Computer Science doctoral student Dereck Toker is the 2014 recipient of the Motion Metrics/ICICS Graduate Scholarship. The $5,000 annual award is granted to a second-year Masters or PhD student who is supervised by an ICICS member, and who demonstrates excellence in multidisciplinary, application-oriented research. Supervised by Professor Cristina Conati, Dereck is currently working on creating personalized visualizations of complex data that adapt to the users’ specific needs, taking a multi-disciplinary approach that involves computer science, statistical analysis, and perceptual psychology.
Motion Metrics International was founded by President and CEO Shahram Tafazoli following completion of his PhD in electrical engineering at UBC in 1997. The company was incubated in ICICS and provides intelligent monitoring solutions designed to improve safety, efficiency, and productivity in the mining industry. Now internationally successful, Motion Metrics maintains its relationship with ICICS through research partnerships and hiring of new graduates. In addition to being an ICICS member, Dr. Tafazoli is also an Adjunct Professor with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and has co-supervised several Ph.D. and M.A.Sc. students.
We thank Dr. Tafazoli for giving back to UBC by supporting ICICS-affiliated graduate students.