There will be two presentations, scheduled from 10:00–11:00 AM and 11:00 AM–12:00 PM. Colloquium presentation followed by Discovery Day 2026. Students are expected to sign in at /before 10:00AM and sign out after 12:00PM.
Towards Developing Green and Maintainable Software
Colloquium Presentation by: Dr. Shaiful Chowdhury
Climate change is widely expected to be the defining challenge of this century. Greenhouse gas levels are rising faster than ever, threatening the stability of diverse environments worldwide. While people often think of cars, factories, or power plants when they consider climate impacts, software also plays a surprisingly large role. The vast data centers that power our digital lives consume enormous amounts of energy. Mobile apps and connected devices also contribute to this footprint, as the energy they consume ultimately comes from electricity produced somewhere—often by fossil fuels. These concerns have made the development of “green software” more important than ever. The rise of energy-hungry AI systems has only increased this urgency. Yet creating greener software is not straightforward. Many developers lack practical tools and clear guidance on how to reduce software energy consumption. There is also an anecdotal belief that making software more energy-efficient could harm its long-term maintainability. In this talk, I will discuss my work on software energy efficiency (including models and guidelines), software maintenance (such as code metrics and bug-proneness), and the crucial intersection between these two areas, which forms the cornerstone of my future research program.
Dr. Chowdhury is currently an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Before joining the University of Manitoba, Dr. Chowdhury was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. Before that, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. In general, Dr. Chowdhury’s research focuses on software quality—how to make software energy-efficient and maintainable. Dr. Chowdhury has completed his Ph.D. in computing science from the University of Alberta. Among many other recognitions, Dr. Chowdhury has received an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper award (ICSE 2021), the outstanding Ph.D. thesis award (University of Alberta), the Ph.D. early achievement award (University of Alberta), the MSR mining challenge award (IBM), the graduate student outstanding undergraduate teaching award, an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship, and an Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures Graduate Student Scholarship. Dr. Chowdhury’s research has been featured by Global News, the University of Alberta News, and the University of British Columbia News. Dr. Chowdhury’s research is supported by an NSERC Discovery grant.
How to be successful in the workplace
Colloquium Presentation By: The Team from Next Dimension
Rather than talk about the technical requirements of employment in Information Technology, the team from Next Dimension will present an argument for the business and softer skills required to be successful in today’s workplace. The premise that EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is more powerful than IQ (Intelligence) is at the forefront of Next Dimension’s approach to hiring and to generating a positive experience for employees once onboarded. This presentation will look at some of the potential differences between an Employee’s and an Employer’s definition of success, and the team from Next Dimension will present some of the tools they use to ensure that employment is collaborative and therefore successful from both perspectives.
