General information about admission and funding
The general information about our graduate program (including admission, funding, etc) is available here. 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 UManitoba, 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. To ensure sufficent 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 2021 (as an international student), ideally you should contact me before November 2020 and submit your complete application to FGS before December 15, 2020 (after this date, you may not receive full consideration for scholarships). I will also provide RAship if you receive an award less than the UMGF amount (e.g. CS entrance award) or do not receive any award.
For prospective students (PhD or thesis-based MSc) interested in working with me
I am always looking for self-motivated students interested in Software Engineering and Data Mining. Interest/enthusiasm in research and good technical background (programming and CS) are required. 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 -- if you have a Master's degree or currently in a Master's program, you should send me transcripts from both your Bachelor's and Master's programs. Also note that you should send me the transcripts (I need the information on what courses you have taken), not just GPA.
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 software engineering, machine learning, or related areas in data science. This can be courses, projects, online courses/certificates (e.g. Coursera, Udacity).
Other information that you think might be relevant, e.g., industry experience.
Please put "GradApp" somewhere in the subject of your email, e.g. Subject: GradApp: graduate research position in Software Engineering. This tells me that you have read this page. 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 week and start the conversation (and request more information from you if necessary). If you do not hear from me for more than one week, 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 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. 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.
For undergraduate students outside of Canada
If you are from certain countries, you might consider applying through the MITACS Globalink Internship program, which funds you for an internship at a Canadian university in the summer. Typically you should apply in September of your 3rd year. I usually have 1-2 projects under the MITACS Globalink program every year. You can search for these projects and apply directly from the MITACS Globalink website. MITACS has its own screening and matching process, you do not need to contact me before applying.
