People profiles

Beth Coleman is co-director of the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo, and participates in the Rhetoric & Professional Writing major as well as the Master of Arts in Experimental Digital Media.

Professor DiCiccio helped found the Institute for Computer Research (ICR).

Mark Hancock is the Associate Director of the Games Institute. He is also a professor in the Department of Management Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering, where he directs the Touchlab.

Edith Law is an Associate Professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at University of Waterloo, and co-directs the Human Computer Interaction Lab. Previously, She was a CRCS postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University, a Masters in Computer Science from McGill University and a B.Sc in Computer Science from University of British Columbia. She is broadly interested in social computing technology that coordinates small groups to large crowds, new models of interactions with machine intelligence, and how technology can be designed to foster and celebrate certain human values. The research conducted by Law and her students have received several best paper awards and honorable mentions at the CHI and CSCW conference. Law's work is funded by NSERC Discovery Grant, NSERC-CIHR Collaborative Health Research Project (CHRP) as well as the CFI-JELF program. A full list of publications is available in the CV and Google Scholar.

Chrysanne Di Marco has been a member of the Artificial Intelligence Group since 1990. She is also project leader of the HealthDoc project, which works to develop natural language generation systems for producing multimedia health information tailored to medical conditions and patient characteristics.

Executive Director of The Games Institute

In addition to directing The Games Institute, Neil Randall has also earned large grants for The Interactive and Multi-Modal Research Syndicate (IMMERSe) and the Waterloo Game Analysis and Monitoring Environment (WatGAME). He is the Faculty Advisor to the Games Institute's First Person Scholar. 

Stacey Scott's research and teaching interests are human-computer interaction and emerging technology design.

Jim Wallace is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at University of Waterloo. He leads the HCI and Health lab, with research addressing how technologies like large, interactive displays, smart devices, and machine learning can prevent disease, prolong life, and promote human health.

Brian graduated in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design Dublin in 2000 where his interests included video and sound installation. He received an M.Phil in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin in 2004 focusing on audio-visual composition.

Chantel Pilon was a co-op student for The Games Institute from September - December 2013. During her term she created many of the visual and digital promotional materials for the Games Institute. She was a fifth-year student enrolled in Honours Recreation and Business. In addition to her academics, Chantel was a member of the varsity track and field team at the University of Waterloo specializing in the pentathlon and 4X400m relay. The pentathlon is a contest consisting of five events: 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and the 800m.

Kasandra Arthur, HBA (Lakehead University) and MA (Lakehead University), both with a specialization in Women's Studies. Kasandra studied young adult literature, particularly the processes in which these texts are adapted to film.

Betty Chang received her PhD from the department of Systems Design Engineering in the area of human-computer interaction and human factors. Her PhD work sought to improve users’ awareness of each other and of the situation when they collaborate over computer systems. She studied different technologies such as digital tabletops and multi-device environments, in various contexts including police emergency response, strategic board games, and classrooms.

Nathan was an undergraduate Nanotechnology Engineering student. He helped run the Game Development Club (GDC), and is working to develop his first tabletop game, Humanity.

Lukas Schabler (BA Graz University of Technology) was a Computer Science Master's student at the Technical University of Graz who is interested in Interactive Systems and Data Science. He joined the summer research program to expand his knowledge of game design.

Alberto was a Ph.D. student at the Open University Of Catalonia, Spain, under the supervision of Dr. Joan Arnedo and Dr. Carina González, and was a visiting researcher at the HCI Games Group. He holds a M.Sc in education and teacher training from the University of La Rioja and he is a computer engineer from the University of La Laguna. His main interests include gamification design in the field of learning environments, as well as healthcare and wellness. His thesis is titled "A framework for agile design of gamification services".

Kaitlin graduated with a Master's degree in Rhetoric and Communication Design. She has strong interests in communication strategies, marketing, public relations, and event planning. Kaitlin is the former Communications and Project Coordinator for the GI.

Kayla received her Undergraduate Degree from the University of Waterloo studying Arts and Business. From past co-op experiences, Kayla has worked in various industries at companies such as Art in Tanzania, MappedIn, Humber College and CIBC.

Becky Anderson completed a BA (English; French Studies) and MA (Literary Studies) at Waterloo. Now a PhD recipient from the Department of English Language and Literature, she also concurrently pursued a Graduate Diploma in Cognitive Science. She’s the recipient of the Provost Doctoral Entrance Award (2015-2016), a Jack Gray Fellowship (2016-2017), a W.K. Thomas Graduate Scholarship (2017-2018), and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2017-2018).

Marim joined the Games institute as UX designer and research assistant. She recently completed her Masters in Digital Experience Innovation program at the University of Waterloo. With her skills in design and background in science, she is passionate about understanding people’s behaviour then crafting products and experiences that delight and empower them. She worked under the supervision of Dr. Nacke on various projects where she helped create intuitive solutions to complex problems. Her area of interest is in human centric design, interaction and motion design.

Zhe Liu is a masters graduate, who was co-supervised by Professor James Wallace from School of Public Health and Professor Daniel Vogel from School of Computer Science

Alex studies retrogaming hardware, software, and modding/fan communities to understand changes over time to consumer culture, material literacy, and legacy platforms. He also helps design games with other GI researchers in ongoing GI projects and partnerships. Alex is currently interested in finding and collecting license-expired retro games (games unlikely to be released again), as well as expanding his 90's era A/V set up.

Kevin Barton received his PhD in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience from the University of Waterloo. His research interests include understanding how game dynamics and mechanics can be leveraged in professional contexts to improve the well-being of users and the use of virtual reality and serious games to understand how we navigate the world around us.

As a User Experience Designer, Phil spends his days learning to understand people and the work that they do, and then finding ways to make that work more effective and satisfying. But as a long-time game nerd, he can't help but turn that same lens on the mechanics that underpin games--what works, what doesn't, and what that means for the experiences that games offer.

Jagger Nast was an undergraduate student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo looking to expand his knowledge of game design.

Natalee was a Master's student in the English Language and Literature Department at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Rita Orji was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Games Institute, working with Dr. Lennart Nacke and Dr. Chrysanne Di Marco. Rita’s research at the Games Institute focuseed on creating persuasive games aiming to help adolescents avoid various interconnected risky health behaviours (e.g., risky sex; drugs and alcohol use).

Caroline Wong is a MASc student in Management Sciences (BA, Psychology, University of Waterloo). Caroline became interested in human-computer interaction research through her past co-ops at the Games Institute where she was involved in projects investigating tabletop interfaces, public large digital displays, use of creativity in games, and gender inclusivity in makerspace environments. Her future research looks to examine the benefits of touch-enabled technology in information visualizations.

Jay was a fifth year Computer Science undergraduate student. He is passionate about game design and creation, and worked at the Games Institute as a developer during the Winter 2014 and Summer 2015 co-op terms.

John Yoon (BA Honors English, Alberta), MA (Literary Studies, Waterloo) is a PhD candidate at Waterloo. His research interests include narratology, the narrative of sports, eSports, online gaming culture, and digital media studies. His dissertation examines the storytelling mechanisms in professional football and StarCraft.

Adam Bradley, BA (McMaster) MA (Waterloo), was a PhD student interested in the intersections between technology and traditional literary studies. His MA research project, titled "Data Visualization and the Avant-Garde Aesthetic" was a digital humanities project completed in conjunction with the English department's Digital Media Lab and the Computer Science department's Touchlab.

Gada Jane is a filmmaker and writer. She began her career developing other writers’ scripts for theatre. She has made 5 short films, worked as an editor, ran a new media production company, and shot previs for the stunt team of the CW show Supergirl. She was a winner and runner-up in WIFT-V’s From Our Dark Side genre writing competition.

Matthew was an MA student in the Experimental Digital Media program. His research involved media design, narrative, and experimental graphics.

Rob Parker (MA, Wilfrid Laurier & BA, MA, Waterloo) was a research associate and HASTAC scholar (2013-2014), a contributing editor for First Person Scholar, and has been actively involved with the Games Institute since 2012.

Jennie Heo completed her Master of Digital Experience Innovation program at the University of Waterloo. With her background in BA English and M.Ed in Applied Psychology & Human Development, she is passionate about conducting user research throughout the end-to-end process of delivering human-centric products through storytelling. 

Leah Zhang-Kennedy is an Assistant Professor in interaction design and user experience research, a member of the Games Institute and the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute. Leah's research aims to understand and improve people’s digital experiences, knowledge, and technology practices, with particular focuses on computer security, online privacy, and digital literacy. She directs the Safe Interactions Lab at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo.

Born in Tehran-Iran, as a painter and digital artist, Shadi started painting professionally in 2004. Earlier on, she used to take photos, manipulate them using computer and paint them on the canvas. Later in her career, she stopped painting on canvas and stopped using human figures in her paintings and instead, started to work with objects. She likes to show women in her digital and analog artworks to highlight the problems they are confronted with in society.

Ruby was working at the GI as the Project Coordinator for her Fall 2015 co-op term. Now entering into her third year of Honours Arts and Business at the University of Waterloo, she is pursuing a major in Psychology with minors in Human Resources Management and Digital Arts Communication.

Melody was the co-op student for The Games Institute for Winter 2016. She's an Arts and Business student, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Human Resources Management. She has worked closely with the Project Manager to organize special events at The Games Institute to showcase both the gaming culture within the university. She also worked on improving the GI website, and digitizing or redesigning some of the outdated systems.

Alexandra Orlando (BA and MA, English and Film, Wilfrid Laurier University), was Ph.D. student at the University of Waterloo in the English Languages and Literature department. She is specializing in narratology and game studies. Her research interests include the intersection between film theory and game cinematics, e-sports and East Asian game studies.

Jesse Hoey is a professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, where he leads the Computational Health Informatics Laboratory (CHIL). He is a Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute, and an affiliate scientist at KITE/TRI, both in Toronto. Dr. Hoey holds a Ph.D degree (2004) in computer science from the University of British Columbia. He has published over one hundred peer reviewed scientific papers.  He is Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing and an Area Chair for the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2023).

Ryan Clement (MA York University, BA Brandon University) was an English PhD candidate who studies the relationship between emergent narrative and game mechanics and the possible use of this interaction for new forms of education and intercultural communication.

Diana has loved science fiction and board games ever since she can remember, moving from Stratego—at the adventurous age of 6— to Netrunner and Ascension—more recently.

Mahzar was a master's student in the Systems Design Engineering department. She previously earned her bachelor's degree in Software Engineering.

Her research focuses on the design and development of virtual reality exergames to promote physical activity for people living with dementia.

Saifuddin Hitawala was a Masters student at the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, database systems, network security and data structures and algorithms. 

Jenn is an interdisciplinary-trained academic (BA Hons Classical History & Anthropology; MA Public Issues Anthropology) specializing in the interconnectivity of people, technology, and culture. She is in the dissertation research stage of her English PhD, focusing on gender, power structures, and social dynamics surrounding competitive gaming communities, particularly within World of Warcraft. In addition to her primary research goals, she also is particularly interested in accessible and applicable research, bridging research and industry, and other socially constructed aspects of video games (e.g. cheating & modding, emotion, etc.).

Marta is in her third year of studying Science and Business with a specialization in Biotechnology. She aspires to combine her knowledge of both fields in the future.  Marta has been with the Games Institute since the Fall 2017 term, and greatly enjoyed her co-op role as the Operations Assistant in Spring 2018.  

Marta loves cross stitching and sings in an a cappella group at the University. Marta’s favourite types of video games are story-based role-playing games and life simulation games. During her employment, she reveled in playing new games and testing out new technology.

Ben Thompson's background is in visual neuroscience and his research interests relate to the development and plasticity of human visual brain areas.

Felan Parker is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow with the Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre at Concordia University. His current research examines indie gaming cultures, and he is collaborating with the Games Institute on the Indie Interfaces project.

Alexander Hodge is an audio engineer, creative technologist, and freelance software developer. He is interested in music technology in general, and especially in the way sound can influence Human-Computer Interaction.

​Deltcho Valtchanov is a postdoctoral research fellow with a background in virtual reality, human visual perception, and cognitive and behavioural neuroscience. His past research has focused on how low level visual information influences emotional responses to, and aesthetics of, visual scenes.

Amber O’Brien is pursuing a Masters in Literary Studies. Her main area of interest is examining how narratives in science fiction and fantasy texts work to challenge and alter gender ideologies in Western societies.

Gustavo Tondello's research interests include gamification and games for health, wellbeing, and learning, user experience in gamification, and gameful design methods. His work focuses on the design and personalization of gameful applications.

Saba is in her third year of Health Studies, with a minor in Gerontology.

She has worked as a research assistant on various projects started in The Games Institute. Her interests revolve around projects that relate to patient satisfaction, especially the elderly.

Pierson's research focuses on the propagation of concepts and information through the social networks formed around and within communities of play. Pierson is a methodologically-focused mixed-methods researcher: he has contributed to the field of Social Network Analysis with his work on Exponential Random Graph Models for Directed Acyclic Graphs, he has generated insights into Swarm Ethnography and Rapid Ethnographic Assessment as part of his work with game development intermediaries, and he has produced research stemming from his work as an Embedded Ethnographer with Montreal indie game development studios.

Amberly H. West, (BA and MA University of Waterloo) researches games for health. Her secondary research areas include adaptations, rhetoric, and new media studies. Under the supervision of Dr. Neil Randall and Dr. Mark Hancock, she and Rebecca Langer (Computer Science) have been working on a multi-disciplinary research project for which the team researched, designed, and developed a prototype of a game that teaches children to identify and manage food allergies.

Jonathan Rodriguez is a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Computer Science.

Leila is a PhD student in Systems Design Engineering. She studies large interactive surfaces, such as wall displays and digital tabletops, and how to support co-located collaboration around them. Leila received her MSc. degree in Software Engineering from the University of Alberta. 

​Pascaline Lorentz has her PhD in Sociology and is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on online gaming at the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family at Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic.
Granted with an ENDEAVOUR Research Fellowship in 2011 she undertook a study documenting the social environment of an intense practice of virtual world attachments in Australia. 

Philip Miletic is an English PhD Candidate, whose areas of interest include digital life writing and 20th-century American literature. He is the Book Reviews Editor for First Person Scholar and the Vice President of the Student Association of Graduates in English (SAGE).

Karina is a Ph.D. student pursuing a degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke. She holds an MSc in Information Technology with Business and Management from the University of Sussex in the UK, and a BSc in Information Technology from the University of Monterrey in Mexico. Her main interests include understanding player's behaviors and emotions by applying diverse games user research methodologies, specifically biometrics such as electromyography and galvanic skin response.

Sebastian Malton is an undergraduate student in the Department of Mathematics studying Computer Science and a minor in Classical Studies and a research assistant for the Games Institute and the Rhetorical Figures working group.

Kenny Fung was currently doing his Masters in Computer Science. He is an MBA graduate at Wilfrid Laurier University and has a B.A. Honours Psychology from the University of Waterloo. His interests include dynamic difficulty in games and he was an active contributor to various projects at the HCI Games Group.

Cayley MacArthur, BKI (Knowledge Integration, Waterloo), MA (English & Systems Design Engineering, Waterloo), is a PhD candidate in Systems Design Engineering. Her research focuses on human-computer interaction and she is a member of the Touchlab and WaterlooHCI groups.

Judy Ehrentraut is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo researching human/technology entanglements from a posthuman perspective. Judy’s work explores the nuances of posthuman and transhuman representations of technological embodiment in film, video games, art and modern techno-culture. Her dissertation investigates presence and absence outside traditional scopes of digital dualism that re-think our interactions with technology as synchronous events of chance

Megha Bhatt was the Winter 2014 co-op student and worked as a research programmer and communications assistant for The Games Institute. During her term she helped with various projects using different software for web designing and gaming needs.

Kateryna is pursuing a Masters in Systems Design Engineering through the SWaGUR program under the supervision of Dr. Mark Hancock. She is interested in human computer interaction, and her main project involves the study of daydreaming during video game play.

Mike is a local game developer that has worked in the games industry since 2010. Mike helped us develop Quantum Cats and Alice and Schrodinger's Excellent Adventures. You can find some of his game jam work at http://mikegbrown.itch.io.

Séamas received his PhD from Queen's University, Kingston, in the area of Psychology (Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science). His postdoctoral research focuses on understanding the factors that relate to cyber sickness in virtual reality (VR).

Oliver Schneider (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Management Sciences. His research interests include human-computer interaction, haptics, and creativity-support systems, with his larger goal to establish haptic experience design and make it available to everyone. Oliver is funded by NSERC (Discovery Grant, Post-doctoral Fellowship, Graduate Scholarships), CFI and ORF, Mitacs, and an NFRF Exploration Grant. He typically attends/publishes at CHI, UIST, and haptics conferences such as Haptics Symposium, World Haptics and EuroHaptics.

Maximilian Altmeyer is a researcher and PhD student at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Ubiquitous Media Technology Lab (UMTL) at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. He holds a M.Sc in Media Informatics from Saarland University. His research focuses on using gamification elements in behavior change support systems, on factors influencing their perception and on ways to tailor them to users.

Busola is a registered nurse and PhD candidate in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Lili Liu. Her current research focuses on older adults living with dementia at risk of getting lost and going missing and the use of innovative strategies to promote safe walking. Busola says you should come to her if you want to learn more about promoting health and wellness and technologies to support aging in place. Her expertise also extends to dementia, missing persons, and technology.    

"My work primarily focuses on the domestic art of the Hellenistic period (323-31 BCE) – the kinds of sculptures, paintings and mosaics people would have had in their homes. I am also interested in how these people understood their art and so have an interest in ancient aesthetic theory. More broadly I work on the art, especially the sculpture, and the culture of the Hellenistic period. I am also very interested in the intersections of ancient art, video games and pedagogy."

- Craig

Tianzheng is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology at Peking University. He is joining UW for the MITACS globalink internship program and is currently working with Oliver Schneider. Tianzheng is interested in the connection between experience, perception, and the physical attributes of different stimuli. Since Tianzheng is currently residing in China, he says you can come to him if you would like to know more about China and his perspective on human rights advocacy within the nation.

Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Caravella specializes in digital & visual rhetoric, multimodal composition, and game studies. Her work focuses on habituation through visual cueing in video games and how gameful design can be used to improve gamification practices, especially when gamifying the classroom. In addition to her scholarly work, she also performs humanities-based industry research for various game companies, including Blizzard Entertainment and Bethesda Games.

Will Zhao, PhD is an assistant professor of Organization and Human Behaviour at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. He received his Ph.D. from the French Grande Ecole Emlyon Business School and pursued his postdoctoral research at Stanford University as a SCANCOR scholar. An interdisciplinary researcher, Will is keenly interested in multimodal analysis, utilizing qualitative, quantitative, and machine learning-based approaches.  At the Games Institute, he primarily conducts and leads research projects in two streams.

Ekaterina is a Master's research student who is researching exercise games, juicy game design and embellishments. She has a background in user experience research and design through her Bachelor's degree in Global Business and Digital Arts.

Eugene is a Post-doctoral Fellow working with Dr. Lennart E. Nacke. He focuses on media psychology research, including areas of presence and immersion studies, media psychology issues (such as media identity, and representation), and analysis of Russian hegemonic discourses. You should talk to Eugene if you want help with the conceptualization/categorization or design parts of your research projects or of you like ping pong, tabletop/video games, sports, and movies.   

Kaylena Ehgoetz Martens is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on using virtual reality to dissect how cognition and emotion contribute to movement in health and disease.

Wenqi is an undergraduate student from the University of Manchester, majoring in Human-computer interaction. She will be joining the haptic lab and building the Haptiverse! Wenqi is interested in Brain-computer interfaces and Human-Computer interaction. If you are interested in photography or haptic and user experience, talk to Wenqi!   

Igor Grossmann is associate professor of psychology and director of the Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo.

Mina Momeni is an Assistant Professor in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. Momeni holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from the joint program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University, and she received her MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her studies focus on comprehending individuals’ connection with digital media technologies and exploring people’s interaction with different digital platforms and smart applications.

Ally is working as an undergraduate research assistant in the HCI Games Group for her co-op term. She is a second-year Health Studies student at the University of Waterloo who developed an interest in human-computer interaction after taking a Human-Computer Systems seminar course and volunteering at the HCI+Health Lab. She is interested in the implementation of technologies in healthcare, particularly in research topics involving mental health and gerontology. During her work term, she hopes to expand her knowledge about gamification and research methodologies.

Florian is a computer science Master’s student at Graz University of Technology working with Dr. Lennart E. Nacke. Florian majors in games Engineering and is interested in Procedural Generation. 

Lai-Tze Fan is an Assistant Professor of Sociology & Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, cross-listed in the Department of English Language and Literature. She researches digital storytelling, systemic inequalities in technological design and labour, media theory and infrastructure, and approaches to research-creation . She makes digital and material art about e-waste, crafts, and fashion. Fan is an Editor and the Director of Communications of electronic book review and an Editor of the digital review. She is Co-Editor of the collection Post-Digital: Dialogues and Debates from electronic book review (Bloomsbury 2020), and is the Editor of special journal issues on “Canadian Digital Poetics” and “Critical Making, Critical Design" (both 2021).

Alizeh is a 3A Psychology undergraduate student in the Research Intensive Specialization Co-op program. Currently she is working as a Social Virtual Reality Co-op Research Assistant at the University of Waterloo Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business and the Games Institute. As part of the position, she will participate in research projects relating to virtual realities technology and assist with all aspects of research work including literature reviews, data collection and documentation.

Triskal is pursuing a PhD in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke. He holds an MSc in Human Centered Interactive Technologies from the University of York in the UK, and a BSc in Pre-graduate Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University in TN, USA. He is also a User Experience Research for the AbleGamers Charity. His main interests include making games more accessible for player with disabilities, virtual reality, and Games User Research.

Navneet is an undergraduate student in Legal Studies who is supporting Dr. Shana MacDonald and Dr. Brianna Wiens in their research regarding feminist digital media. She manages public-facing digital media accounts for the Feminist Think Tank and her tasks include data management, task management, and content creation.

Arden Song is an undergraduate student in the Management Engineering program. They were first introduced to the Games Institute through a research assistantship under the supervision of Dr. Mark Hancock. Since then, they have helped in research about the lifestyle of vanlifers (culminating in a paper published in CHI 2021), daydreaming in video games, and the space requirements of board games. Arden is currently investigating hybrid physical-digital games and how games may be played remotely.

Hector is a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Health working with Dr. Lili Liu. His research focuses on dementia and technology, focusing on usability and adoption. Hector likes social simulation games like Animal Crossing. People should talk to Hector if they have a problem or need to talk. He considers himself a good listener who enjoys solving problems and helping people.   

Muhammad Umair Shah is a faculty member in the Department of Management Sciences, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He pursues research in human-computer interaction, application of stakeholder theory in technology realm, and ethics of UX design.

Mustapha is a MASc student of Systems Design Engineering. His research interests include 3D computer vision for virtual reality, human factors, and machine learning. He enjoys working with AI and founded Karaam Analytics Limited to provide Data Analytics services to firms and individuals.

Licheng Zhang is a Master of Mathematics student supervised by Mark Hancock in Computer Science. His interest in human-computer interaction began as an undergraduate research assistant working on a virtual reality (VR) project, together with professor Mark Hancock and his past PhD student Ayman Alzayat. He loves game development and Unity game engine. He's interested in any research related to games and VR.

Licheng's main focus now is on coursework. He's learning computer graphics and data visualization.

Steven Bednarski is Professor in History and Co-Director of Medieval Studies. He is currently the director of the SSHRC Partnership project, Environments of Change, a multiyear international project that uses digital tools to examine the relationship between historical societies and their environments.

"Interested in Machine Learning, I have developed predictive regression models in the financial industry and am ready to expand my career/academic path into the games industry! Believed in data driven facts and looking forward to learning deeper knowledge and broader applications of ML/NLP in the Games Institute."

- Myracle

Hichem is a fourth-year undergrad in Physics and is joining the Games Institute as an Undergraduate Research Assistant working with Alessandra Luz. Hichem's is interested in the applications of Machine Learning including how Machine Learning and Gamification can be used to help diagnose eye diseases in children. People should come to Hichem if they like sports, especially soccer, hockey, and basketball! 

Diana Khater is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a BSc in Biology at the University of Waterloo. She's a co-op research assistant at the Haptic Lab, working under the supervision of Dr. Schneider. Her research focuses on hand receptors involved in the haptic experience.

Chris is an undergraduate student in the Management Engineering program. He is currently working on developing hardware and software prototyping for interactive haptic, VR, and tangible experiences with Professor Oliver Schneider.

Ana Lucia is a MSc student in Systems Design Engineering under the supervision of Professor Oliver Schneider. She received her Bachelor degree in Innovation and Development Engineering from the University Tec de Monterrey (ITESM).

Adan Jerreat-Poole (they/them) is a mad/crip/queer scholar and white settler living on treaty territory belonging to Six Nations of the Grand River and the traditional home of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Adan works at the intersection of disability justice and digital media, including social media, video games, critical design, accessible virtual pedagogies, automedia, popular culture, and digital storytelling.

May Nemat Allah is a 4th-year student at the University of Waterloo studying Arts and Business with a specialization in Theatre and Performance. After studying theatre for the past eight years, May fell in love with stage, production, and festival management. She is interested in theatre's inimitable ability to entertain and provoke thought and action within various communities. May aspires to support the production of pieces that utilize theatre’s dual ability in an impactful way to promote positive change within ourselves and our communities.

Hilda is a first-year Ph.D. student in Systems Design Engineering working with Lennart E. Nacke and Leah Zhang-Kennedy. During her time at Indiana University, Hilda published research studies on Public Key Infrastructure security, and privacy perceptions on IoT and during COVID. She is passionate about human-centered research, especially in relation to video games, privacy, and security. People should come to Hilda if they are interested in playing Overwatch and Back 4 Blood, if they want to watch horror movies together, or need help with R/Python data analysis! 

Janelle recently completed her PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. She worked on a multidisciplinary project involving physics (wave motion and signal analysis), applied mathematics (gasdynamics) and computer science (numerical methods).

Jay is a master’s Thesis student in the English Literature Program. They received their Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from University of Calgary in 2022. They are academically interested in Queer Theory and Representation in modern media and developing fields of research like comics studies and interactive media.

Catherine M. Burns is Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada and Associate Vice President, Health Initiatives at the Office of Research at the University of Waterloo.  In her past administrative roles she has been engaged with institutional and tri agency funding programs, research partnerships, Waterloo’s equity in research action plan, and research computing.  Catherine was the founder of the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology at Waterloo and led the centre from a faculty to an institutional centre over 8 years.

"I’m currently a MASc student in Systems Design Engineering Department at University of Waterloo working under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Boger. My research and thesis work on developing VR exergames as well as effectiveness measures to evaluate the efficacy of the games in promoting physical activities in people living with dementia. My research interests lie in healthcare, human factors, UI/UX designs to bring technologies into people's life easily."

- Chris

Isabella is a PhD student in the Faculty of Health for Public Health Sciences/Aging, Health, and Wellbeing. Working with Dr. Lili Liu, Isabella advocates for autistic people of all ages but her research focuses on older autistic people by using social determinants of the health model. Her research specifically highlights wearables as a method of social connectivity and physical health support. She is connected to the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health and advocates for neurodiverse expressions and conceptions of mental health and service delivery.

Sakeenah is an undergraduate student in the Honors Art and Business program. She is working as a research assistant for Professor Shana MacDonald to provide data management assistance for her feminist media archive.

Bibhushan is a PhD student in Management science department of UW. His research background is in computer engineering and management. He is interested in creative research projects related with HCI, Haptics, Software Engineering and Product development.

Clark Dickerson (PhD) is a Professor of Kinesiology and Health Sciences (Faculty of Health) and Canada Research Chair of Shoulder Mechanics at the University of Waterloo, where he has been since 2005. His research focuses on human musculoskeletal biomechanics, particularly of the shoulder. He earned his BSME at Alfred University, his MS in bioengineering from Clemson University, and his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Randy Allen Harris is a rhetorician whose interests include Computational Rhetoric, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Stylistics. His books include The Linguistic Wars, Rhetoric and Incommensurability, Voice Interaction Design, and the Routledge Handbook of Language and Persuasion. He is the director of The Rhetoricon Database project, which includes GoFigure, a citizen-science game for harvesting rhetorical figures from any and all genres, registers, and discourses.

Kate is a co-op student doing research with Feminist Think Tank as she makes her way through a History Degree. Kate is interested in the history of feminist activism, queer history making, and the modern manifestations of queer/feminist activism in online spaces.

Alessandra is a P.h.D. student in the Cheriton School of Computer Science under the supervision of Dr Lennart Nacke and Dr Daniel Vogel. She holds a MSc in HCI-E from University College of London, where her supervisors were Dr. Nicolai Marquardt and Dr.

Michael is an undergraduate student in software engineering. His main focus is applying generative machine learning models to streamline the development of haptic experiences and exploring novel interfaces for augmented reality.

Ahmed is a Masters student in the Management Science department supervised by Oliver Schneider. Previously, he completed his undergrad from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan with an interdisciplinary coursework in Management Science and Computer Science.

Daria Dahpon Ho is an Asian-American and a transgender person, plus something of a "geek," strategy & video game enthusiast, and amateur stargazer, martial artist, and Gō player.  She delights in exploring people and ideas on the move, as in the maritime history of the Pacific Ocean world.  Specifically, she researches the history of Chinese seaborne trade with Japan, Southeast Asia, and Western countries, and coastal piracy & violence in early-modern and modern times. 

Morgan McGuire creates algorithms and systems for scalable, civil, social 3D and VR interaction. Morgan is the Chief Scientist at Roblox and an adjunct professor in the University of Waterloo Cheriton School of Computer Science, and previously worked at Williams College, NVIDIA, and Activision. https://casual-effects.com/morgan/

Karthik is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Management Engineering. He has studied software and game development and is interested in working with Haptics, Artificial Intelligence and VR. He is interested in video games, specifically multiplayer games, and action RGPs. He is working on a project with Professor Oliver Schneider regarding Virtual Reality (VR) Speech Therapy.

Arielle is a PhD Candidate working with Mark Hancock and Rob Duimering. Her interest in Human-Computer Interaction began when she worked as a research assistant at the GI. Her research interests span across a wide range of disciplines.

Ritika is an undergraduate student currently working as a part-time worker on the Rhetoricon project. Rhetoricon explores extra grammatical patterns (rhetorical figures). One of the many goals of the project is to explore many instances of texts with these patterns in order to leverage this for advanced text mining, specifically argument mining.

Stuart was born in the UK, moved to France when he was 10 years old, and lived there for 19 years before coming to Canada. During his PhD Stuart had the opportunity to meet Dr. Lennart Nacke at a conference in 2018 during his course on Gamification.

"I'm a Masters student with software design & development background. Enthusiastic about Design, Technology and Nature. I'm currently working on measuring Haptics design experience under the guidance of Dr. Oliver Schneider."

- Suji

Lili Liu is a Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences, and Dean of the Faculty of Health at the University of Waterloo. Her research examines ways evidence and technologies can help older adults and family caregivers. Dr. Liu's research program involves partners such as Alzheimer Societies, police services, search and rescue services, and dementia advocacy and caregiver associations, nationally and internationally. 

David Bell holds a BEng in Electronic Systems Engineering from Conestoga College and is pursuing a part-time MASc degree in Systems Design Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Mark Hancock. He has an interest in mixed reality, vision systems, and gesture-based interfaces.

Sarah is interested in the many (many!) ways humans manage to confuse and irritate one another via communication. In particular, her research involves risk society, public policy and trust, mis- and dis-information, and the rhetoric of risk, with a specific interest in competing/argumentative constructions of risk. These rhetorics often involve a bit (ok, a lot) of verbal gymnastics, and she finds investigating the forms and usages of persuasive language in her work with the Rhetoricon database project is a fun and fruitful addition to her research and studies.

Emily (BA in Psychology and MASc in Developmental and Communication Sciences) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology. Currently, she is studying voice assistant interactions in bilingual populations.

Marina was a Msc. student in the School of Public Health and Health Systems, under the supervision of Dr. James Wallace. She holds a B.A. (hons) in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University. Her user research study is exploring how rheumatoid arthritis patients and their physicians can be better supported in shared decision making and how digital decision aid tools can help mediate the interaction.

Fiona is a BA student in Psychology who is passionate about the intersection of haptics, accessibility, and social justice. She is currently assisting in the research of AR/VR and accessible storytelling.