BDANS Daniel L. Silver Scholarship

Scholarship | Eligibility: Computer Science

Established in 2023, the Big Data Alliance of Nova Scotia Daniel L Silver Scholarship is awarded to an outstanding Computer Science graduate student working in the area of machine learning and data science, with a preference given to students working on applied projects with an industry partner. The recipients should exhibit qualities of leadership, entrepreneurism, and volunteering. All other things being equal, the award should go to the student with the greatest financial need. If in any year the scholarship cannot be awarded to a graduate student the disbursement should be returned to capital. The recipient should be selected by a committee composed of the Director of SOCS, the Graduate Coordinator of SOCS, and one faculty member active in machine learning and data science research.

Dr. Danny Silver (Class of ’79) is a Professor and former Director of the Jodrey School of Computer Science at Acadia University. He is also the founder and former Director of the Acadia Institute for Data Analytics and leads the Lifelong Machine Learning and Reasoning research group at Acadia. He completed a BSc Honours in Computer Science at Acadia from 1975-79 while playing three years on Acadia’s varsity soccer team.

After working in the industry for 13 years, he returned to university and completed a MSc and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario in June 2000.Danny’s teaching and research has focused on machine learning and its applications in data analytics, intelligent agents, robotics, and adaptive systems. He has authored over 75 refereed journal or conference papers, 40 industry project reports and delivered associated talks in Canada, USA, Mexico, Europe, and China. He has received a number of awards, including: the FLAIRS-2016 and CASCON-2017 best paper awards. From 2007-09, he was the President of the Canadian Society of Computational Studies of Intelligence (now the Canadian AI Association) and was Past-president into 2013. In 2016 he received the Science Champion Award from the Nova Scotia Discovery Centre for the creation of the Acadia Robot Programming Competitions (2005 to present). From 2014 to 2018 he served as an Honorary Colonel in the RCAF attached to 415 Squadron of 14 Wing Greenwood, in Nova Scotia.

Throughout his career Danny has helped existing businesses and new start-ups in their development and deployment of information technology, data science, and artificial intelligence tools and technology. In 2014, Danny was a founding member of the Big Data Alliance of Nova Scotia (BDANS) and continued as a board member until 2018. BDANS held a very successful Big Data Congresses in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for 5 years starting in 2014 that advanced fundamental and applied data science in Maritime Canada.

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