BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Drupal iCal API//EN X-WR-CALNAME:Events items teaser X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Toronto BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Toronto BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c769f93 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250404T143000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250404T170000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/capstone-showcase-2025 SUMMARY:2025 Capstone Showcase and Grad Send off CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nStudents will showcase their work and discuss their approach to the\n2025 Service Design Challenge\, an international competi tion focused on\nservice design for global issues. This year\, they collab orated with\nIBM mentors to create innovative products and services that s upport\nsustainable development and equitable progress. Join us on April 4 to\nsee firsthand the skills and knowledge our students have developed.\n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76d49f DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250301T090000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250301T180000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/blend-hope-health-humanity SUMMARY:BLEND: Hope Health & Humanity CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nBLEND: WHAT TO EXPECT\n\nAt Blend\, you'll connect with like-minded professionals\, hear stories\nof designers and leaders f acing the future and redefining realities\,\nand participate in workshops that will help you in your industry.\n\nThis year features keynotes and w orkshops from industry leaders and\nthe BLEND after-party. And the best p art? You'll be surrounded by\npeople who are just as passionate about brea king boundaries as you\nare. We're talking about entrepreneurs\, creatives \, and\nboundary-pushing thinkers who will inspire you to think bigger and \nbolder than ever before.\n\nOver the day\, you'll be inspired as we hea r inspiring stories of\npeople in our community of designers breaking boun daries and\novercoming obstacles to redefine our world.\n\nWe'd love for y ou to be part of the conversation. We promise it'll be\nworth the investm ent.\n\nWHEN IS IT?\n\nJoin us on March 1\, 2025 at the Stratford School of Interaction\nDesign and Business. This event includes refreshments\, l unch\, and\nlight appetizers at our networking social evening.\n\nFor more information including schedule and speaker line up please\ncheck out the  Blend website [https://www.blendconf.co/]. \n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76df1f DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240302T090000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240302T180000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/blend-business-design-conference SUMMARY:BLEND: Business + Design Conference CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nBLEND: WHAT TO EXPECT\n\nAt Blend\, you'll connect with like-minded professionals\, hear stories\nof designers and leaders f acing the future and redefining realities\,\nand participate in workshops that will help you in your industry.\n\nThis year features keynotes and w orkshops from industry leaders and\nthe BLEND after-party. And the best p art? You'll be surrounded by\npeople who are just as passionate about brea king boundaries as you\nare. We're talking about entrepreneurs\, creatives \, and\nboundary-pushing thinkers who will inspire you to think bigger and \nbolder than ever before.\n\nOver the day\, you'll be inspired as we hea r inspiring stories of\npeople in our community of designers breaking boun daries and\novercoming obstacles to redefine our world.\n\nWe'd love for y ou to be part of the conversation. We promise it'll be\nworth the investm ent.\n\nWHEN IS IT?\n\nJoin us on March 2\, 2024 at the Stratford School of Interaction\nDesign and Business. This event includes breakfast\, lunc h\, and light\nappetizers at our networking social evening.\n\nFor more in formation including schedule and speaker line up please\ncheck out the Bl end website [https://www.blendconf.co/]. \n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76e7b5 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230920T170000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230920T183000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/critical-tech-talk-black-media-philosophy-and-beyond-armond SUMMARY:Critical Tech Talk: Black Media Philosophy and Beyond with Armond R .\nTowns CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nMuch of the contemporary research on race in commun ication media\nstudies begins with media representations. However\, for th is talk\,\nArmond R. Towns will focus on the relationship between the mode rn\nresearch university\, race\, and the development of communication and\ nmedia studies in the early and mid-twentieth century\, with a focus\nspec ifically on US and Canadian communication and media studies. Like\nthe mod ern university\, the discipline of communication and media\nstudies\, Town s argues\, has a difficulty with understanding non-Western\nlife. This tal k is a beginning conversation on how to push toward new\nforms of understa nding humanity beyond Western life. The topic of who\ncounts as human is c rucial in a context where big tech aims to control\nthe future of so-calle d humanity and the AI race closes the gap\nbetween human and machine commu nications.\n\nThis is a hybrid in-person and virtual event. Following the talk\,\nthere will be a short reception for in-person attendees at the Sci ence\nTeaching Complex (STC) Room 0050.\n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76ef57 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230925T130000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230925T140000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/black-virtuality-ade-games-communities-workshop-and-speaker SUMMARY:Black Virtuality - ADE for Games Communities Workshop and Speaker\n Series CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nAcross digital media\, Black people are portrayed i n ways that are\nderogatory\, inaccurate\, stereotypical\, demeaning\, and otherwise\nharmful. And Black culture is often depersonalized and extract ed from\nBlack bodies. Through projects like ‘Ye or Nay? and the Open-So urce\nAfro Hair Library\, artist A.M. Darke reimagines the construction an d\nconsumption of Black bodies in virtual space\, discussing critical\napp roaches to portraying Blackness in games and virtual space.\n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76f73b DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230920T110000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230920T123000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/panel-emerging-voices-black-game-studies-ade-games SUMMARY:Panel on Emerging Voices in Black Game Studies - ADE for Games\nCom munities Workshop and Speaker Series CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nThe following events are lectures\, panels and work shops hosted by a\nvariety of researchers across the globe\, discussing th emes related to\ndecolonization\, equity\, accessibility and diversity in games and game\ncommunities. Times are EST/EDT\; they are tentative and ma y be subject\nto change. _Event registration details to come._\n\nThis pan el highlights emerging scholars in Black games studies.\nPanelists will pr esent recent and/or ongoing work\, sharing a glimpse\nof the emerging rese arch questions animating the field. \n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c76ffd1 DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221028 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221029 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/10-year-celebration-stratford-school-interaction-design-and SUMMARY:10 Year Celebration of the Stratford School of Interaction Design a nd\nBusiness CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\n10 Year Celebration of the Stratford School of Inte raction Design and\nBusiness\n X-MICROSOFT-CDO-ALLDAYEVENT:TRUE DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c770780 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230124T180000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230124T180000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/ai-tsunami-where-will-it-take-us SUMMARY:The AI tsunami – Where will it take us? CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nYou’re invited to Research Talks\, a public event and panel\ndiscussion featuring guest speakers Kesha Bodawala - P & P\ nOptica\, Evan Jones - Stitch Media\, and Sirisha Rambhatla and Will\ nZhao - University of ݮƵ.\n\nArtificial Intelligence (AI)\, the stu dy of machines and software that\nexhibit intelligence\, is transforming e very aspect of society\, from\nfinancial services\, technology\, healthcar e\, manufacturing\, and more.\nAI is dependent on data\, that is\, AI uses data to make predictions so\nhumans can make data-driven decisions. With the explosion of data over\nthe past two decades\, there is an AI tsunami on our threshold. So\, we\nare left with the question\, “Where will AI t ake us?”\n\nCHALLENGE OF THE BOTS: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CONTEX TUAL\nCONVERSATIONAL AI\n\nWill Zhao\n[/stratford-scho ol-of-interaction-design-and-business/people-profiles/will-zhao] is\nan A ssistant Professor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design\nand Bus iness\n[/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-bu siness/]\,\nUniversity of ݮƵ. He earned his Ph.D. from the French _ Grande\nEcole _EM Lyon Business school and pursued his postdoctoral resea rch\nat Stanford University. He is an interdisciplinary researcher\nintere sted in studying innovation from organizational\, educational\,\nand engin eering perspectives\, particularly using multimodal methods\nthat draw on semiotics and/or artificial intelligence techniques. His\nmost recent rese arch on artificial intelligence has been published in\nleading journals su ch as _IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics._\n\nWHAT’S IN YOUR FOOD? ASSES SING THE QUALITY OF FOOD PRODUCTS USING AI\n\nKesha Bodawala\n[https://ppo .ca/people-at-ppo-kesha-bodawala-software-developer/] is\nthe Model Devel opment Lead at P&P Optica [https://ppo.ca/] (PPO)\,\nbased in ݮƵ\, ON. At PPO\, she oversees the Machine Learning Team.\nShe works with the team to develop models to assess the quality of\nmeat products. Kesha has a Master's degree in Electrical and Computer\nEngineering with a focus on machine learning and a Bachelor's degree\nin Electronics Engineering.\n\nI NCORPORATING AI INTO STORYTELLING AND VIRTUAL REALITY\n\nEvan Jones [https ://www.stitch.media/team] is the founder of Stitch\nMedia [https://www.s titch.media/]\, an interactive media production\nservices company which te lls stories using new technology and timeless\ntechniques. A two-time Emm y Award winner\, Evan’s work combines web\,\nmobile and games with TV\, film\, radio\, and the real world. He has been\nrecognized as a 'Top 10 Ne w Media Groundbreaker' by the Bell Fund and\nchosen as one of the ‘most innovative and influential minds in\nMcMaster history’ by his alma mater . His interactive documentary\nwork has won ‘Best in Electronic Culture ’ at the UNESCO World\nSummit and his experience with branded entertainm ent has won ‘Best\nin Digital Marketing’ by the Digi Awards. Evan has guest lectured on\nthe art & business of interactive story internationally at the\nCanadian Film Centre\, the Australian Film\, Television & Radio S chool\nand the University of Southern California. He has consulted for the \nSmithsonian\, Greenpeace\, Microsoft\, Disney\, NBC\, Universal\,\nNicke lodeon\, and 20th Century Fox on the future of entertainment.\n\nAI AND TH E FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE\n\nSirisha Rambhatla\n[/managem ent-sciences/profile/srambhat] is an\nAssistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of\nݮƵ\, where she leads the Critic al ML Lab as the director. Her\nresearch focusses on developing deep learn ing-based reliable\nartificial intelligence (AI) models for critical real- world decision\nmaking in surgery and healthcare\, covid spread\, climate change\, and\nintelligent manufacturing and aviation using spatiotemporal modelling\,\nrepresentation learning\, and explainable AI. Her inter-disci plinary\nwork spans both theory and practice of machine learning (ML)\, ha s been\npublished at top ML venues such as NeurIPS\, ICLR\, KDD\, IJCAI\, AAAI\,\nand clinical venues such as AMIA\, Surgery\, American Association for\nthe Study of Liver Diseases. Recipient of the 2021 Merit Award for\nE xcellence in Postdoctoral Research at the University of Southern\nCaliforn ia\, Dr. Rambhatla received her Ph.D. (EE) from the University\nof Minneso ta -- Twin Cities in 2019.\n\nPizza and non-alcoholic beverages will be p rovided.\n\nDonations of non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army -\nStratford Food Bank will be accepted.\n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c771176 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230325T090000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230325T180000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/blend-conference SUMMARY:BLEND Conference CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\n [BLEND Conference]\nBLEND: WHAT TO EXPECT\n\nAt B lend\, you'll connect with like-minded professionals\, hear stories\nof de signers and leaders breaking boundaries\, and participate in\nworkshops th at will help you in your industry.\n\nThis year features keynotes and wor kshops from industry leaders and\nthe BLEND after-party. And the best par t? You'll be surrounded by\npeople who are just as passionate about breaki ng boundaries as you\nare. We're talking about entrepreneurs\, creatives\, and\nboundary-pushing thinkers who will inspire you to think bigger and\n bolder than ever before.\n\nOver the day\, you'll be inspired as we hear inspiring stories of\npeople in our community of designers breaking bounda ries and\novercoming obstacles to redefine our world.\n\nWe'd love for you to be part of the conversation. We promise it'll be\nworth the investmen t.\n\nWHEN IS IT?\n\nJoin us on March 25\, 2023 at the Stratford School o f Interaction\nDesign and Business. This event includes breakfast\, lunch \, and light\nappetizers at our networking social evening.\n\nFor more inf ormation including schedule and speaker line up please\ncheck out the Ble nd website [https://www.blendconf.co/]. \n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:682f87c774f53 DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210414T183000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:TRANSPARENT DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210414T183000 URL:/stratford-school-of-interaction-design-and-busines s/events/filling-gaps-opportunities-black-entrepreneurs-southwestern SUMMARY:Filling the Gaps: Opportunities for Black Entrepreneurs in\nSouthwe stern Ontario CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:Summary \n\nThis Community Dialogue event is proudly presented in partnership with\nthe Stratford Public Library. \n DTSTAMP:20250522T202335Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR