Industry Day

How can generative AI be leveraged to drive emotionally responsive companion characters that adapt to player actions and in-game contexts within narrative-driven games?

L.E.A.F. explores how generative AI can power emotionally responsive companions in narrative-driven games - characters that learn from player actions, adapt to context, and evolve over time.

In what ways can a virtual fitting room reduce the time customers spend trying on wedding dresses, given the substantial costs of appointments and the customer service issues that often lead to frustration?

How does virtual fit technology enable users to see how dresses will look on them, allowing for at-home try-ons?

Can the integration of virtual fit technology and fashion visibly influence the human body?

Imagine trying on wedding dresses from home! The virtual try-on technology to transform how brides shop, providing a convenience and style exploration before stepping into a physical store.

How can a cozy, narrative-focused game help diaspora players reflect on their cultural identity and reconnect with their roots?

Aneela’s Chai Shop is a cozy, narrative-driven game where players help a young woman relearn the art of making chai while reconnecting with her South Asian heritage. Through interactive rituals and storytelling, the game explores themes of grief, identity, and cultural healing.

Goblin Talk is a cooperative 4 player local multiplayer game about talking your group's way to the best beach party in the land.

How to design nudges for online investment platforms to reduce investment mistakes caused by cognitive biases and heuristics?

Most investors don’t realize their decisions are shaped by biases and mental shortcuts, leading to costly mistakes. This research provides a practical guide to designing nudges for online investment platforms that could help investors counteract their biases and irrationalities in their mental decision-making models.

How do nurses use video-based social media to advance professional practice and enhance patient outcomes and education?

My project investigates how nurses in Canada are using video-based social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to improve both their own professional practice skills and how they educate patients. Ultimately, I aim to provide guidelines for ethical and effective social media engagement within nursing.

How can a 2D puzzle game that substitutes linguistic elements with universally understood sounds, develop emotional cognition through acoustic connections, to create a more inclusive playing experience?

Many video games today rely heavily on linguistic elements to convey gameplay and narrative, so I wanted to explore techniques to make gaming more accessible using universally understood sounds. To do this, I created a 2D puzzle game named Grow Forth, which relies on acoustics and emotion-based mechanics rather than words or speech to guide the player through the experience. 

How can digital recreations of childhood memories evoke nostalgia and introspection through digital animation?

Echoes of Eden is an animated experience that revisits the artist’s childhood environments using Unreal Engine 5 and Blender to explore how digitally reconstructed spaces can shape memory and evoke nostalgia. The project reflects on how personal environments influence emotional experience and self-perception over time.

How can theories of gender, care, and cultural identity inform the design of a gamified meal-planning app, and what assumptions do they help reveal or challenge through the process?

This project uses reflective design to explore how gender, identity, and care can be represented through a gamified meal-planning app. It asks how design decisions, guided by theory, can reveal or challenge everyday assumptions.

How can digital technologies be used to preserve memories and create new ones? What are the effects different mediums have on the effectiveness of such representations? Finally, can game engines become an accessible method of preservation, recreation, and experience?

[REDACTED] is a series of New Media artworks exploring the ways in which digital technologies can be used to integrate, present, or create memories.

CyberSafe is a user-centered mobile app designed to enhance cybersecurity awareness among social media users by providing personalized risk scores, phishing simulations, and privacy education. It simplifies complex security practices through inclusive, engaging design grounded in behavioral research and critical perspectives.

How can a massive interdisciplinary collaborative project inspire self-guided learning and prepare students for careers?

85 students

8 development departments

7 industry guests

2 semesters 

1 game 

How can a theory-informed framework support the development and design of a hybrid experiences, and specifically, hybrid board games?

There is a gap between emerging technology and design-led development and this research aims to bridge this gap. It considers one niche within hybrid designs, hybrid board games, that research gaps show a need for designers to aid in the innovation of new technology and hybrid experience. Thus, this research aims to create the Hybrid Experience Framework that empowers designers to innovate to develop new technologies.

How can generative AI be seamlessly integrated in existing production pipelines for visual effects and used to style, texture and augment renders or flipbooks generated using Houdini and ComfyUI?

CGAI explores how artists can seamlessly integrate generative AI into traditional computer graphics workflows, empowering artists to harness AI's creative potential while working within their familiar professional pipelines.

Projective Machines is a modular research system for creating immersive, AI-driven installations—investigating how generative AI and embodied computing can co-produce meaning, motion, and interaction in real time. Centered around a robotic arm equipped with sensory technologies and custom software pipelines, the project serves as a platform for exploring co-authored experiences across language, vision, and physical expression.

How can a bike-based interactive media platform, developed through research-creation and critical making, be designed to support participatory, public interaction and create conditions for community engagement and urban spatial reclamation?

The Tactical Interaction Project (TIP) is a mobile, bike-based media platform designed for interactive public art and tactical interventions in urban space, inviting communal participation, with the intent to spark critical dialogue, reclaim public space, and foster the building of community.

How do users perceive privacy and security in digital platforms?

Why do existing privacy policies fail to inform and protect users?

What kind of intervention can bridge this communication gap? 

The project examines user perceptions of data privacy and security on digital platforms and addresses existing communication gaps by introducing a visual solution called Privacy Clarity Label (PCL), which aims to improve transparency and informed consent.

Can an immersive art experience bridge cultural heritage and facilitate healing through the integration of art and science?

This interactive kinetic sculpture invites participants to explore the connection between emotion, healing, and cultural heritage. Using brainwave (EEG) technology, the installation transforms the user's mental state into a dynamic interaction through light, and movement inspired by Islamic architecture.