News

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.

The Haptics Experience Lab is seeking a full stack developer to rebuild the Haptiverse platform from scratch within a project timeline of 1.5 to 2 months. The developer should have experience with both front-end and back-end technologies, databases, DevOps skills, communication skills, and experience with support and maintenance. The developer will be provided design/assets and any support as needed. There’s a requirement document and a preliminary database architecture available.

Details:

The Haptic Experience (HX) Lab is seeking a post-doctoral scholar to assist with a variety of projects involving haptics, physical interactive technology, and human-computer interaction. There is a great deal of flexibility in the topic, as the post-doc will be able to manage existing projects while having the opportunity to further their own research agenda. There will be ample opportunity for student mentorship, grant writing, and lab management experience in addition to core research activities.

The University of Waterloo Games Institute has secured $25,000 of funding per year over two years from the Ontario government to provide scholarships to students pursuing careers in the gaming and esports industries. The successful application was an interdisciplinary collaborative effort between the Games Institute (GI) and the faculties of Arts, Health, Math, Engineering, and Science.

On November 22nd, GI membersDrs. Jennifer Whitson (Sociology and Legal Studies), Kristina Llewellyn (Social Development Studies), and Steve Wilcox (University of Wilfrid Laurier) discussed the intersection between education and games.

In partnership with the GI, AGE-WELL hosted a hybrid networking event for researchers, industry professionals, and advocates in public health and aging on November 18th. The event was managed by Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Hector Perez (School of Public Health Sciences) and PhD students Adebusola Adekoya (School of Public Health Sciences) and Isabella Rosa Chawrun (School of Public Health Sciences)

On November 4th, Drs. Lai-Tze Fan and Jon Saklofske led a game jam workshop where participants explored how game environments and tools can encourage players and developers to pursue broader social, cultural, and interpersonal understandings.

The University of Waterloo has announced the following 15 funded postdoctoral positions, including five specific positions for Black and Indigenous scholars.

Applications are open now to scholars from any discipline and are due December 1st. Applicants may choose from one of the three programs listed below.

The GI Game Jam ran from September 29th to October 2nd, led by Jam co-captains, PhD students Joseph Tu (Systems Design Engineering) and Alexander Glover (Management Sciences). The Jam saw the development of 17 games.

On June 29^th, Member of Parliament Bill Blair presented Dean of Health Dr. Lili Liu and her team with $2.1 million dollars of funding over three years to support their project to enhance search and rescue capabilities for when people with dementia go missing.

The project titled “Managing Risks of Going Missing among Persons Living with Dementia by Building Capacities of SAR Personnel, First Responders and Communities” will create dementia-friendly resources across six provinces and in collaboration with two indigenous communities, the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba and the Kahnawá:ke Mohawk Territory in Quebec.