News

Morgan McGuire, Adjunct Computer Science Professor at Waterloo and Scientist at NVIDIA Research, hosted a discussion on upcoming graphics technologies and their application towards what is called "extended realities". McGuire's talk focused on the new experiences in media that are able to emerge from the application of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), rendering technology and sensors.

Tina Chan, Public Health and Health Systems MSc graduate, will be running a workshop at Pushing the Paradigm at the University of Toronto. Pushing the Paradigm focuses on broadening our understanding of mental health.

GI alum Séamas Weech, postdoc researcher in neuroscience and virtual reality, presented at SIGGRAPH 2019. SIGGRAPH is an annual conference for academia and industry in Los Angeles which focuses on global innovations, including what's next for computer graphics, animation, VR, gaming and new technologies.

Dr. Gustavo F. Tondello, a PhD graduate and instructional support coordinator of Waterloo’s School of Computer Science, as well as co-founder of MotiviUX, presented a paper on the Five Factor Player Traits Model at INTERACT 2019, the IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

Tina Chan, Public Health and Health Systems MSc candidate, appeared on CBC The National on September 6th, speaking about school-related stress and mental health struggles. Chan is the creator of the Panic Anxiety & Stress Support kit (PASS kit), designed to assist students in managing stress and destigmatize stress-related mental illnesses.

Dr. Lennart Nacke, Associate Professor and Director of the HCI Games Group, alongside the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, is co-organizing the Fluxible Education Summit (click here for more information on the summit).

Dr. Michael Barnett-Cowan, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Director of the Multisensory Brain and Cognition lab, discussed the progression of virtual and augmented reality (VR, AR) technology and their real world application in an article in the Globe and Mail.

Chris Lawrence, PhD candidate in English and Editor-in-Chief at First Person Scholar, published an article in Unwinnable about Mortal Kombat characters Scorpion and Sub-Zero. In the article, "Scorpion and Sub-Zero Should Make it Official", Lawrence does a queer reading of the characters' relationship throughout the Mortal Kombat (MK) franchise.

The Games Institute is thrilled to welcome a new faculty member to our community, Dr. Aynur Kadir. Dr. Kadir is an incoming Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts in the department of Communication Arts with plans to advance her research in mobilizing the knowledge and cultures of Indigenous heritages through interactive and immersive technologies.

GI faculty member, Dr. Ashley Mehlenbacher, was recently published in “Waterloo Stories”, an online publication run by the Faculty of Arts. Dr. Mehlenbacher spoke about the growth of citizen science linked to the rise of the internet.