ECSR workshop 2025 review

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The 2025 ECSR Workshop (Explore Computing Science Research Workshop) was a great opportunity to learn what computer science research is about and how it is conducted, especially for prospective graduate and undergraduate students. The program ran for three days it wasn’t heavy but was full of meaningful content, including keynote sessions with professors and industry research scientists.

One highlight was the “Academic Round Table,” where we had the chance to learn about various research topics directly from professors. This helped me better understand what the active research areas are at SFU. The most interesting project was 3DLG group, focuses on research involving 3D representations, natural language, and 3D content generation.

The main sessions walked us through the research process from literature review to formulating ideas and problems and concluded with a short 60 second presentation of a potential research topic. Along the way, there were many opportunities to connect with others, not just professors but also students with similar interests and backgrounds. As a relatively new student at SFU, it was a great way for me to meet people.

I spoke with a professor whose research interests align with mine, and I was able to follow up and arrange a short meeting afterward. I feel this workshop gave me the encouragement and context to do that it was both a valuable learning experience and practically helpful.

There was also a session with the graduate program coordinator, where we learned more about the graduate application process. One piece of useful advice was that research experience matters more than other factors, and that having a faculty member willing to supervise you is key. Now I understand why I was rejected from the 2025 Fall admission ;)

Anyway, this was the first official program I attended at SFU, and it turned out to be a better experience than I expected. I highly recommend it if it continues to be offered annually, especially to anyone interested in pursuing research in computer science.