Browse faculty research
*external members
Neil Randall
Executive Director of The Games Institute
In addition to directing The Games Institute, Neil Randall has also earned large grants for The Interactive and Multi-Modal Research Syndicate (IMMERSe) and the Waterloo Game Analysis and Monitoring Environment (WatGAME). He is the Faculty Advisor to the Games Institute's First Person Scholar.
Mark Hancock
Mark Hancock is the Associate Director of the Games Institute. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Management Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering, where he directs the Touchlab.
Adrian Reetz
Adrian Reetz was a post-doctoral research fellow working with Dr. Mark Hancock on pace in video games, and collaborating with Dr. Jim Wallace on biophilia in video games.
Before that, Adrian was awarded a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Saskatchewan for his research under the supervision of Dr. Carl Gutwin on full-arm gestures as input technique.
Adrian is currently a faculty member at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.
Anita Layton
Anita is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine, and Professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology.
Aynur Kadir
Aynur Kadir is an Indigenous Uyghur scholar, filmmaker and curator with a research focus on the documentation, conservation and revitalization of Indigenous cultures and languages. Her work bridges the gap between Indigenous studies in Canada and in Asia.
Ben Feng
Ben Feng’s research interests include mathematical modelling of complex real-life systems, computer experiment design and analysis, and Monte Carlo simulations.
Ben Thompson
Ben Thompson's background is in visual neuroscience and his research interests relate to the development and plasticity of human visual brain areas.
Brad Mehlenbacher
Brad Mehlenbacher is an Professor of Rhetoric and Communication in the Department of English Language & Literature at the University of Waterloo.
Brianna Wiens
Brianna I. Wiens (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Activism, Design Equity, and Feminist Media Futures in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo.
Colin Ellard
Colin Ellard is a psychologist researching neuroscience. His interests include how the organization and appearance of natural and built spaces affects movement, wayfinding, emotion, and physiology. He directs the Urban Realities Lab at the University of Waterloo.
Craig S. Kaplan
Craig Kaplan studies the application of computer graphics in art, illustration, ornamentation, and design. This research area is rooted in computer graphics, but involves forays into art (to study historical sources) classical and computational geometry (to develop mathematical and computational models of ornament), and computer-aided design and manufacturing.
Daniel Harley
Daniel Harley is an Assistant Professor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. His research focuses on digital culture, interactive narratives, tangible and embodied interaction, and virtual reality. He is director of the Narrative Realities Lab on the Stratford Campus.
Daniel Vogel
Daniel Vogel is an Associate Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He has published more than 90 papers in Human Computer Interaction focusing on fundamental characteristics of human input and novel forms of interaction for current and future computing form factors. Topics include touch, tangibles, mid-air gestures, and whole-body input, for everything from on-body wearable devices and mobile phones, to large displays and virtual reality.
Derek Robinson
Derek Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Modelling.
Edith Law
Edith Law is an Assistant Professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on interaction techniques and incentive mechanisms for volunteer-based human computation systems, and how these systems can address problems in Science and Public Health. She is also part of the Human Computer Interaction Lab.
Fue-Sang Lien
Fue-Sang Lien is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. Professor Lien is also the Head of Waterloo CFD Engineering Consulting Inc.
Gerald Voorhees
Gerald Voorhees is an Associate Professor in the Department Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo.
Ian Milligan
Ian Milligan is Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight and Analysis at the University of Waterloo, where he is also an associate professor of history. Milligan’s primary research focus is on how historians can use web archives, as well as the impact of digital sources on historical practice more generally.
Jane Tingley
Jane Tingley is an Assistant Professor in Hybrid Media in the Department of Fine Arts and the Stratford campus at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Her research combines traditional studio practice with new media tools, spanning responsive/interactive installation, performative robotics, and the creation of a gestur
Jason Grove
Jason is a faculty member in Chemical Engineering. As Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies and leader of the assessment of graduate attributes for accredation, he has interest and expertise in pedagogical practice and research; particularly related to the assessment of learning outcomes and curriculum improvement. His technical expertise is in greenhouse gas emission quantification and sustainability.
Jennifer Boger
Jennifer Boger employs an interdisciplinary, user-centric approach to create internationally renowned technologies that provide multifaceted support of aging, including aspects such as citizenship, leisure, and personhood.
Jennifer Roberts-Smith
Jennifer Roberts-Smith's transdisciplinary, design-based work in performance and digital media focuses on history, education, and social justice. She is currently a co-director of the qCollaborative (the critical feminist design research lab housed in Games Institute) and co-leads the Remote Embodied Synchronous Teaching and Learning for Accessibility project (RESTLA). She is also creative director and virtual reality cluster lead for the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project. Her recent publications have focused on methods for design research that deepen interdisciplinary understanding and take a relational approach to design.
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.
Jesse Hoey
Dr. Jesse Hoey is an associate professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He is also an adjunct scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute in Toronto, Canada, where he is co-leader of the AI and Robotics Research Team. Dr. Hoey received the B.Sc. degree (1992) in physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the M.Sc. degree (1995) in physics and the Ph.D degree (2004) in computer science from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. From 2004-2010, he was an assistant professor in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee, Scotland. In 2014-2015 he was a visiting professor at the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en automatique (INRIA) in Sophia-Antipolis, France.
Jim Wallace
Jim Wallace is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at University of Waterloo. He leads the HCI and Health lab, with research addressing how technologies like large, interactive displays, smart devices, and machine learning can prevent disease, prolong life, and promote human health.
Kaylena Ehgoetz Martens
Kaylena Ehgoetz Martens is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on using virtual reality to dissect how cognition and emotion contribute to movement in health and disease.
Ken Hirschkop
Ken Hirschkop is currently a part of the Games and Narrative Reading Group at the Games Institute. With Dr. Hirschkop's guidance, graduate students who join the reading group explore how the fields of Narrative Theory and Game Studies intersect and inform one another.
Kevin Harrigan
Kevin Harrigan teaches in the Global Business and Digital Arts program (GBDA) at our Stratford campus. He researches gambling and sometimes acts as a technical expert witness in legal cases regarding Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs).
Kristina Llewellyn
Kristina R. Llewellyn is Full Professor of Social Development Studies and affiliated faculty with the Department of History. Her primary research area is oral history and education, which extends to the role of games and virtual reality in teaching and learning history.
Lai-Tze Fan
Lai-Tze Fan is an Assistant Professor of Sociology & Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, cross-listed in the Department of English Language and Literature. She researches digital storytelling, systemic inequalities in technological design and labour, media theory and infrastructure, and approaches to research-creation . She makes digital and material art about e-waste, crafts, and fashion. Fan is an Editor and the Director of Communications of electronic book review and an Editor of the digital review. She is Co-Editor of the collection Post-Digital: Dialogues and Debates from electronic book review (Bloomsbury 2020), and is the Editor of special journal issues on “Canadian Digital Poetics” and “Critical Making, Critical Design" (both 2021).
Leah Zhang-Kennedy
Leah teaches User Experience Design and Innovation at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford Campus. She joined Waterloo from an interdisciplinary background, bridging design and research from computer science, human-computer interaction, and graphic design. She has four years of industry experience working as a designer.
Lennart Nacke
Lennart Nacke is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. He is the director of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Games Group at the Games Institute of the University of Waterloo.
Lili Liu
Lili is a Professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems, and Dean of the Faculty of Health at the University of Waterloo. Her research examines ways technologies can help older adults and family caregivers. Dr. Liu's research program involves partners such as Alzheimer Societies, police services, search and rescue services, and dementia advocacy and caregiver associations, nationally and internationally.
Luke Potwarka
Luke Potwarka's research focuses on consumer behaviour related to sport events. It addresses the overarching question: under what conditions do sport events have positive impacts for individuals and organizations in host communities? Their research draws from diverse disciplinary perspectives (e.g., social psychology, geography) and methodological approaches. The knowledge generated from my work is aimed to improve event management practices in ways that maximize participation and economic-related impacts that can result from hosting elite-sport events.
Marcel O'Gorman
Marcel O’Gorman is a University Research Chair and Director of the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo. O’Gorman’s research and artistic practice explore the impacts of technology on the human condition. Beyond his multiple exhibitions and academic books, he has published articles in Slate, The Atlantic and The Globe andMail. O’Gorman’s latest invention, which he calls an object-to-think-with, is Resistor Case, a Do-It-Yourself project that promotes responsible use of smartphones.
Michael Barnett-Cowan
Dr. Michael Barnett-Cowan is an Associate Professor for the Kinesiology Department, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, at the University of Waterloo.
Morgan McGuire
Morgan creates algorithms and systems for scalable, civil, social 3D and VR interaction. Morgan is the Chief Scientist at Roblox and an adjunct professor in the University of Waterloo Cheriton School of Computer Science, and previously worked at Williams College, NVIDIA, and Activision. https://casual-effects.com/morgan/
Ning Jiang
In the research community, there has been a new direction of research on dexterous myoelectric control mimicking the neuromuscular system by extracting nature control information from surface EMG with advanced algorithm, and Ning Jiang is one of the world leading experts in this exciting direction.
Oliver Schneider
Oliver Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Management Sciences. His research interests include human-computer interaction, haptics, and creativity-support systems, with his larger goal to establish haptic experience design and make it available to everyone. Oliver is funded by NSERC (Discovery Grant, Post-doctoral Fellowship, Graduate Scholarships), CFI and ORF, Mitacs, and an NFRF Exploration Grant. He typically attends/publishes at CHI, UIST, and haptics conferences such as Haptics Symposium, World Haptics and EuroHaptics.
Randy Harris
Randy Allen Harris is a rhetorician with the University of Waterloo’s Department of English Language and Literature. His interests include Computational Rhetoric, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Stylistics. His books include The Linguistic Wars, Rhetoric and Incommensurability, and Voice Interaction Design. He is the director of The Rhetoricon Database project, which includes GoFigure, a citizen-science game for harvesting rhetorical figures from any and all genres, registers, and discourses.
Shana MacDonald
Shana MacDonald is an Associate Professor in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. Her interdisciplinary research examines feminist, queer, and anti-racist media activisms within social and digital media, popular culture, cinema, and contemporary art. Dr. MacDonald runs the online archive Feminists Do Media (Instagram: @aesthetic.resistance).
Shi Cao
Shi Cao is pronounced like SHER TSAO. Dr. Cao’s major research area is human factors engineering. His research projects include human performance and workload modeling, human-machine system reliability, and the applications of virtual and augmented reality.
Stacey Scott
Stacey’s research and teaching interests are human-computer interaction and emerging technology design.
Susan Elliott
Susan is a medical geographer with specific interests in global environmental health. She is an Adjunct Professor with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, a partner in much of the global water and sanitation research that she does. She is also a research lead for the AllerGe
Susan Roy
Susan is an Associate Professor in History. She examines the histories of Indigenous-non-Indigenous relationships in Canada with attention to cultural performance and land rights activism. Susan also incorporates digital technology and other forms of multi-media presentation to bring historical research to wider publics.
Suzanne Kearns
Dr. Suzanne Kearns is an aviation academic with a focus on education and optimizing pilot performance. Her research explores how to optimize the next generation of aviation professionals (NGAP) by analyzing processes to attract people to the field of aviation, optimizing and innovating the traditional education pathway, and improving the retention of professionals within the field. She is a former airplane and helicopter pilot and is internationally recognized within the aviation industry.
Umair Shah
Muhammad Umair Shah is a faculty member in the Department of Management Sciences, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He pursues research in human-computer interaction, application of stakeholder theory in technology realm, and ethics of UX design.
He investigates the impacts of various emotional and sensory factors on usage patterns of multiplayer online battle arena games. He is also interested in learning about the intentions that alter usage behaviour and advertising value of mobile video games.
Ville Mäkelä
Ville is an Assistant Professor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. He works broadly in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. His main areas of expertise are ubiquitous and mobile computing, virtual reality, and games.