CS Graduate Students Honoured at Research Fest 2025

The Department of Computer Science celebrated outstanding graduate student achievements at Research Fest 2025, awarding citizenship and research excellence honors to four students.

By Gabrielle Dela Cruz

Research Fest 2025, the 9th Symposium on Innovations in Computer Science and Applied Computing (ICSAC), was held on October 10th at the Graduate Students' Association, where the Department of Computer Science recognised outstanding graduate students. In this annual celebration of innovation and academic excellence, graduate students and researchers from computer science and bioinformatics shared their work and exchanged ideas across diverse areas of computing.

Event Highlights

Research Fest 2025, co-partnered by Software Analytics Research (SOAR) and the Department of Computer Science, featured three competitive categories: Research Presentation, Poster Presentation, and a special #WomenInSTEM category. The event offered substantial awards, with prizes ranging from $300 to $1,500.


Keynote speakers included Prof. Steven Rayan, Vice-Dean of Research at UofS, Dr. Bishnu Sarkar from the University of North Texas, Dr. Sadid Hasan, AI Lead at Microsoft, and Devin Greene, Manager of Software Development at Calian Advanced Technologies.


The symposium covered research areas including artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, software engineering, human-computer interaction, and computational epidemiology, among others.


For more information about Research Fest, visit csgc.usask.ca.

Award Recipients

This event honoured four exceptional students for their contribution

PhD Citizenship Award: Md Shamimur Rahman

A Ph.D. candidate in the Software Research Lab supervised by Dr. Chanchal Roy and Dr. Zadia Codabux, Shamimur's research focuses on code review, social software engineering, and software maintenance. His doctoral work has already produced three publications in top-tier venues including FSE 2024 and MSR 2025. As current President of the Computer Science Graduate Council (CSGC) and lead organizer of Research Fest 2025, he has demonstrated exceptional leadership in advocating for graduate students. He has also served on prestigious program committees including ICSE 2026, MSR, and ASE 2024.


PhD Research Excellence Award: Fidelia Orji

Dr. Orji recently completed her Ph.D. under Dr. Julita Vassileva's supervision, focusing on Persuasive Computing, AI, and User Modelling to design systems that support users in achieving meaningful goals. Her doctoral research advanced inclusive eLearning through AI-driven adaptive support frameworks that personalize interventions in real time. Her work earned her the NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Persuasive Technology (2024). She is currently a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University.


MSc Citizenship Award: Mustakim Billah 

A master's student in his final semester under Dr. Banani Roy's supervision, Mustakim is a member of the Interactive Software Engineering and Analytics Lab, where his research improves program comprehension using large language models. His work has been accepted at EASE 2025 and ESEM 2024. He received the USask Student Travel Award (2025) and Best Performer Award at the EDI Initiative Workshop (2025). As VP Social in CSGC, he actively contributes to student engagement and departmental events, building on over four years of prior industry experience as a Software Engineer.


MSc Research Excellence Award: Palash Roy

Palash completed his MSc in Fall 2024 and immediately transitioned into PhD studies under Dr. Kevin Schneider's supervision. His research focuses on software engineering, with particular focus on code clone detection, AI-assisted refactoring, and sustainable large language models. Beyond his research accomplishments, Palash serves as President of the Graduate Students' Association (GSA) at the University of Saskatchewan, where he represents over 4,000 graduate students and leads initiatives in advocacy, governance, and community support.