for professional development and academic success
• Expand hackHer by reaching more universities and schools in North America (read more: https://qwic.org/hackHer)
• Expand mentorship program; pair 75+ students with alumni mentors

What really stands out is the annual Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) upcoming event being held in Toronto, Ontario at Delta Hotels Conference Center. On October 21^st, 2022, Queen’s Women in Computing students and faculty will fill a bus, or two (three?) to attend the much-anticipated two-day conference. The conference includes a banquet, networking, keynote speakers, presentations, panels, workshops, exciting team building challenges, and a large career fair. The Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing conference is a confidence-building, life-changing opportunity that no student should miss.

Because we do not want Queen’s Women in Computing to miss this opportunity, ticket prices are subsidized at $125, which includes bus trip, hotel, 3 meals, and the conference. Imagine the lives you will instantly invigorate with your donation today. Support students now.

“By supporting students, we hope to create the next generation of technology leaders”

Emily Zhao & Maya Steckly

• More information about CAN-CWiC event
• Support Queen’s Women in Computing by donating to the School of Computing
• Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) website

On October 21^st, 2022, the 7^th Annual Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) conference for women in technology will be held at Delta Hotels Conference Center in Toronto, Ontario. Registration opens in August 2022. CAN-CWiC was founded in 2010 by Queen’s Women in Computing together with Wendy Powley, who is the primarily organizer. The conference stimulates curiosity and recognition of women across Canada with team-building challenges, networking, keynote speakers, panels, presentations, workshops, and a career fair. The two-day conference was online for 2021 and 2020; however, the last CAN-CWiC held in person, in 2019, over 750 students, faculty, and tech industry leaders were in attendance.

In 2019, Queen’s University students ranging from their first year to Ph.D. filled two buses with a buzzing vibe and bonding spirit. Nervous students quickly warmed with eager excitement during the journey from Kingston to Toronto. Their tickets included the bus, overnight hotel, 3 meals, and the informative community building conference. The $125 tickets are subsidized, thanks to compassionate sponsors who take pride in changing lives by inspiring women in technology (become a sponsor).

Wendy Powley, CWiC founder and Associate Professor of Queen’s School of Computing says, “The women don’t feel alone” thanks to CAN-CWiC. The male dominated atmosphere of computer science can be intimidating and altogether obstructive to women and minorities. CAN-CWiC is reprogramming the way women are welcomed and validated in the industry.

It’s not just university students who experience the life changing conference: ambitious high school students will be invited to attend CAN-CWiC as part of the Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Awards. These awards are sponsored by the Dev Degree program at Spotify.

Students from the 9^th to 12^th grade in Eastern, Western, and Central Canada are encouraged to apply in September for the annual Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Awards. Approximately 90 awards are presented and 3 of those students will receive the opportunity to attend the Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing Conference.

Inclusion and inspiration change young women’s lives – it transforms the world, OUR world. Queen’s School of Computing would not be able to support women in technology without the help of compassionate sponsors like you. CAN-CWiC is reaching out to previous and new sponsors who want to become a part of tech growth and build confidence in young women and minorities in computing. Easily change lives by donating to the School of Computing today. Support with a donation of $125 will help one student go to the CAN-CWiC Conference in October, but whatever you are willing to offer will positively help.

Queen’s School of Computing looks forward to the annual Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) on October 21^st, 2022, … in person!

• Aspirations in Computing
• Support Queen’s Women in Computing by donating to the School of Computing
• Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) website

Most of us go through our daily lives without ever considering the impact criminals have on our lives.  If we haven’t experienced a direct incident with a criminal, we believe that we’ve had a “normal” day all things considered.  But each and every day, we subconsciously perform acts to prevent a criminal from infiltrating our lives: lock our doors and cars, program a home security system, secure our personal items in the gym locker, avoid high crime neighbourhoods, etc.

And in an ironic twist, we go to extraordinary lengths to prove our innocence to airport officials that we ourselves are not criminals. At airports and other public venues, everyone is deemed a criminal until proven otherwise.  Try entering a stadium or hall to enjoy your favourite band, hockey team or theatre production.  And yet, we seldom consider how the actions of criminals affect our time and savings, and more importantly, how their efforts add additional stress to our lives that adversely influences our well-being.

Now with the majority of our personal and work communications reliant on the internet, we lock our computers and mobile phones, create a multitude of ever-changing passwords and install anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing software in order to combat the cyber-crime that is constantly lurking just beyond the mainframe of our devices.  But these determined acts of prevention limit, but do not eliminate, the risk of being targeted by cyber criminals.  And at one time or another, we have all experienced that sinking feeling of being hacked, or worse yet, had intimate details of our personal lives exposed or our identity stolen for an imposter’s financial gain.

What would be the impact and how extensive, if a widespread cyber-attack was orchestrated, rendering a vast number of telecommunication satellites and towers useless?  Every time you turn on your lights, adjust your thermostat, pump gas, pay your bills, apply for a loan or mortgage, plan your education or vacation, etc., you are relying on mega organizations that service millions of customers who heavily depend on the convenience of internet capabilities. 

What would happen to your life or the lives in your community if industries offering utilities, propane/oil, gasoline, banking, education, transportation or communications were completely immobilized by a cyber-attack.?

A telecommunication cyber-attack in Canada could potentially stop the transport of food, clothing, medication and basic necessities.  It could destroy our utility companies’ ability to deliver power to our homes that could stop the flow of heat, hydro and water to you and your family. 

Communications with your family, friends, co-workers, employees, suppliers, emergency services, government emergency alerts, etc. could be totally severed.  The consequences could be disastrous!

With the multi-million dollar funding support of Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Queen’s University, Dr. David Skillicorn, a world renowned cyber expert, created the CREATE Cybersecurity Program to combat the exponential growth of cyber-attacks, cyber-crime and cyber bullying.  This unique program trains Master’s and Ph.D. students to help address the world shortage of cyber experts.

This crucial shortage has been caused by the majority of Canadian organizations and individuals ignoring the looming reality that cyber criminals are quickly gaining momentum with their strategic and creative attacks, often triggered from offshore, making it difficult for international lawmakers to lay charges that lead to convictions.

The 21^st century has witnessed remarkable advances in the area of technical devices and their supporting infrastructures and will only continue to accelerate beyond our imaginations. Our dependence on these devices makes Canadians and our country vulnerable victims to the millions of potential attacks that occur daily around the world. 

The CREATE Cybersecurity program is designed to train cyber experts to deter and eliminate these attacks to preserve our technology-driven and advanced culture and lifestyle, thus reducing the amount of daily stress caused by cyber criminals. And Canadian cyber experts are fighting on the front line, so to speak, to protect us from the possibility of technology wars that could de-stabilize our economy and way of life.

If you would like to learn more about joining our unique team, please contact cyber-info@cs.queensu.ca

Queen’s School of Computing is pleased to share the exciting news that the paper titled “Information Retrieval Based Nearest Neighbor Classification for Fine-Grained Bug Severity Prediction”, co-authored by Dr. Yuan Tian, with David Lo and Chengnian Sun, received the Most Influential Paper (MIP) award from SANER 2022.

The paper was originally published in 2012 at the Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE), which, coincidentally was hosted in Kingston that year. WCRE later merged with the Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR) to become the Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) project.

While at the Singapore Management University (SMU) Dr. Tian received a Ph.D. in Information Systems, and in October 2018, QSC was proud to welcome Dr. Yuan Tian as an Assistant Professor.  Dr. Tian’s work involves enhancing state-of-the-art machine learning approaches and practices to better fit the characteristics of the domains (e.g., software engineering), as well as  working on designing automated software bug management tools by leveraging large-scale software data and distilling knowledge for developers from websites such as Twitter, GitHub, and Stack Overflow.  Dr. Tian’s current research focuses on designing reliable and explainable recommender systems for improving the efficiency of software development in terms of cost, performance, and quality.

Read the paper.