Potential PhD Students

Prof. Mariakakis is actively looking for motivated people to join CHAI starting in Fall 2025. Priority will be given to students who are interested in using signal processing and machine learning on sensor data from ubiquitous devices (e.g., smartphones, wearables) to develop new digital health systems. However, students interested in qualitative methods in the context of digital health are also encouraged to apply. If you are interested, please email Prof. Mariakakis with a brief expression of interest and CV.

Potential MSc Students

Prof. Mariakakis typically prioritizes PhD applicants over MSc students. In fact, the University of Toronto makes it difficult to recruit non-Canadian students specifically into the MSc program due to provincial incentives. Therefore, domestic MSc applicants will be considered in exceptional cases, and international students are encouraged to apply for a PhD if they are keen to work with Prof. Mariakakis.

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate research opportunities within our group are largely based on ongoing projects by graduate students. We regularly identify projects that would be significantly accelerated with the help of an undergraduate student, and then we seek out undergraduates to help with those tasks as needs arise. Undergraduate research activities in our group can require a variety of skills: building a smartphone app, building machine learning models, conducting interviews, helping run longitudinal studies, etc. Undergraduate students at various experience levels may be suitable for these positions depending on the project's timeline and the skills that are already on hand.

We typically recruit students who are already at the University of Toronto. If you fall in that category, you can take a look at the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Portal to see the projects with potential openings. We look at applications sent through this portal for CSC 494/495, NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA), and University of Toronto Excellence Awards (UTEA). If you are interested in a volunteer research position, you may fill out this Google form that we periodically examine for potential recruits.