Dr. Jian Pei's Teaching

To Students

Recently, several multi-year projects in my group about healthcare informatics, social networks/media, and business intelligence have been funded by government agencies and industry partners. In these projects, we not only can conduct edge-cutting research to solve novel problems raised from solid industry applications and products, but also can generate innovations which will be used by our industry partners to make real impact to people's lives. These project also provide excellent industry internship opportunities which can significantly deepen students' understanding of industry and enrich their experience and capability. It is an exciting time to join my research group.

These projects enable me to continuously recruit outstanding graduate students in the near future. Instead of filling all positions at once, I will take excellent students one by one as they come.

Please contact me if you are an outstanding, intelligent and diligent student in computer science, strongly interested in working with me on data mining, information retrieval and databases research, no matter you have a master's degree or not. Applications to both master's and Ph.D. programs will be considered. I take graduate students in either fall or spring, though special arrangements may be possible in exceptional circumstances. Full financial support is guaranteed for all full time students in my group.

Positions currently open

Category Number of current students Open positions

Postdoctoral fellows 2 0

Ph. D. students 6 1-2

M. Sc. students planning to transfer to Ph. D. program 3

M. Sc. students (thesis option)

Part time M. Sc. students from industry 0 0

"Part time M. Sc. students from industry" are those people holding a technical position in an industry. They do not quit their jobs but instead take courses part time. The research topics of their thesis/projects may be highly related to their daily technical jobs. They should plan their M. Sc. degrees in about 3 years. I cannot offer RA-ship to those students, unless a joint industrial project is set up. Students interested in this option please contact me before you make your applications.

I do NOT take any course-based students, any students from the Big Data Professional Program offered by our school, or any students from the MADD-GEN program.

My commitment

I always welcome well motivated and dedicated Ph.D. and Master's students.

I do not have any summer intern positions for any students outside from Simon Fraser University. I will not reply any emails requesting such a position.

I usually have a close collaboration with students by trying to maintain an active group of students. I run the group as follows.

I individually meet each student for at least one hour per week on research. Extra meetings are often scheduled based on progress and need.

We carefully select research topics and work together towards good publications. Almost all of my previous students published in top conferences and journals.

I regularly send my students to top conferences to present their papers.

My students are encouraged to work with my collaborators in industry and other institutions on interesting topics.

I actively offer financial support to students making good progress.

Students are strongly encouraged to graduate as soon as possible as long as they make satisfactory progress.

A Ph.D. student usually spends at least 3 years on research, and a master's student normally spends 12-18 months on her/his thesis.

All students are expected to have a strong background on algorithms, data mining, databases, and programming. I consider myself more an engineering scientist, at the same time, I have strong interest on theory. The emphasis of my research is "solving practical and challenging data management and analysis problems in emerging data intensive applications". Currently, I am particularly interested in recruiting students in the following directions.

Big Data management and analytics (you should have a solid background in combinatorics, probability and statistics)

Web and social media/network search and mining (you should have a good background on graph theory)

I hope that my students are diligent and intelligent, and have a strong commitment to high quality research and development. They also should be open-minded and should incline to collaborate with other researchers and peer students. Most importantly, they should care about research and their career.

When Can a Master's Student Graduate? In addition to the requirements from the university and the school, I expect a master's student can, under my supervision, publish a (full) paper in an advanced academic conference before she/he graduates. Many of my previous master's students achieved excellent records.

When Can a Ph.D. Student Graduate? In addition to the requirements from the university and the school, I expect a Ph.D. student has a strong publication record (e.g., 3-5 papers in premier conferences and journals). One criterion that I use is the following. Before she/he starts to write her/his thesis, she/he can (almost) independently work out a research paper that is acceptable by a premier conference or journal.

For potential students, to help me to know your background, please send me the following items in PDF files by email.

A resume (Please indicate the schools you attended, your working experience and your publications)

A copy of your graduate/undergraduate transcript showing grades of at least 5+ computer science & engineering courses. (I am not asking for an original transcript. A list in email or a photocopy is enough.)

At least 3 names (with contacts) whom I can ask for references; and

Up to 3 representative publications if you have.

I will contact you for a possible interview if your background and competences match our interest.

Category	Number of current students	Open positions
Postdoctoral fellows	2	0
Ph. D. students	6	1-2
M. Sc. students planning to transfer to Ph. D. program	3
M. Sc. students (thesis option)	3
Part time M. Sc. students from industry	0	0