When University of Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur looked behind him at the towering Christie MicroTile wall at the front of the new Stratford campus, he asked a question that was likely on the minds of many gathered for the grand opening Tuesday.
“Can we watch movies on this?”
"The human interacting with technology"
Yesterday was a big day for Waterloo's Stratford Campus as the magnificent new building and digital arts facility was officially unveiled. Already housing two Faculty of Arts programs, the Bachelor of Global Business and Digital Arts and the Master of Digital Experience Innovation, the building is home-base to 117 students this year.
Three-storey-high fireworks kicked off the grand opening Tuesday of the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus.
Of course, like the projects and research that will be conducted in the new St. Patrick Street building, the fireworks were digital, displayed in stunning resolution on the building’s centrepiece, the tallest installation of Christie MicroTiles in North America.
STRATFORD — Can Stratford reinvent itself from theatre town to digital media hub? The University of Waterloo and some of the region’s biggest tech companies are betting it can.
The university unveiled its newest satellite school Tuesday, a 42,000-square foot campus complete with a three-storey high wall of digital “micro tiles,” audio and visual editing suites and interactive classrooms with touch screens on the floors and walls.
Opening ceremonies were held Tuesday for the building that will house the University of Waterloo’s new Stratford Campus.
The high-tech, 42,000-square-foot building will house the school’s digital media program.
Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of UW, says “The frontiers of knowledge will be where technology merges with other disciplines, addressing some of the most important issues of our time.”
Sixty years ago, Tom Patterson dreamed of Stratford as a world-class theatre town built around the plays of Shakespeare. Today its theatres draw visitors from around the globe.
Six years ago, Mayor Dan Mathieson wondered why Stratford didn’t have a university campus. Today, a gleaming building houses a University of Waterloo satellite campus.
Making the future is what the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus is all about.
Opening this fall, the Waterloo Stratford Campus is home to uWaterloo’s new programs in digital media: Global Business and Digital Arts and the Master in Digital Experience Innovation. These unique programs focus on future careers in digital technologies, content creation, and user experience. Students will explore technology, creativity and business to develop, examine and commercialize opportunities in the rapidly growing global digital media field.