The Games Institute (GI) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Waterloo, advancing the study of interactive and immersive technologies and experiences.
News Bites
Stay up-to-date with the latest GI activities. Our News Bites report on recent conferences, keynote addresses, and recent research activities of our members.
Research Spotlights
For more in-depth breakdowns of ongoing research projects, check out our Research Spotlights for full write ups of events and up close and personal testimonies with our researchers and members.
News
Games Institute once again welcomes student visitors from Mexico
Following the success of last year’s visit, GI welcomed another cohort of visitors from Mexico eager to explore the world of games and interactive technology. These students are from the RoboSEIP program managed by Renison University. During the visit, students attended presentations and interactive sessions and participated in research.
Dr. Lai-Tze's U&AI Lab
Dr. Lai-Tze Fan announced her new U&AI Lab funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation! The purpose of Dr. Fan’s work and the creation of the lab will be to examine the systemic oppression integrated into modern AI technology. The U&AI Lab will focus on three case studies in AI using frameworks from social sciences and humanities with STEM research in FATE (fairness, accountability, transparency, ethics): (1) generative textual and language-based AI, (2) facial recognition technologies, and (3) AI hardware and the environment. Dr. Fan also hopes to write a novel that can help others disrupt inequitable AI at critical stages of development and prevent unfair and unethical impacts to end users.
The GI congratulates Dr. Fan on her new project and looks forward to future updates!
GI Members Present Research at the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) 2024
GI members presented their research at the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) 2024 annual conference.
Blog
Games Institute Seed Grant interdiscipinary cross campus collaborations
The Games Institute (GI) is pleased to announce the recipients of its first-ever seed grant funding competition. In total, the GI Seed Program will support eight interdisciplinary initiatives for a total of $110,000 over the next year. The competition promoted interdisciplinary collaborations in teams of researchers spanning many different disciplines and research areas.
The seed grant recipients will combine their varied expertise to tackle real-world problems facing indigenous communities, health care workers, children with speech difficulties, mothers facing homelessness, citizen scientists, and VR, XR and social media consumers.
Dr. Brianna Wiens on Collaborative Feminist Research
Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Brianna Wiens took an unconventional path to the GI starting as a PhD student at York University who visited the GI as part of a crew filming a documentary about qCollaborative (qLab)—a feminist design research lab with members from multiple Canadian universities, including UW.
Dr. John Muñoz on Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry
Dr. John Muñoz (J&F Alliance) may be one of the most versatile researchers the GI has ever housed. Just when you think you have heard about everything he has done (working with NASA, creating virtual reality (VR) games, using mind-controlled devices for biofeedback, and working with robots, to just name a few), John brings up another project, in a completely different field than the rest of his work.