| Nov 02, 2026 | November 2 to 5: I’ll be at CHI PLAY 2026 in York, reconnecting with the games and HCI research community. |
| Oct 21, 2026 | Vugar Ibrahimov and I host Cortex Compute, a podcast on AI developments and what they mean for professional work. Recent episode |
| Aug 24, 2026 | I relaunched my How to Write Research Papers podcast with Phoebe Toups Dugas, talking CHI publishing and peer review. Episode |
| Jun 13, 2026 | Our paper Rushed by Discomfort, Trapped by Immersion, on privacy-deceptive design in VR, received a Best Paper Award at ACM DIS 2026. Award |
| Jun 12, 2026 | Our paper Conceptualizing How to Design for AI Literacy through Game Artifacts received an Honourable Mention at ACM DIS 2026. Award |
| Apr 13, 2026 | Our CHI extended abstract examines how senior UX leaders at AAA game studios combine theory, experience, and instinct during pre-production. Paper |
| Jan 01, 2026 | New NSERC grant as principal investigator: AI-VIATE, modernizing Canadian pilot education through intelligent systems. |
| Dec 01, 2025 | I gave an invited seminar at Fondazione Bruno Kessler and spoke with FBK Magazine about research quality and human judgment in AI-augmented games research. Interview and seminar recap |
| Nov 01, 2025 | Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner featured our research on reducing privacy harms from deceptive design in virtual reality. Project |
| Oct 17, 2025 | I gave expert commentary for Retraction Watch’s investigation into coercive citation requirements for graduate students. Article |
| Oct 01, 2025 | I co-authored the inaugural Human-Computer Narrative Interactions workshop contribution for CHI PLAY 2025, connecting interactive storytelling and HCI. Workshop publication |
| Sep 01, 2025 | Our study Who Is Responsible When AI Fails? analyzed 202 real-world AI privacy and ethical incidents to help improve accountability. |
| Jul 01, 2025 | I joined the Self-Compassionate Professor podcast to discuss academic careers, professional reinvention, and entrepreneurship. Episode |
| Jun 01, 2025 | I co-taught the sold-out AI-Powered UX Designer masterclass with Reza Hadi Mogavi. Event |
| Apr 26, 2025 | I brought my course “How to Write Higher-Quality CHI Papers with AI Research Tools” to CHI 2025 in Yokohama. Course |
| Apr 02, 2025 | Our CHI paper explored how heart-rate biofeedback can change the experience of playing physical board games. Paper |
| Apr 01, 2025 | Our CHI paper investigated how AI-supported game tutorials can support player autonomy and control. Paper |
| Mar 10, 2025 | Our paper “Seeing Is Not Thinking”, on VR and perspective-taking, received a Best Paper Award at IEEE VR 2025. Award |
| Mar 02, 2025 | I co-organized the Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop “The Future of Games in Society” with Anders Drachen and Johanna Pirker. Workshop |
| Feb 02, 2025 | We introduced INSPIRE, a framework that draws on expert librarians’ guidance for searching and selecting HCI research literature. Announcement |
| Feb 01, 2025 | We announced “Widespread yet Unreliable”, our study of methodological problems in the use of presence questionnaires. Announcement |
| Jan 01, 2025 | The Games Institute featured my role in founding CHI PLAY and helping build an interdisciplinary games research community. Feature |
| Dec 20, 2024 | I discussed our research on AI-assisted academic writing with Times Higher Education; Inside Higher Ed republished the coverage. Article |
| Oct 05, 2024 | The Stratford School featured “The Great AI Witch Hunt”, our research on how reviewers perceive AI-assisted academic writing. News |
| Oct 04, 2024 | Our CHI PLAY 2024 contributions examined deceptive game design, player expectations across cultures, and how game audio affects player experience. Conference recap |
| Oct 03, 2024 | I joined the “Ten Years of CHI PLAY” panel to reflect on the conference’s past, present, and future. Conference recap |
| Oct 02, 2024 | Our paper The Jade Gateway to Exergaming, on culturally informed exergame design for East Asian older adults, received a Best Paper Honourable Mention at CHI PLAY 2024. Announcement |
| Oct 01, 2024 | At CHI PLAY 2024 in Tampere, ACM SIGCHI gave me an Excellence in Reviewing Recognition for my external reviewing. |
| Aug 01, 2024 | Our study “Experiential Disparities in Social VR” examined power dynamics and inequality in virtual social spaces. Announcement |
| Jul 02, 2024 | Our research on how people reinterpret social VR features was presented at ACM DIS 2024. Announcement |
| Jul 01, 2024 | I began a seven-year appointment as University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. Appointment |
| Jun 01, 2024 | Vugar Ibrahimov and I launched the AI Academics Podcast, exploring what AI means for researchers and educators. First official episode |
| May 03, 2024 | Our review “Deceived by Immersion”, on deceptive design in extended reality, was published in ACM Computing Surveys. Announcement |
| May 02, 2024 | I joined the HCI Games Group at CHI 2024 in Honolulu, where our research covered XR privacy, presence measurement, and exergames. Conference recap |
| May 01, 2024 | My CHI 2024 contributions included courses on writing better papers with AI and on user experience research and design in video games. Course contributions |
| Mar 06, 2024 | I joined MobileSyrup’s The Tech Effect to discuss gamification and education. Interview |
| Feb 01, 2024 | I joined The Struggling Scientists podcast to discuss academic writing in the age of AI. Episode |
| Jan 01, 2024 | Our study of gamification and gaming in cryptocurrency education was published in Simulation & Gaming. Announcement |
| Aug 02, 2023 | I joined Commonplace’s “Balancing Trailblazing and Tradition” podcast to discuss interdisciplinary research and scholarly communication. Episode listing |
| Aug 01, 2023 | The Stratford School featured our research into the motivations, concerns, and practices of cryptocurrency investors and newcomers. News |
| Jul 01, 2023 | I was promoted to Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Games at the University of Waterloo. |
| Jun 01, 2023 | I joined Christopher Nguyen for an AMA on how designers can use generative AI. Conversation |
| Apr 02, 2023 | I received a CA$260,000 NSERC Discovery Grant for research on engineering novel game technology to improve people’s lives. Award year · Funding announcement |
| Apr 01, 2023 | I contributed CHI 2023 courses on writing better papers with LaTeX and Overleaf, and on user experience design and research in games. Courses |
| Jan 01, 2023 | I joined The Gaming Persona podcast to discuss how UX research informs game design. Episode |
| Nov 05, 2022 | I gave a CHI PLAY masterclass on conducting user experience research in games. Waterloo recap |
| Nov 04, 2022 | I gave the IFIP ICEC 2022 keynote “Decision-making Demystified: Cognitive Biases vs. Game UX.” Program |
| Nov 03, 2022 | Our paper Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion, on ad hoc League of Legends teams, won the CHI PLAY 2022 Best Paper Award. Award record |
| Nov 02, 2022 | I joined the Design Hires podcast to discuss UX, game design, and meaningful gamification. Announcement |
| Nov 01, 2022 | I gave “Embracing the Power of Play”, the keynote at Toronto Change Days. Event retrospective |
| Oct 01, 2022 | I received US$75,000 from Meta Research to investigate the psychological effects of custom avatars in social VR. Award record |
| Sep 01, 2022 | The Stratford School featured our PEAS framework for making personalized gamification more inclusive. News |
| Jun 01, 2022 | I received a CA$383,816 SSHRC Insight Grant for “Entering the Metaverse”, investigating social virtual reality platforms and experiences. Grant announcement |
| Apr 02, 2022 | I contributed “How to: Peer Review for CHI (and Beyond)” with Max Wilson to help researchers develop their reviewing skills. Course |
| Apr 01, 2022 | Our HCI Games Group partnered with Waterloo nanotechnology researchers on an educational game explaining nasal-spray vaccines. Project story |
| Nov 01, 2021 | I was recognized among the world’s top 2% of scientists in Stanford’s citation-based rankings. Stratford announcement |
| Sep 16, 2021 | Our Player Experience Inventory paper received the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Best Paper Award 2020. |
| May 01, 2021 | I received an Outstanding Performance Award from the Stratford School and the Department of Communication Arts. |
| Apr 01, 2021 | AMiner named me a Most Influential Scholar in Human-Computer Interaction, among the ten most cited HCI researchers from 2011 to 2020. |
| Oct 01, 2020 | ACM SIGCHI recognized my excellent service for chairing CHI PLAY twice. |
| Apr 01, 2020 | Our paper Food Literacy While Shopping, on motivating informed food purchasing with a situated gameful app, received a Best Paper Honourable Mention at CHI 2020. |
| Oct 01, 2019 | Our paper “It Started as a Joke”: On the Design of Idle Games received a Best Paper Honourable Mention at CHI PLAY 2019. |
| Mar 01, 2018 | I received the Arts Excellence in Research Award from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts. |
| Oct 01, 2016 | Our paper “The Collecting Itself Feels Good”, on collection interfaces for digital game objects, received a Best Paper Honourable Mention at CHI PLAY 2016. |
| Feb 01, 2012 | Our paper “I’m Just Here to Play Games”, on social dynamics in an online game site, won a Best Paper Award at CSCW 2012, given to the top 1% of submissions. |
| May 01, 2011 | Our paper Biofeedback Game Design, on using direct and indirect physiological control in games, received a Best Paper Honourable Mention at CHI 2011. |