Queen's School of Computing

Automata research takes centre stage at Queen’s!

From August 5–11, researchers and practitioners from academia and industry gathered at Queen’s University for CIAA 2026 and DCFS 2026.

Hosted by the Queen’s School of Computing, and organized in part by our very own Dr. Salimur Choudhury and Queen's School of Computing alumnus (PhD'21) Dr. Taylor Smith, these conferences brought together the international automata community to explore research spanning automata theory, algorithms, verification, natural language processing, quantum computing, bioinformatics, pattern matching, and more.

CIAA 2026 featured three distinguished invited speakers:

Nataša Jonoska, University of South Florida
“Traversing Crystals by Automata”

Anthony Bonato, Toronto Metropolitan University
“Burning, Cooling, and Liminal Burning Graphs”

Ian Mertz, Charles University
“Computing with a Full Hard Drive”

The conference also featured the prestigious Sheng Yu Award, research and tool-track presentations, and proceedings published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

Dr. Kai Salomaa was also honoured for his several decades of contributions to CIAA and to the theory, implementation, and application of automata and related structures. As a special thanks, Salomaa was gifted with a personal book titled, “From Possibility to Reality”.

CIAA 2026 was held alongside DCFS 2026, continuing a week of international research and collaboration in theoretical computer science here in Kingston.

DCFS 2026 featured three distinguished invited speakers:

Michael Blondin, Université de Sherbrooke
"The Power and Limits of Population Protocols"

Michaël Cadilhac, DePaul University
"Formal Language Theory and Transformers"

Sandra Zilles, University of Regina
"Representing Concepts with Small Teaching Sets"

Thank you to all the researchers, speakers, organizers, and participants who made CIAA 2026 a success!

# DCFS026

This week, we celebrated our summer USRA students with a goodbye lunch. These students partnered with our faculty, worked in labs, and received personalized training as they prepare for careers (or further studies) in computing. Thank you to all who were able to attend!

For more details on what each student was focused on: https://bit.ly/3U0NCEP

We’re proud to see our very own Ahmed E. Hassan among the speakers at the inaugural ACM - Association for Computing Machinery AI Leadership Summit, taking place from August 30 to September 2 in Atlanta.

A Mustafa Prize Laureate and internationally recognized expert in agentic software engineering, Ahmed will join leading voices from academia, industry, government, and beyond to explore the future of AI.

Learn more here: https://aisummit.acm.org/

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AI Leadership Summit Join Turing Award laureates, United Nations and UNESCO leaders, NSF leadership, industry pioneers, educators, and researchers for four days of conversations about the future of artificial intelligence and its impact on society.

The School of Computing is delighted to celebrate retired professor, Wendy Powley on receiving the prestigious A. Nico Habermann Award from the Computing Research Association (CRA).
This award recognizes Wendy's contributions that have increased the numbers and successes of women in computing across Canada and beyond.

We are incredibly proud of this well-deserved honour and grateful for the impact Wendy continues to make through her continued work in this area. Congratulations, Wendy!

Strengthening global partnerships to prepare the next generation of technology leaders.

This past month, School Director Dr. Hossam Hassanein travelled to Cairo to strengthen Queen's School of Computing's partnership with the Digilians (Digital Pioneers) initiative.

Led by Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in collaboration with the Egyptian Military Academy, Digilians is equipping young innovators with advanced training in Data Science and Machine Learning (DSML), Software Design in the AI Era (SD-AI), and Cyber Security Intelligence (CSI)

As part of the initiative's Professional Master's Program, Queen's University is proud to partner in delivering internationally recognized graduate education that combines academic excellence with practical, hands-on experience.

We're excited to continue supporting talented students as they develop the skills needed to shape the future of technology.

Throughout her time at Queen’s, Grace Odunuga combined academic excellence with a commitment to leadership, research, and advocacy, dedicating her undergraduate career to building a stronger, more inclusive computing community.

Read Grace's story here: https://www.cs.queensu.ca/news/2026/07/13/student-spotlight-grace-odunuga/

COMPSA - Computing Students Association is looking to grow their team! Be a part of shaping our Computing student experience.

What does it mean to apply computing where it matters most?

For Queen's biomedical computing student Emese Elkind, it meant turning a summer volunteer placement into a multi-year effort to improve access to prosthetic care for people displaced by conflict along the Thailand–Myanmar border.

Working alongside the Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF) and the Queen's Biomedical Innovation Team, Emese has helped lead the development of an innovative 3D printed above-elbow prosthetic designed specifically for resource limited settings without access to expensive electronics or robotics.

As Emese prepares to begin her master's degree, she's ensuring the next generation of students can continue this important work.

Read more here: https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/queen-s-students-develop-3d-printed-prosthetics

Queen’s students develop 3D-printed prosthetics | Queen's Gazette Students and researchers partner with a Thailand-based NGO to help migrants fleeing one of the world’s longest-running civil wars.

We're hiring!

We invite applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor position specializing in Computational Intelligence, starting January 2027.

Candidates with expertise in AI, machine learning, NLP, evolutionary or quantum computing are encouraged to apply. Join a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment committed to excellence in research, teaching, and equity.

Learn more and apply before July 27, 2026.

Visit our website for full details: https://bit.ly/3SDlTtb