News

In 2022, the University of Waterloo Games Institute secured $50,000 of funding over two years from the Ontario government to provide scholarships to students pursuing careers in the gaming and esports industries. Following a successful first round of scholarships awarded to thirteen students (two graduate and eleven undergraduate) earlier this year, the second round is now open for applications.

First Person Scholar is looking to grow its team!

Dr. Kishonna Gray, an External Faculty Member of the GI, has recently been interviewed by the gaming review site Kotaku in “The Brilliant Scholar Who’s Challenging Racism in Game Design.”

On May 15-19, the GI held its second biennial conference on games and narrative. This year, the conference invited presentations on the theme of “Isolation and Return: The Making of Narrative Worlds.” It was a fully hybrid conference that was made possible with the use of Dr. Neil Randall’s Storyboard Lab, which involved several Cisco screens to create an immersive experience. Around 40 participants joined the conference online while another 30 participated in person.

A major mathematic discovery has been found with the help of GI faculty member Dr. Craig S. Kaplan (Computer Science) called the “einstein.” The shape called the ‘hat’ is an aperiodic tile that can cover an infinite plane without creating a repeating pattern. Thought to be impossible, it was discovered by David Smith, a retired engineer based out of England who reached out to Dr. Kaplan about his discovery.

Terrorarium by Stich Media, a GI Industry partner, has recently been nominated for the Best VR/AR Game by the Canadian Game Awards. We want to take a trip down memory lane to look at the great work the developers and researchers did back in 2007.

The Canadian History Museum is looking for a Curator, Sport and Leisure in Ottawa/Gatineau. The Museum acquired the Avedon games collection from UW around 2009 and now has a robust collection of board games, as well as material on sport and leisure. The Games Institute is a partner of the Museum and a benefactor of this collection.