People

Dr. Lennart E. Nacke is an Associate Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Game Design in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo. He is working on projects that deal with the cognitive and emotional side of playing games. His goal is to describe, analyse and have computers and machines react to the thoughts and feelings you have when you are fully engaged in playing a video game. With this research we can start understanding the effects of video games (positive and negative). Using body sensor technology, for example, sensors for brainwaves, heart rate, or muscle tension, Dr. Nacke taps into some of video gaming’s most motivating features to improve our physical fitness and mental wellbeing. His research is funded nationally and internationally and his publications have won best paper honourable mention (awarded to the top 5%) and best paper awards (awarded to the top 1%) at the premier human-computer interaction conferences CHI 2011 and CSCW 2012. He also writes blog articles for the online magazine Gamasutra via his personal blog.

Andrew is a Systems Design Engineering student under SWaGUR, who graduated from Speech Communication with a minor in Digital Arts Communication. He joined the HCI Games Group because of his passion for game design and interest in Games User Research. Andrew is an emerging digital media designer. His primary focuses in digital design revolve around photography and videography. Andrew also has experience in the Adobe suites, including: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom. He also has taken an interest in game development and game design, having played many games in his past time. His current focus is to expand his digital media portfolio and create inspirational work that will motivate those around him. His work can be viewed on Facebook at Jintoki Media.

Giovanni is a Master’s student pursuing a M.A.Sc in Systems Design Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke at the University of Waterloo. He is the first Waterloo student to be enrolled in the Saskatchewan-Waterloo Games User Research (SWaGUR) program. With a background in Psychology (B.A.) he is interested in how games make us feel different emotions. His research uses biological signal detection techniques such as skin response, facial electromyography, and heart rate to explore player reactions to game content.

Gustavo Tondello is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Waterloo under supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke and Dr. Daniel Vogel, graduate researcher at the HCI Games Group, research lead of the International Gamification Federation, and co-founder of MotiviUX. His research interests include gamification and games for health, wellbeing, and learning, user experience in gamification, and gameful design methods. His work focuses on the design and personalization of gameful applications. His recent publications advanced the current knowledge on player and user motivations in games and gameful applications and introduced new frameworks and approaches to designing personalized gameful applications and serious games. He periodically blogs about gamification for the HCI Games Group, the ACM XRDS magazine, and on his personal blog, Gameful Bits. Before coming to Canada, Gustavo earned his M.Sc. in Computer Science and his B.Sc. in Information Systems from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and worked for several years as a Software Engineer in Brazil. Gustavo is also a Logosophy researcher affiliated to the Logosophical Foundation of Brazil and North America.

Karina is a Ph.D. student pursuing a degree in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke. She holds an MSc in Information Technology with Business and Management from the University of Sussex in the UK, and a BSc in Information Technology from the University of Monterrey in Mexico. Her main interests include understanding player's behaviors and emotions by applying diverse games user research methodologies, specifically biometrics such as electromyography and galvanic skin response. She is also interested in the research of new methodologies and technologies that can help improve player's experience.

Katja Rogers is a Computer Science PhD student from the Institute of Media Informatics at Ulm University, Germany. As a visiting researcher within Dr. Lennart Nacke's research group, her current project at the HCI Games Group focuses on the effects of audio on player experience in a VR horror game. Her previous projects involved topics such as NPC design, evolutionary algorithms, persuasive and pervasive games, as well as augmented reality.

Kenny is a recent MBA graduate at Wilfrid Laurier University and has a B.A. Honours Psychology from the University of Waterloo. He is currently interested in the field of computer science and is actively contributing to various projects at the HCI Games Group.

Lisa is a Master’s student in the Digital Experience Innovation program at the University of Waterloo, Stratford Campus. With a background in French Studies and English, and a M.Ed. in Language and Literacies Education, she has recently worked as a sessional instructor at the English department at Université de Moncton in New Brunswick and as a French translation QA specialist at a career development software company. She is volunteering in the HCI Games Group for various UX research projects including the development of an online language learning game.

Rina R. Wehbe is currently working on her Ph.D. Her research focuses on understanding difficulty and learning in games and productivity applications. Currently, she is co-supervised by Dr. Lennart Nacke and Dr. Edward Lank of the University of Waterloo. She recently completed an internship at Bloomberg in New York City. Rina earned her M.Sc. in Computer Science at UOIT; her thesis was titled "Evaluating social and cognitive effects of video games using electroencephalography". She received her B.Sc. Honours Psychology from York University. Her undergraduate honours thesis focused on Autism and Cortical Connectivity. In her undergrad, she gained experience in different labs, including the neuroscience lab at Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (MEHRI), the Fallah-Jordan lab at the Centre for Vision Research (CVR), and as an intern at InteraXon as part of the ADD/ADHD neurofeedback team. Rina currently holds a Dean's Scholarship and OGS 2014-2015.

Warren is a Master’s student in the Digital Experience Innovation program at the University of Waterloo, Stratford Campus. He is interested in becoming a UX Designer. He likes to take photos, make music and play video games on his spare time.

Katta has a background in Cultural Studies and Computer Science from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Katta’s PhD centers around experiences of autistic children with technologies and including their first-hand perspectives. Currently, Katta is on a sabbatical from the Social Play Technologies project, in which the research team co-designed technologies with groups of autistic and allistic children. Other research interests include Games and Play, Critical Computer Science, Gender Studies and Philosophy of Science. Katta plays Roller Derby and can be found knitting in most meetings.

Mareike is a PhD student at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg (Germany) and has a background in interaction design. Her research area is motivation through the use of gameful and interactive elements for patients in cognitive rehabilitation. This results in the combination of motivating elements with existing training or the integration of new elements into the rehabilitation process - adapted to the characteristics of the patients.

AC Atienza is an undergraduate of the Rhetoric and Professional Writing program at the University of Waterloo. Translating visual and narrative design principles into effective game design is their primary focus. AC has drawn and written for a multitude of games, and in their spare time, enjoys rock climbing and swimming.

Arda is a fourth year Liberal Arts student with a passion for design in digital media. He is currently in pursuit of videography as his specialization going forward. Through his Digital Art Communication minor and personal hobbies, he is also involved in and other digital media creation including video game design, photography and graphic design. With the Games Institute, he hopes to further his understanding of the practical design elements found in digital media, including games.

Joseph is a student at the University of Waterloo. He has immense interests in UX and UI interfaces and emotion in games. With his background in Digital Arts Communication (DAC), he seeks to explore the different dimensions of wireframes and paper prototypes that can be useful in game designs. He is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Lennart E. Nacke, and hopes to work towards a Ph.D. degree in 2020.

Brian is a 4th year English student preparing to start his grad studies at UW in Experimental Digital Media Studies (XDM). He is particularly interested in learning more about the rhetoric and language in developing field of Games User Research.