News

Games Institute members Rina Wehbe and Siyavash Izadi are among the top entries in the NSERC Science, Action! video contest.

The 25 videos with the most views by March 27 will proceed to the judges’ panel, where they will compete for one of 15 prizes. Join us in supporting Rina and Siyavash by watching their videos between February 27 to March 27 so that they can continue to advance in the competition and share their research with the world.

Games Institute members from the Multisensory Brain and Cognition (MBC) Lab, Séamas Weech, Sophie Kenny, and Michael Barnett-Cowan, have co-authored a new paper entitled, "Presence and Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Are Negatively Related: A Review

John Harris, GI resident and Computer Science PhD student, presented a 5 minute short paper at CHI Play 2018 during their "Spotlight on Design Rationale" session. Harris' paper presents his reflections on translating HCI research into concrete game design.

AC Atienza, Master's student in Experimental Digital Media, wrote an article entitled "Viewer Culture and Boardgames" for Cloudfall Interactive Studios. Atienza's research interest involves re-application of design principals from one field to another, such as game design into pedagogy or literary theory into game design. Atienza also works as a designer for Cloudfall Studios.

Did you miss the Virtual Reality (VR) and Immersive Reality (IR) Networking Event? Watch the full recording of the speakers now:

On January 23, the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB) and the Games Institute (GI) co-hosted the VR Networking Event. The purpose of the event was to bring faculty and postdocs from UW together to talk about research possibilities and potential collaborations in Immersive Reality (IR) technologies.

Fall 2018, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs launched the first ever GRADflix competition. Graduate students were invited to create a 60-second video, moving slide show, or animation about their research. Entries were judged based on communication, creativity and visual impact, and technical quality.

Gustavo Tondello, GI resident and Computer Science PhD student, was featured on the UWaterloo YouTube channel in a GRADimpact profile video about his research.

Emma Vossen, alum of the Games Institute and former Editor in Chief of First Person Scholar, ran the Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG) conference in Vancouver on October 25, 26, and 27, 2018. Vossen also presented a talk about teaching games related classes.

Lennart Nacke, faculty member of the Games Institute and director of the HCI Games Group, spoke on a panel, entitled "Keeping the Human in Artificial Intelligence", on December 3 at the Kitchener Public Library.

Mark Hancock, Associate Director of the Games Institute and Director of the UW Touchlab, was honoured with the 10-Year Impact Award on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS) in Tokyo.