On September 1, 2011 the University of Waterloo opened its doors to sixteen graduate students for the new Master of Digital Experience Innovation program. Our small temporary campus, a refurbished hotel at 6 Wellington in Stratford, Ontario quickly became too small; students and faculty welcomed the move to our new purpose-built facility a year later, now home to 22 graduate and 462 undergraduate students as well as staff and over 20 full- and part-time faculty.
As founding academic director and professor in the MDEI program, I have enjoyed nothing more than to see our graduate students excitedly develop prototypes for a marketing project, working with our many industry partners, or engaged in classroom discussion. Particular highlights over the years were the research and field trips to Israel, Boston, and New York City giving students the opportunity to see what they learned in their seminars in the 'real world' at Google in Haifa, Broadway in New York or during a 'behind-the-scenes-tour' of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name but a few places they visited.
After two terms of hard work in the classroom, our students then eagerly await the start of their major milestone project where they get to work together with their teammates on complex challenges presented to them by companies such as Thomson Reuters, Canadian Tire, the Globe and Mail, the Stratford Festival and many, many others. Solving marketing problems, creating innovative designs, improving user experiences, developing product prototypes are all tasks our students have mastered competently and successfully. We look forward to meeting many more excited new MDEI students in the years to come!
Christine McWebb
Director, Academic Programs
University of Waterloo Stratford Campus
