Posts for Parents

Learn about our research!

Dr. Cayley MacArthur and the Quest for the Triple E (EEE) Degrees

Dr. Cayley MacArthur is a long-standing name in the Games Institute (GI) ever since the GI opened its physical doors to researchers and students. She’s spent time here working on her undergraduate and Master’s theses, her Doctoral research, and has officially joined the GI as a faculty member. As Assistant Professor, Dr. MacArthur teaches out of UWaterloo’s Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. But how did she get here? Well, luckily, Dr. MacArthur took the time to answer questions we had for her about her time at the GI and her hopes of continuing on with her research.

ICGaN 2023 - Isolation and Return Through the World of Hybrid Viewing

ICGaN 2023

From May 15 – 19, 2023, the Games Institute (GI) hosted the second International Conference on Games and Narrative (ICGaN). It focused on the theme Isolation and Return: The Making of Narrative Worlds. Speakers from 40 universities joined from around the world explained how, societally, we have all been forced to consider and rethink personal and communal lives necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The final turnout of the 2023 conference resulted in 17 sessions, 47 unique presentations, 5 keynotes, 3 workshops, 4 academic game streams, and a game jam.

Physiological Measures for Games and VR: Novel Tools and Approaches

On August 9, 2023, Dr. Ifi Mavridou and Dr. John E. Muñoz (J&F Alliance, Adjunct) spoke at a panel on the use of physiological monitoring, biofeedback equipment, and tools for VR applications and research. Both researchers are experts in this field, with Mavridou talking about the creation and design of hardware and Muñoz about design and the use of software, they presented their experiences on what these tools can offer for research in games and more. The applications that both Mavridou and Muñoz work with are cutting edge and provide researchers with a toolkit on how they can design and approach their studies. This approach personalizes and tailors the study design not only to make it easier for researchers but also for study participants to jointly design and study immersive experiences. 

Dr. Cayley MacArthur Gives Keynote Speech at the Jeux & Accessibilité Conference

Dr. Cayley MacArthur (Stratford) delivered the keynote address at the inaugural Jeux & Accessibilité / Game Accessibility conference took place on August 17 – 18, 2023 in Montreal, Québec. Her address - “Can Making Games Inclusively Help to Make More Inclusive Games?” responded to the conference themes of video game accessibility.

GI Members take part in Dibaajimowin exhibition at Waterloo Region Museum

On September 27th, the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum unveiled a new exhibit to the publicDibaajimowin | Stories From this Land.” The exhibit was assembled by Anishinaabe curator Emma Rain Smith, an MA student from Waterloo. The exhibit highlights Indigenous contributions to the region’s history with an emphasis on Urban Indigeneity. GI members Dr. Aynur Kadir (University of British Columbia) and PhD student Sid Heeg (Environment, Enterprise, and Development) took part in the design, curation, and research associated with the exhibition. The entire project is the result of the collaborative work between researchers, activists, and community members from the region, including the University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University. 

The Games Institute Seed Grant funds eight interdisciplinary 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.

CRIT Council's Pallavi Sodhi presents "Inclusive Board Game Design"

Pallavi Sodhi, Research Intern for the Council for Responsible Innovation and Technology (CRIT) and Dr. Jason Lajoie, Research Associate for CRIT, gave a guest lecture about inclusive board game design for students at Branksome Hall in Toronto.

"My avatar – my self?": Mitchell Loewen's thesis published in Frontiers in Psychology

Do our self-perceptions influence our preferences when designing avatars in the games we play? GI members Mitchell Loewen and Dr. Lennart E. Nacke, with Dr. Christopher Burris of St. Jerome’s University, co-authored a paper about the psychology of preferences toward game avatar styles.

Research during COVID-19: VR Exergames for Older Adults Living with Dementia, ft. John Muñoz

Rowing with dolphin

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the research landscape. In this series, we explore how our community is navigating their daily lives and innovating to adapt their research and collaboration techniques.

Research during COVID-19: Collaborating during CHI Season

Working online video with a person on a screen (from Canva stock images)

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the research landscape. In this series, we explore how our community is navigating their daily lives and innovating to adapt their research and collaboration techniques.


The Human-Computer Interaction labs at the Games Institute, and at the University of Waterloo overall, emphasize collaboration between and within groups so any one student is uplifted by the entire network of HCI researchers.

Pages

  1. 2023 (5)
  2. 2022 (13)
    1. December (3)
    2. October (1)
    3. July (4)
    4. June (1)
    5. May (1)
    6. April (2)
    7. March (1)
  3. 2021 (4)
    1. November (1)
    2. October (1)
    3. February (1)
    4. January (1)
  4. 2020 (23)
    1. December (1)
    2. November (2)
    3. October (1)
    4. September (1)
    5. August (2)
    6. July (4)
    7. June (5)
    8. May (2)
    9. February (3)
    10. January (2)
  5. 2019 (13)
    1. December (1)
    2. November (2)
    3. August (1)
    4. July (2)
    5. June (2)
    6. May (1)
    7. April (1)
    8. March (1)
    9. January (2)
  6. 2018 (10)