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Honours Arts & Business

Adeshola is an undergraduate student in the Honours Arts & Business program majoring in sociology. She is part of the Rhetoricon Database Project this term. She enjoys reading, listening to music and watching sports.

English

Aleks is currently working towards an English PhD. His doctoral research synthesizes perspectives from game studies, phenomenology, and critical design to consider how a player's sense of immersion in a videogame can provide a means towards self-reflection through creative engagement both during and outside gameplay. He is also the Section Head of Essays at the Games Institute's online journal, First Person Scholar.

English Language and Literature

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.

Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business

Ben is a member of the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business pursuing a Bachelors of Global Business and Digital Arts. Currently based in ��ݮ��Ƶ, he is assisting Dr. Ville ��ä����ä in projects surrounding Virtual Reality and HCI

English Language and Literature

Chris is a PhD Candidate in the department of English Langauge and Literature. Their dissertation research focuses on identifying world-building mythopoetic structures in games and distinguishing them from traditional narrative approaches. Chris is currently Editor-and-Chief of First Person Scholar and Senior Curator for Critical Distance.

Psychology

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.

Global Business and Digital Arts

Eric is in the 3rd year of Global Business & Digital Arts at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Outside of school, he is a professional freelance editor who has been editing for 5+ years. He mainly edits for content creators in the Twitch space, working with streamers like Atrioc & SimplyN64. Overall, Eric is passionate about media creation dipping into avenues such as photography, videography, motion graphics, 3D graphics etc.

English Language and Literature

Giuseppe Femia is an English PhD Candidate at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. He previously completed a double major for his Bachelor of Arts, in English, Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication & Honours Arts and Business, as well as a Master of Arts, in Rhetoric and Communication Design, both at ��ݮ��Ƶ. Giuseppe’s current research in game studies, media studies, queer studies, disability studies, and performance studies observes different types of gaming media and the appeal it has to its audience. He previously presented his work on queer reparative play in Dungeons & Dragons at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar in Visby, Sweden, and then had it published as a peer reviewed article in the International Journal of Role-Playing.��

Giuseppe is now partnering up with other scholars researching the intersection of disability studies and game studies to broaden the horizons of the growing field. Giuseppe previously worked as a research assistant for a SSHRC-funded research project on digital media, disability, and COVID-19. The project brought together scholars, artists, and activists who have a relationship with disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, mental illness, vision impairment, and/or Deafness to share and discuss their personal experiences of digital life under the different phases of the pandemic. He has also taken on the roles Graduate Instructor for the Wicked Problems of Accessibilities Course, after completing his Certificate in University Teaching to make use of the scholarship he has done in the academic realm of teaching and learning.

Twitter: @_foolsbait

English Language and Literature

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 video game mechanics (and game mechanics more broadly) and how they are fundamental in creating, enhancing, or giving meaning to players' interactions within game worlds. She is developing methodology for interpreting these complex systems of meaning-making-interaction, in hopes of building not only more inclusive and positive gaming experiences, but also in affecting video game communities as well. 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.)��

English Language and Literature

Jonathan is a PhD candidate whose research-creation work seeks to converge locative media with civic monuments to enrich cultural memory narratives. He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who specializes in difficult socio-political issues. He is currently in his tenth year of teaching in the Global Business and Digital Arts program (GBDA) at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business.

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Social Work

Laura is a student of the Bachelor of Social Work program, and research assistant for Wing Lam (Veen) Wong. Veen's research explores the use of HCI for violence prevention and is funded by NSERC.

English Language and Literature

Nicholas, BA (King’s University College), MA (University of ��ݮ��Ƶ), is a PhD candidate in the English Language Literature program at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. He is interested in posthumanism in game studies, and the ways in which digital environments work to confront what it means to be human.

English Language and Literature

Rency Luan is a second-year PhD student in English Language and Literature at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Rency’s research explores the cultural and linguistic barriers of mental health access through a critical praxis in disability studies, race, and immigration. Other topics of interest include affect theory, cultural studies, discourse analysis and language.

English Language and Literature

Sabrina Alicia Sgandurra (HBA Toronto Metropolitan University, MA University of ��ݮ��Ƶ) is a PhD student specializing in games studies. As a resident of the Games Institute and as a student, her research focuses on the intersection of oral storytelling traditions in the act of streaming story-focused video games. Sabrina has won two OGS awards, has presented her research at distinguished conferences such as CHI PLAY 2023 & 2024, DiGRA 2023, PCA 2021 & 2022, MLA 2022, ACCUTE 2022, and CGSA 2021, and has published her research in Simulation & Gaming. In addition to her role as a PhD candidate, she is also currently working as a Research Project Manager for the HCI Games Group, and was the former Editor-in-Chief of First Person Scholar, a middle state publication that used to operate out of the GI.

Twitter - @SabrinaAliciaSG
Twitch - www.twitch.tv/brainiacbri

Faculty of Information & Media Studies Program: Media Studies

Sina is a PhD candidate in the Department of Media Studies at Western University. He is interested to learn more about the peculiar interaction between narrative structures, issues of human identity, and agency in video games.

English Language and Literature

Toben, BA Creative Writing (BYUI), MA Rhetoric and Communication Design (University of ��ݮ��Ƶ), is a PhD candidate in English at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Toben’s research focuses on role-playing games, collaborative worldbuilding, loot mechanics, and the magic circle in digital forms.

Alexander Glover

Systems Design Engineering

Alexander is a Systems Design Engineering MASc candidate. His focus is on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), particularly how AI can be used to teach decision making processes to approach complex situations through explanation.

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Ali Haider Rizvi

Management Science and Engineering

Ali (MS, Columbia University; B.Tech, NIT Jalandhar) is a PhD student studying Human-Computer Interaction. He is interested in studying the interaction between technology management, human factors and data analytics as it applies to non-traditional interfaces Prior to his PhD, Ali was a Senior Product Manager on Amazon's Alexa platform. When Ali is not at work, he is either climbing mountains or flying a tiny Cessna.

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Ali Yamini

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ali is a MASc student at University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, currently working in social robotics under supervision of Prof. Dautenhahn at Social and Intelligent Robotics Lab. He working on helping student's with Amblyopia to facilitate their healing using a robotic agent.

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Arden Song

Management Science and Engineering

Arden is a Master's student pursuing a degree in Management Science and Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Mark Hancock. She received a Bachelor's of Applied Science in Management Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Arden's interests include human-computer interaction, board games, and statistics and data analytics.

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Arielle Grinberg

Management Science and Engineering

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.

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Auro Liu

Management Science and Engineering

Auro Liu is a Ph.D. student pursuing a degree in Management Sciences at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, under the supervision of Dr. Oliver Schneider. She is is quite into human-computer interaction area.

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Bibhushan Raj Joshi

Management Science and Engineering

Bibhushan is a PhD student in Management Science and Engineering 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.

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Caitlyn Mei��

System Design Engineering

Caitlyn Mei is a Master’s student in the Department of Systems Design Engineering and is supervised by Prof. Mark Hancock. She received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Her research is in investigating differences in data visualization techniques with Generative AI in the Human-Computer Interaction field.

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Derrick Wang

Systems Design Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ph. D. in Systems Design Engineering

Derrick is a PhD candiate in Systems Design Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ under the supervision of Dr. Lennart E. Nacke. He holds a MASc in Systems Design Engineering from UW and a BFA in Creative Technologies from Virginia Tech, USA. His research interests involve video games (especially MMORPGs), Virtual Reality, Exergames, and mental health.

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Ellie Sanoubari

Systems Design Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Ellie works on REMind, which is a transformational game that uses social robots to help children learn how to intervene in bullying situations. Inspired by applied drama techniques, the game engages children in an interactive story that allows them to observe a bullying scenario between two robots, and then intervene by controlling a third bystander robot. REMind is designed to promote internal reflection and situated learning.

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Hilda Hadan

Systems Design Engineering

Hilda is a Ph.D. candidate in Systems Design Engineering, collaborating with Dr. Lennart E. Nacke and Dr. Leah Zhang-Kennedy. Her research is centered around deceptive design, which was previously known as dark patterns, in games and game-related technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Beyond her work on deceptive design, Hilda has a keen interest in human-centered research, specifically in the areas of video games, privacy, and cybersecurity. She was awarded the 2023 Games Institute Seed Research Grant for her research on the privacy implication of XR.

LinkedIn -

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Jae Eun (Jen) Shin

Systems Design Engineering

JaeEun (Jen) is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Mechatronic Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. She is co-supervised by Prof. Leah Zhang-Kennedy (Safe Interactions Lab) and Prof. Yue Hu (A.I.R Lab). Her research interests lie in human-robot interaction, especially in privacy and cybersecurity risks in social robots. Her current research explores privacy perception in child-robot interaction and the design of safe interactions with humanoid social robots.

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Jalaja Shanmugalingam

Management Science and Engineering

Jalaja holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Concordia University and a Master's degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alberta. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ in the Department of Management Science and Engineering. During her master's program, Jalaja conducted research and authored a thesis titled “Gamification and Predictive Analytics for the Next Generation of Workers.” The primary objective of this research was to assist employees in obtaining the guidance necessary for continuous professional growth while enabling companies to reduce the time their senior management spends on mentoring and guiding their employees. Additionally, they implemented a gamified model within our system that leverages real-time tracked data to incentivize and reward employee contributions. She intends to continue her Ph.D. studies within the same research domain.

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Jieun Lee

Systems Design Engineering

Jieun is a MASc student in System Design Engineering under the supervision of Professor Cayley MacArthur and Professor Oliver Schneider. She has a background in UX research and Design through her Bachelor’s degree, Global Business and Digital Arts, and is interested in human-computer interaction.

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Jordan Wang

Mechatronics Engineering

Jordan will be the student research assistant for Professor Oliver Scheider over the summer 2024 term. During this co-op, his main focus will be working with haptic feedback devices. This will include setting up the physical devices and programming the devices for different use cases. Jordan has experience working with Solidworks, 3D printing, and microcontrollers.��Although this��will be his first experience working in a research lab,��Jordan is looking��forward to learning all the ins and outs of research! Jordan is still in his undergrad, having just finished his 2A term and will be entering the 2B term of Mechatronics Engineering this coming fall.

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Joseph Tu

Systems Design Engineering

Joseph Tu is a Ph.D. candidate pursuing a degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke and Dr. Oliver Schneider. He is interested in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), mainly in the domain of physiological measures, emotions, games user research and adaptive user interface. His goal is to maintain his hairline after completing his Ph.D.

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Kaushall Senthil Nathan

System Design Engineering

Kaushall is a MA student pursuing system's design engineering. His main goal for ��research is enhancing the medium of video games. More specifically, the experience with machine learning fundamentals leads ��to his belife that robust AI technologies can be developed to work alongside players in data-rich environments of video game worlds and serve as moderators to reduce problematic behavior and promote human flourishing. In this vein, Kaushall sees common themes with the research done in the HCI Games lab such as affective gaming and social relationship-building games. Furthermore, believes video games are a powerful medium that has changed millions of people’s lives for the better and so, wants to use the skills and tools available to him to make the medium more expressive and enjoyable to everyone. He believe the people of the HCI Games lab share this belief and I would be proud to work alongside them toward this goal. In the long term, he sees himself working with video game companies to develop and deploy these technologies to consumers around the world, to ensure that video games serve as a vibrant and accessible hobby to all.

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Kevin Joseph

Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Kevin is pursuing a MASc starting in the Fall of 2023 under the supervision of Dr. Yue Hu in the Active and Interactive Robotics (AIR) lab in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering department. Kevin has a BESc in Mechatronics Systems Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. His general interests lie in robotics, machine learning, automation and controls. Kevin's interest in robotics has been developed through high school robotics programs such as FIRST Robotics, and his education in mechatronics engineering. As for his interest in machine learning, it is a field that is experiencing consistent innovation has the potential to completely change the way people interact with technology. Implementing these machine learning based systems into robotics can often be difficult based on the specific task, and he finds this challenge to be very fascinating. Additionally, Kevin believes automation is a tool that can improve the day-to-day conditions of workers and other people who interact with these tools when implemented appropriately. Robotics and machine learning tools will be essential for the future of automation, and control system are essential to make these systems work in practice. As part of his research, Kevin is aiming to develop a system that provides grasping assistance for operators who are attempting to control robots remotely through virtual reality (VR). The system will identify the operator’s intent through data as their gaze and angle of approach, combine this information with information gained from the robot’s workspace, and produce grasp suggestions that the operator can decided upon that is best for this purpose.

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Lakshmi Vinoj

Systems Design Engineering

Lakshmi is a master's student in system design engineering, researching human factors and ergonomics. Research is a new stepping stone for Lakshmi as she has no prior experience, but curiosity and experimental nature fuels her. With her background in CS and HCI, Lakshmi looks forward to all the amazing people she will work with and all the things she will accomplish at the Games Institute!

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Marco Aurelio Moran Ledesma

Systems Design Engineering

Marco is a 4th year PhD candidate and sessional instructor at the Systems Design Engineering Department.

LinkedIn

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Marvin Pafla

Systems Design Engineering

Marvin is a PhD candidate at the Cheriton School of Computer Science. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in both Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Konstanz (Germany), and a Master's degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Marvin's interest lie Games Research, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. Marvin is supervised by Prof. Dr. Kate Larson and Prof. Dr. Mark Hancock.

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Tianzheng Shi

Management Science and Engineering

Tianzheng Shi (he/him) is an MASc candidate in the Department of Management Science and Engineering with a background in psychology. He is passionate about leveraging experimental and data-driven methodologies to explore how people experience and interact with technology.

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Vasyl Chomko��

Systems Design Engineering

Vasyl achieved a��Bachelor degree of Mathematics and Computer Science, Taras Shevchenko��
National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine. He started a MASc in Systems Design Engineering under the supervision of prof. David Clausi and prof. Alex Wong. Vasyl worked as a Middle DevOps Engineer for some time. He also has an extensive experience in software development, primarily using Python and C++.��

Publications:
* Padalko H., Chomko V., & Chumachenko D. (Under Review). A Novel Approach to Fake News Classification using LSTM-based Deep Learning Models. Frontiers in Big Data.

* Padalko H., Chomko V., Yakovlev S., & Chumachenko D. (Accepted). Ensemble Machine Learning Approaches for Fake News Classification. Radioelectronic and Computer Systems.

Conferences:
* Chumachenko�� D., Chomko�� V., Meniailov I., Krivtsov S., & Padalko H. (2023). A Data-Driven Simulation of Ukrainian Refugee Flows Impact on COVID-19 Dynamics in the UK. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Informatics & Data-Driven Medicine. Bratislava, Slovakia, November 17-19.

* Padalko H., Chomko V., & Chumachenko D. (2023). COVID-19 Misinformation Detection on Weibo by Support Vector Classifier. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Dependable Systems, Services and Technologies. Athens, Greece, October 13-15. (Accepted)

Awards:
* The Mitacs Globalink Research Award"

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Sid Heeg

Sustainability Management

Sid is a PhD candidate in the Sustainability Management program. They are an interdisciplinary scholar whose main work revolves around mis- and disinformation in rural farming communities. As a social media specialist who straddles rhetoric, media studies, and narrative interpretation, they have published in media studies, games studies, and in Canadian and global Indigenous literatures—focusing on decolonization of genres and intangible cultural heritage. They have co-presented on the topic of horror within games with Pamela Maria Schmidt including “Horror as Medium: Wicked Problems and Environmental ‘Non-Horror’ in Resident Evil V, VII, and VIII” at the 2023 International Conference on Games and Narrative; “Horror as Medium” at the 2024 Beyond Play Conference; and in the forthcoming publication “Horror As Medium: An Examination of Environmental Horror in Video Games” in the edited collection Epistemic Genres: New Formations in Digital Game Genres. ��

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Adebusola (Busola) Adekoya

School of Public Health Sciences

Busola is a registered nurse and PhD candidate in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, 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.

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Chris McNab

Social Work

Chris is a queer, disabled Afro-Jamaican, and registered social worker, pursuing a Master of Social Work at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. His career spans multiple direct service roles, supporting youth with addictions, individuals living with HIV, and Federally incarcerated people. Recently, his focus has shifted towards equity and community engagement, reflecting his passion for social justice through knowledge mobilization and community empowerment. He currently serves as an anti-Black racism lead within the child welfare sector.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys watching anime, reality TV, hiking, and recreational kickboxing.

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Isabella Rose Chawrun

Faculty of Health

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.

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Nic Hobson

Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, Doctor of Philosophy, Kinesiology - Neuroscience

Over the course of our lives, brain function begins to deteriorate. With age, this deterioration begins to advance and cognitive ability is affected in one form or another. Nic's research interests lie in better understanding the effects with which physical activity and other positive health modifiers have on brain function, cognitive ability and neuroplasticity across the lifespan. More specifically, his interests lie in the prevention and reversal of neurodegeneration. His background stems from a population level approach to maintaining health through behavioural and policy-level modifications and reaches into the underlying neurobiological mechanisms which affect daily function. Through methods developed in neuroscience, neurophysiology and epidemiologic perspectives, the effects of different levels of exercise on chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia may be better understood and further salutogenic behaviours may be adapted to moderate and even reverse the gradual process of neurodegeneration.

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Nicholas Tibert

Kinesiology and Health Sciences

Nicholas is a clinical exercise physiologist and high performance trainer that is interested in muscle and bone physiology, resistance training and training adaptations, cognition and video games, and the link between esports and physical performance.

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Samira Mehrabi

Aging, Health and Well-being

Samira is a PhD candidate and research/teaching assistant at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. She is a personable and responsible Physiotherapist/Exercise Therapist with extensive knowledge and professional experience of rehabilitation methods, exercise prescription, and health promotion strategies.

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Wing Lam (Veen) Wong

Public Health and Health Systems

Veen��is a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health Sciences. Her research explores the use of HCI for violence prevention and is funded by NSERC. Veen is supervised by Drs. James Wallace and Cayley MacArthur.

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Vlad Shein

Public Health Sciences

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Alessandra Luz de Medeiros Ferreira

Computer Science

Alessandra is a PhD student in the Cheriton School of Computer Science under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Vogel. She holds a MSc in HCI-E from University College of London.

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Anchit Mishra

Computer Science

Anchit is a PhD student at the School of Computer Science, working under the supervision of Profs. Matthew Brehmer, Oliver Schneider and Daniel Vogel. His research interests lie at the intersection of XR and Human-AI interaction, and he is generally interested in applications of computer graphics and visualization.

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Ansh Sharma

Computer Science

Ansh is a Computer Science MMath student in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, conducting research under the supervision of Prof. Jim Wallace. His work in machine learning, explainable AI, and human-computer interaction synergizes to enhance topic modeling through transparent algorithms and intuitive interfaces, promoting collaborative and interpretable insights.

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An Bella Chen

Computer Science

An Bella Chen is a Master's student in the Cheriton School of Computer Science co-supervised by professor Leah Zhang-Kennedy and Jim Wallace. Her research explores the suitability of VR in the context of telehealth and studies the adaptability, context sensitivity, and the flow of information through the digital medium will reveal nuanced privacy needs, adaptations to technology, and design opportunities to better meet the needs of diverse audiences.

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Junhyeok Kim

Computer Science

Junhyeok is a PhD student in the Cheriton School of Computer Science. He completed Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Manitoba. He practices and designs interactive systems using latest technology to improve immersion of computing.

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Michelle Ma

Computer Science

Michelle is an undergraduate computer science student working with Dr. Jim Wallace and Dr. Keiko Katsuragawa as a research assistant. She is currently exploring aging-in-place technology to foster communication between aging parents and their adult children.

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