I am not hiring any graduate students / PDFs
General information about admission and funding
The general information about our graduate program (including admission, funding, etc) is available here for CS, here for Maths, and here for interdisciplinary projects. The information about tuition/fee is available from the Registrar's Office here. For the thesis-based program (MSc or PhD), you will need to find a supervisor before you can be admitted. This is different from some other schools where you can be admitted without a supervisor. Here at UofM, excellent incoming students can expect to receive funding from various sources (fellowship, research assistantship, teaching assistantship), see here for information. The funding decision is separate from admission and is decided on an individual basis. Please note that the application deadlines for many funding opportunities are significantly earlier than the admission (this is particularly true for many fundings that international students are eligible for). I strongly encourage you to plan your application as early as possible, and apply for all eligible fundings. Application deadlines can be found here.
For prospective students (PhD or thesis-based MSc) interested in working with me
I can supervise students with a CS background. However, I can also consider students coming from other disciplines such as Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering. Such students need to have a minor in CS (or an equivalent qualification) in order to be considered by the faculty of graduate studies. I am always looking for self-motivated students interested in working with me; see here for more information on my current research projects and recent publications. Interest/enthusiasm in research and strong technical background (mathematics, programming, statistics, and computer science in general) are required. For PhD applicants, some research experience is usually required as well, e.g., research-focused thesis performed at graduate level with publications (publications are not required, yet they are important). To help me know more about your background, please send me the following items via email (PDF or plain text, or URL to a website containing these items).
A copy of your CV.
Transcripts (unofficial ones are sufficient) from ALL post-secondary institutions attended.
Up to three representative publications written in English if you have.
TOEFL/IELTS score when applicable (our department does not require GRE), or mention that you will take the test in the near future.
A brief description of your research interests, and your background in machine learning and/or fields related to my research (e.g., applied mathematics, theoretical computer science, physics, and electrical engineering).
Other information that you think might be relevant. For example, if you have a scholarship from your home country that can fund your grad studies at UofM, you can mention it.
Please make sure you read this page and my web page as well before submitting an application. I usually will not consider applications that are not aligned with my research interests. If you have followed these instructions and your email contains all the information requested above, rest assured that I will read your email. However, due to the large number of requests, I cannot respond to all of them. If I am interested in your application, I will reply within a few weeks and start the conversation (and request more information from you if necessary). If you do not hear from me for more than two weeks, it means that I do not have a position for you - in this case, please do not send me repeated emails, unless your profile has significantly improved, e.g. you get a new publication in a very good venue.
The application process can be summarized as follows:
First make sure you meet the minimum requirement in terms of GPA and English requirement. You can assess your transcripts using the conversion charts found here.
Find a faculty member in the department who is willing to supervise you. Please refer to the information above if you want to contact me. If I am interested in you, I will reply and encourage you to apply. But this does not automatically mean that you are guaranteed to be admitted. You still need to formally apply for admission. The admission decision is made by the graduate admission committee and often depends on the pool of applications we receive in a given year.
Apply for admission to the program.
After getting admitted, apply for all eligible funding awards (e.g., UMGF, CS entrance award). If you receive a major funding award (e.g. UMGF), the amount is usually enough to cover the tuition and living expense. I may also provide RAship if you receive an award less than the UMGF amount (e.g. CS entrance award) or do not receive any award. Please do not ask me to estimate your chance of getting funding before you apply - it depends on many factors that are unpredictable ahead of time (e.g. number/quality of other applicants, the research grants I have in a given year, etc). Normally you have to apply for the funding awards first. After the result of funding award is available, I will let you know whether I can provide additional RAship based on how many of my incoming students receive funding awards. Although the Department has TA positions available, these positions are not guaranteed, and the amount you can get from TAship is fairly small. You can use TAship to supplement your income, but you certainly will not be able to fund your graduate studies using TAship alone.
Note that many funding applications require that a student has been accepted for admission to the program by both the Department of Computer Science (or Mathematics) and the Faculty of Graduate Studies. To ensure sufficient time for both, I strongly suggest prospective students to plan their applications as early as possible. For example, if you are applying for admission starting Fall 2017 (as an international student), ideally you should contact me before November 2016 and submit your complete application to FGS before the deadline.
Finally, graduate students have the opportunity to work as a marker, teaching assistant, or sessional lecturer to earn additional income. This work is voluntary and is not required.
Research requires commitment and mental focus. As a result, I will not supervise students who plan to do thesis-based graduate studies on a part-time basis.