UofT has multiple labs and professors with varied research interests. If you’re interested in a specific research area, you can probably find a professor/lab doing work in that area!

Lab features

  1. Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DSCIL)
  2. Intelligent Adaptive Interventions Lab
  3. Computational Social Science Lab
  4. Toronto Computation Imaging Group

Prof features

Professor Raquel Urtasun is the founder and CEO of Waabi.

Professor Ashton Anderson does research in AI, ML, LLMs and knowledge representation learning.

Professor Nandita Vijaykumar does research in Computer Vision.

Professor Rahul Krishnan does research in ML and computational medicine.

You can also take a look at the New Faculty Spotlight 2023.

Research Opportunities

The biggest way to get research experience is through a full-time research position over the summer. Deadlines typically close between the months of December to January, so the application period is typically in the fall semester. The most common summer research awards are the NSERC USRA, UTEA, and DCS Awards. Summer research awards for interdisciplinary research also exist; for example there is the DSI SUDS award, UDSC internship, and the T-CAIREM Summer Research Studentship.

You can also do part-time research through a work-study position, although you must also be taking courses. Check on CLNX what positions are available. Positions typically begin at the start of the term, so check CLNX a few weeks in advance of the term you want to work in (e.g., August for a fall-winter term).

Another option is doing research for a course credit; i.e., taking CSC494/CSC495 or APS490Y. Many students also volunteer for a PI/lab. If you are pursuing multiple degrees (e.g., a math degree alongside a computer science one), you may also want to look into courses or research awards related to your non-CS degree. There are lots of ways to get involved, depending on your goals and interests.

Getting your foot in the door

There are lots of ways to get involved. Applying to some of the opportunities above is a first step. You can also reach out to professors with whom you’ve interacted, be it in lecture or elsewhere. A common approach is also cold emailing; identify your interests or possibly even a project you’d like to work on, and look for professors with similar interests. Take a look at their recent publications to ensure that there is indeed an interest match. Write a polite email with your CV and transcript – don’t worry too much if you don’t hear back right away, as professors can be really busy!

You can also check out In the Loop’s episode on getting involved to hear a bit more about my (Sarah’s) experiences as well as other students and faculty!

On Cold Emailing

Be sure to send your cold emails earlier rather than later! The structure for cold emailing is pretty straightforward; you can get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Start off with a professional greeting – “Dear/Hello Professor A” – followed by a few short paragraphs. I would personally keep it to two paragraphs, no more than three.

The first paragraph should be your introduction. Your subject line should make clear you’re looking for a research position (e.g., “Summer Research Opportunity”), so this is where you specify what exactly you’re interested in and why you’re asking about an opportunity. If you’re interested in pursuing graduate studies, you should say that; you want to communicate determination on following through. You also want to tie your interests to their interests; why are you emailing them specifically?

In the end, your first paragraph might read something like, “I’m an [X]-year [computer science/whatever else] student. I’m interested in [field/recent work of theirs if relevant] and intend on pursuing graduate studies (if true). I’m writing to ask whether you have any available positions in your lab [for whenever/mention scholarship opportunity if relevant].”

The second part is for advertising yourself. This is where you highlight any prior work. Personally I find that if you have prior research experience, you should put that first, even if the field is not the same. Along with what you worked on, you should mention who you worked with and if you received any kind of award for it, or if it was affiliated with a internship, etc. If you have a publication from the experience, or one pending, definitely mention that. You might also highlight a personal project or work experience you’ve had, but only if it is relevant to the field or work that you mentioned in paragraph 1. Be sure to tie your past experiences to what you hope to gain from the new one, and reiterate your intentions.

Your second paragraph might contain a sentence like, “Last [summer, semester, whatever], I worked with [Professor Y] on [some other field] through [scholarship, internship, etc.]. I greatly enjoyed learning about [some relevant skills or knowledge that you gained].” A sentence talking about a personal project might look something like, “In [whatever month], I developed a project that [did something or another]. I gained experience with [some relevant skills or knowledge that you gained].” You might end off with something akin to, “I would like to learn more about [something that is relevant to the skills you listed AND the field you listed in paragraph/project 1], so I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to join your lab.”

All in all – this is the tricky paragraph. It should be short; I typically wouldn’t include more than one experience. If you’re lacking in experience (either in general or in that specific field), you want to express an eagerness to learn. If you’ve got more closely transferable skills or knowledge, then that’s all the better! You can be more specific in what you want to work on.

Finally, attach your resume and transcript and end on (in addition to your standard sincerely/best [Name]) something along the lines of, “I have attached my resume and transcript for your consideration. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.” It’s a bit formal, but I would err on the side of formal than be too casual.

If you don’t hear back in 1-2 weeks, it’s not unreasonable for you to send a follow-up. Again, be short and to the point – ask if they have any opportunities and reiterate your interest in whatever topic. If there’s no response after that, don’t take it to heart! It happens.

One last thing to mention – some professors have specific requests for cold emails (e.g., certain subject line, include GPA, fill out a specific form, etc.) that are listed on their websites. Take a look and be sure to follow whatever instructions may be listed there.

Some of the tips in Networking may be relevant as well.

Communicating Existing Research Experience

For general interview tips, check out this page!

Interviews

Most research interviews I’ve experienced have been pretty casual, all things considered. If you’re meeting with a professor or graduate student about an opportunity, it’s already a pretty good sign. Most interviews I’ve had were more centered around my compatability with a particular field or project than a leetcode or behavioural-style interview. By this I mean largely discussing the central idea or question of the project – any relevant details if it has already been worked on – and a discussion on how your skills fit into this work, alongside any logistical details. In my experience, it matches closely with a final-stage interview with your technical manager in an industry interview.

I’ve never had a lot of specific questions about past research experiences, but I’ve brought it up in response to some technical-adjacent questions like “have you worked with X data” or “do you have experience with Y language/technique/etc.” Generally speaking, I try to accomplish three things as succinctly as possible: (a) what was the goal of the project or specific aspect of the study that I’m going to talk about, (b) what exactly did I do that answers the question, and if possible, (c) how does this relate to the larger discussion that we’re having about some future project? Point (a) provides context for point (b): I didn’t do something for no reason, there was a point to it! You also want express a sense of ownership or understanding of what you worked on. Finally, if you’re in a discussion around a new project, point (c) contributes to that.

I’ve had the opportunity to give a variety of 3-to-5-minute presentations about my work. I found these extremely short presentations are very useful for summarizing your work for your own understanding, as well as preparing yourself for contexts like this. The goal here is to provide enough motivation for why such a project or study is useful, the central question or goal to the project, and then a very high level of the approach and results. So it is a little bit similar, but of course your response is much shorter in an interview.

Resume

Most resume tips apply here as well. Just like any other resume, start off with some action words and highlight metrics.

However, unless your research experience is closely correlating to a company product, it is unlikely you’ll have the same metrics (e.g., issues solved, time/efficiency increase/decreases, etc.).

I try to keep my experiences to approximately two bullet points. You can kind of mix and match the order in which this information appears, but I’ll briefly cover what I like to include. My first bullet typically describes the project: for example, “developed a pipeline that did XYZ” or “analyzed XYZ”. If I was directly supervised by a professor then I write their name(s) in this line as well. If you received a scholarship or award to perform this research, I would also find a place to mention it briefly, although it doesn’t need to be in a bullet point specifically.

Then, you want to list what effect this work has. If you’ve improved the state of the art, for example, increasing model accuracy on some domain, you can point out that increase with numbers. If this work resulted in a publication, absolutely mention that – this is especially helpful if you are applying to other research positions. If you presented your work at any conferences or events, I would also highlight it. These points are to highlight two things: that (a) you are productive and the time you spent on this project culminated in something, and (b) if applicable, you have good communication skills and know enough about the project to write/talk about it to other people.