News

The Haptic Computing Lab (HCL), led by Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Prof. Oliver Schneider, launched their website this week. HCL is a group of interdisciplinary scholars from the University of Waterloo, joined in their collective goal to research haptic computing tools and touch systems to better understand how to assist the creation, deployment, and study of haptic technologies.

Dr. Aynur Kadir, GI faculty member and Assistant Professor from Communication Arts, presented "Collaborative Indigenous Media: Participatory design for Indigenous Art and Cultural Heritage" at Waterloo Women's Wednesdays event about Community-Based Digital Storytelling.

Toben Racicot, host of the Games Institute Podcast and PhD candidate in English, will be presenting "Creativity in the Classroom" for the Centre for Teaching Excellence "Special Topics in Teaching" Workshop on Thursday, January 30.

GI members Marvin Pafla, Systems Design Engineering Master's student, and Samira Mehrabi, Kinesiology PhD student, were finalists in the 2020 GRADflix competition, hosted by the office of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

The interdisciplinary Games and Narrative reading group is a newly launched initiative, imagined by Dr. Ken Hirschkop, Professor of English Language and Literature. With Dr. Hirschkop's guidance, graduate students who join the reading group will explore how the fields of Narrative Theory and Game Studies intersect and inform one another.

Jessica Thompson, researcher in Fine Arts and faculty member of the Stratford School and the Games Institute, received an Early Researcher Award (ERA). Provided by the provincial government, an ERA funds researchers and allows them to establish a research team.

It is our great pleasure to formally announce that Dr. Neil Randall has been reappointed to serve as GI Executive Director for another five-year term.

Neil’s reappointment follows a period of exciting changes at the GI which has seen an Arts-based centre graduate to one of eight university-level multidisciplinary centres and institutes.

To start his new term, Neil (along with the rest of our members) will be busy with GI’s five-year review and renewal by the Senate coming up in 2020.