News

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.

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:

On March 7, 2023, the Games Institute welcomed a delegation of researchers from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. The researchers, guests of the Dean of Health Dr. Lili Liu, presented health research that intersects with games and immersive and interactive technologies. 

On January 24th, the Office of Research hosted “The AI Tsunami – Where will it take us?”, a panel discussion on the future and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Jobsite Brewing Co. in Stratford, Ontario. Dr. Will Zhao (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) and Evan Jones (GI Advisory Board Member) were among those speaking on the panel. 

GI member and PhD candidate, Toben Racicot (English Language and Literature) braved the weather on January 25, 2023, to present a lecture on making loot in role-playing games (RPGs) more accessible and enjoyable. This was a part of the “Projects and Research by English Students” (PRES) lecture series run outside of the UW English Languages and Literature Department.  

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.

On January 19th, 2023, Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole (Communication Arts) was a speaker at the 6-part “DS Bytes: A Lunchtime Speaker Series” where they discussed Glitch Feminism, disability, and technology.  

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.