On Wednesday, October 5th the Games Institute opened its doors to the public for its annual Open House. Guests were able to explore the entire 9000-square-foot GI space, including lab spaces, to discover the interactive and immersive technologies research conducted in the GI’s collaborative interdisciplinary environment.
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.
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.
On June 16th, Alex Flek (English Language and Literature) and Dr. Jason Grove (Chemical Engineering) spoke to GI members and guests about the development process of their game Canadian Cap and Trade Simulation (CCTS), a serious game meant to teach students about carbon cap and trade systems. They came together because of their research expertise—Alex in games and Jason in emissions.
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.
On April 19th Dr. Bo Ruberg presented “Imagined Histories of Sexual Technologies” at the Games Institute to an audience of internal and external researchers. Dr. Ruberg is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, whose research explores gender and sexuality in digital media and digital cultures.
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.
In Spring 2022, UWaterloo welcomed thirty-four Ukrainian students whose, education had been disrupted by the war, to continue their studies at Waterloo. They were sponsored by the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute (Waterloo.AI).
Each year many GI faculty and student members present at the Canadian Game Studies Association conference, better known as CGSA.
GI faculty member Gerald Voorhees is currently CGSA president and organized this year’s conference with the assistance of the CGSA executive.
This year nine GI members and Alumni presented a wide array of research ranging from the games industry and education to the depiction of animals in games.
GI members also participated as reviewers, panel moderators, and adjudicators for CGSA’s best paper competition.
Fifteen Games Institute members presented at CHI 2022 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) both online and from the conference venue in New Orleans Louisiana from April 30th-May 5th. Research topics included realism in games, VR, smart glasses, livestreaming, and more!
Excitingly, this year’s CHI included an opening Keynote by GI Advisory Board member, Dr. Kishonna Gray (University of Kentucky), one of the world’s foremost experts on the interactions between race, gender, games, and technology.