From June 27th to 28th, GI members presented and attended UWaterloo’s in-person conference that brought together international and local scholars from various disciplines to demonstrate the different ways our communities can—and should—foster trust within academia.
On June 17, the GI welcomed communication experts, researchers, and students from KidsAbility to showcase the various research conducted by GI members. Along with Brendan Wylie-Toal, the Director of Research & Innovation at KidsAbility, the group also toured the GI facility to learn more about how GI administration supports membership, research, and connecting academic work with industry, demonstrating previous knowledge mobilization projects. We hope they enjoyed their time here!
Dr. Lai-Tze Fan announced her new U&AI Lab funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation! The purpose of Dr. Fan’s work and the creation of the lab will be to examine the systemic oppression integrated into modern AI technology. The U&AI Lab will focus on three case studies in AI using frameworks from social sciences and humanities with STEM research in FATE (fairness, accountability, transparency, ethics): (1) generative textual and language-based AI, (2) facial recognition technologies, and (3) AI hardware and the environment. Dr. Fan also hopes to write a novel that can help others disrupt inequitable AI at critical stages of development and prevent unfair and unethical impacts to end users.
The GI congratulates Dr. Fan on her new project and looks forward to future updates!
The Games Institute Podcast has been featured on the HigherEdPods platform, a directory for university associated podcast series from institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Zurich, MIT, and many, many more.
GI members Drs. John E. Muñoz and Shi Cao partnered with the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) to speak on the intersection of technology and human physiology at the Vital Pulse seminar taking place on June 27th, 2024. The topic “Advancing Pilot Training with Physiological Monitoring and Adaptive Simulation” aims to highlight the future of aviation, aircraft, and spacecraft training of Canadian pilots.
On April 16, GI alumni, and full-time game designer at Wiggles 3D, AC Atienza’s latest boardgame One-Hit Heroes quickly surpassed its Kickstarter goal of CA$30,000 within an amazing 30 minutes. By May 16th at the end of the campaign, Wiggles 3D’s Kickstarter for the game reached a final total of CA$296,467 with the support of 3465 backers.
CHI 2024 ran from May 11 - 16, and many GI members attend to present their papers, in-progress studies, and projects.
Games Institute (GI) members are no strangers to the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), and this year is no different with two GI alums, Alexandra Orlando and Tina Chan, leading sessions about their ongoing work within the games industry.
On March 16, Dr. Shana MacDonald (Communication Arts) spoke with Joe Scarpelli on Global News about the recent social media controversy surrounding Kate Middleton Princess of Wales.
Congratulations to the following GI faculty members for securing $565,580 in Tri-Agency funding for their research projects!
Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole (Communication Arts) received an Insight Development Grant for their project "Disabled Feminists and Digital Storytelling: Zine-Making Pandemic Lives" ($21,330).
Dr. Lai-Tze Fan (Sociology and Legal Studies) is a collaborator on the Insight Development Grant "Digital Imaginations and the Decameron Storyworld" ($66,750).
Dr. Lennart Nacke (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) received an NSERC Discovery Grant for his project "Engineering Novel Game Technology To Improve People's Lives" ($52,000 per term for five terms totalling $260,000).
Dr. Ville Makela (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) received an NSERC Discovery Grant for his project "Developing Technologies for Bringing Physical Objects into Virtual Reality" ($41,000 per term for five terms totalling $205,000 + $12,500 for the Discovery Launch Supplement).