UNB Alumni
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Cormac Stewart combined degrees to bring ideas to life
UNB Alumni
Posted: May 25, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Computer Science , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories
It was Spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had just turned the world upside down and seven friends who met at UNB had plans cancelled. One of them was Cormac Stewart (BCS’21, BPHIL’21), who was supposed to be overseas doing an international internship as part of his studies with Renaissance College. Instead, he was home in New Brunswick, ruminating with friends about where to find somewhere to eat and what deals were happening at local restaurants and bars. In fact, a few of the...
Janet Lin is transforming retail and financial services technology
UNB Alumni
Posted: April 25, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , Computer Science , UNB Fredericton
If you live in Canada, you’ve probably collected PC Optimum points and used or seen the PC Mastercard for your retail purchases. What you probably don’t know is that those products are available because of UNB alumna Janet Lin (BCS’05) and the teams she worked with at Loblaw. Janet has made quite a name for herself in the IT and business worlds. She received the Oracle Global Innovation Award in 2019 while working with Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart for introducing the...
UNBeknownst Episode 14: From Artsy to Shopify, Ash Furrow on compassionate software development and separating yourself from your work
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 3, 2022 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: UNB Fredericton , Computer Science , Podcast , Young Alumni , Inspiring Stories
Ash Furrow (BCS’09) is a compassionate software developer from the small town of Woodstock, New Brunswick. He started building iPhone apps in 2009 while still a computer science student at UNB, which launched his career as a mobile software developer. After graduating, Ash and his partner moved to Toronto, then Amsterdam, and then New York, where he joined Artsy as it was just beginning to grow into the world’s largest online marketplace for art. He finally moved home to New...
Deep learning at Amazon
Deep learning at Amazon
Posted: February 9, 2022 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , Computer Science , UNB Fredericton
You probably don’t always think about all the work that goes on behind the scenes when you’re searching for that must-have book, latest gadget or feel-good movie on Amazon. Weiqi Zhang (MCS’13) does. Since 2015, Weiqi’s been one of the software developers and managers behind the fancy technologies that bring the right products in front of your eyes at the right time. He worked on search technologies and customer experience for six years - first in China, then in...
James Stewart protects companies from artificial intelligence hackers as CEO of Saint John startup, TrojAI
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 27, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , UNB Saint John , Computer Science
UNB alumnus James Stewart (BScDA’97, MCS’99, PhD’17) is on a mission to protect artificial intelligence from malicious attackers. He’s working toward this as CEO and co-founder of new Saint John startup TrojAI, a company focused on building solutions for robustness and security of AI. The company was first formed in June 2019, alongside co-founder and fellow UNB alumnus Stephen Goddard (BBA'98). While Stewart was working as SVP of video analytics for Toronto-based...
An alumnus and former co-op student comes full circle
UNB Alumni
Posted: September 29, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Engineering , UNB Fredericton , Computer Science , Inspiring Stories , Young Alumni
Fredericton native Mike Harrington (BScSwE’15) instantly loved software engineering when he began the program at UNB. During his time as a student, he took part in five co-op work terms to gain experience while studying. “My goal was to try out different jobs to see what I liked. I worked with one company on a pricing app, then went to IBM for two terms and worked on software applications, then found Populus. It was a very small team of only five or six people, so I got to work on...
From hardware to software: proof that skills are transferable
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 10, 2021 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , Computer Science , Engineering , UNB Fredericton
When Lan Liu (MScEE’03) and her husband Richard Liu (MCS’02) came to Fredericton from Beijing, it was a bit of a culture shock. “We flew in on a tiny plane from Montreal and all I saw was trees,” Lan laughs. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into! It was a hot summer week when we arrived, and in China we often use an umbrella to shade ourselves from the sun on hot days. When I walked on the sidewalks of Fredericton with my umbrella, people looked at me...
Learning technical and soft skills in a multi-cultural environment through co-op
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 10, 2021 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Computer Science , Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton
We chatted with 2nd-year Computer Science graduate student Priyal Chandrakant Jawale, who has been working at an 8-month co-op term with Teledyne-CARIS in Fredericton since September 2020, to find out more about her experience. Q1. Why did you choose to study CS? As a child, I loved solving puzzles and playing board games. During high school, I developed an application on a large scale using basic programming languages such as Java and MySQL, which was a spark of dedicating my...
The fast-paced world of transportation cybersecurity
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 23, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Computer Science , UNB Fredericton , Engineering , Inspiring Stories
When we think about cybersecurity, we typically think of our phones, computers and personal data being hacked. But Mike Vanderveer (BScCMPE’02) says heavy vehicles carrying dangerous goods are also a big cybersecurity concern. Mike, who graduated from UNB with a degree in computer engineering, is a transportation cybersecurity consultant with his own firm, Deep Micro, in Ottawa. He says that it is not easy to hack into our cars and car company security systems are continually improving....
UNB Saint John data scientist pioneering in occupational health informatics
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 22, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Computer Science , UNB Saint John , Inspiring Stories
UNB Saint John alumnus Hongchang (Gary) Bao’s (BScCS’19) undergraduate research in occupational health informatics has been published in a leading peer-reviewed journal for digital medicine and health, and has garnered interest from national organizations, such as CanPath and the National Cancer Institute. While a student in the computer science department, Bao collaborated on a research project through the campus’ certificate of data analytics program. A dedicated and...
Q&A: Ash Furrow
Young Alumni
Posted: August 22, 2016 5:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Young Alumni , Computer Science
From Fredericton and Toronto, to Amsterdam and New York, Ash Furrow (BCS ’11) has taken his computer science degree to creative lengths around the globe, publishing computer science books and developing iOS apps. He talks to us about his journey and lends great advice for fellow young alumni. Q: Did you come to UNB knowing which degree program and career path you wanted to explore? Not really. I knew I wanted to do something with computers and after learning the basics of programming...