Welcome to the Games Institute
The Games Institute (GI) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Waterloo, advancing the study of games, gamification, interactive technologies and immersive environments (AR/VR).
News Items
Our members are busy people; whether they’re taking their research to conferences, delivering keynote addresses, or running workshops at museums, we bring you the news to keep you informed on the latest research and activities.
Research Spotlights
Every story offers an insider’s look into the Games Institute. How does brainstorming lead to new research directions? What really happens at the GI Game Jams? How does play-testing drive better game design? All this and more.
News
- July 19, 2022GI members Emily Shiu, Karthik Prasad, and team “Pragmatica” participate in the Velocity’s Concept Funding Grant Finals
The Velocity Concept Funding Grant Finals took place on July 14th, both virtually and in person at the Student Life Center. Out of 49 total applicants, 9 teams of students compete for four $5,000 funding awards for their innovative projects. While the competition finals are normally eight teams, this year the judges decided nine was necessary due to the high quality of the competitors.
- July 19, 2022GI Faculty Member Shana Macdonald Interviewed by CTV about Rogers Nationwide Outage
Dr. Shana Macdonald (Communication Arts) was interviewed on July 11th about the massive Canada-wide Rogers outage that saw many Canadians without access to the internet, phone service, or even ATMs.
- July 19, 2022GI Faculty Member Dr. Lili Liu receives $2.1 million in funding from the Government of Canada
On June 29th, Member of Parliament Bill Blair presented Dean of Health Dr. Lili Liu and her team with $2.1 million dollars of funding over three years to support their project to enhance search and rescue capabilities for when people with dementia go missing.
The project titled “Managing Risks of Going Missing among Persons Living with Dementia by Building Capacities of SAR Personnel, First Responders and Communities” will create dementia-friendly resources across six provinces and in collaboration with two indigenous communities, the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba and the Kahnawá:ke Mohawk Territory in Quebec.
Blog
- July 11, 2022GI Members present their cross-faculty collaboration the “Canadian Cap and Trade Simulation” game
On June 16th, Alex Flek (English Language and Literatur
- July 7, 2022GI lab "qCollaborative" takes part in 2022 DH Unbound virtual conference
Members of qCollaborative (qLab) participated in this year’s DH Unbound virtual conference which took place from May 17th – 19th. Drs. Jennifer Roberts-Smith (Brock University), Shana MacDonald (Communication Arts), Brianna Wiens (English Language and Literature), and Aynur Kadir (University of British Columbia) presented on the nature of the qLab and how the lab has enabled collaborative, interdisciplinary scholarship and become a space of friendship and care. qLab was designed as a space to better articulate how feminism can be incorporated into design practices, materializing the digital, and remediating lived experiences into social justice design.
- July 6, 2022UC Irvine professor Dr. Bo Ruberg presents research from their new book "Sex Dolls at Sea" at the Games Institute
On April 19th
Meet our people
Jennifer Whitson
Jennifer R. Whitson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Legal Studies and at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, both at the University of Waterloo.
