Research labs

SIAT is home to many research labs or institutes led by or in participation with faculty members. These labs support collaborative research to confront key scientific and global challenges, foster creative interaction, and stimulate engagement with students and visiting scholars. 

Institutes are established under SFU Policy R40.01 and are under the direct authority of the Vice-President, Research. For more information, please visit: SFU Research Centres and Institutes.

Research labs and groups

CriticalMediaArtStudio (cMAS)

Location: SRYC 3910
Lab director:
Dr. Gabriela Aceves-Sepulveda

cMAS is an interdisciplinary research studio that experiments with research methods and theories to explore the implications of working across media and disciplines.

Explore cMAS

The Connections Lab (clab)

Location: SRYC 3950
Lab director: Dr. Carman Neustaedter

The Connections Lab (cLab) specializes in the areas of human-computer interaction, domestic computing, interaction design, and computer-supported cooperative work.

Explore the cLab

Data & Dialogue Lab

Location:
Lab director: Dr. Alireza Karduni

Researchers at the Data & Dialogue Lab conduct reserach at the intersection of information visualization, human-computer-interaction, and social psychology. Their goal is to understand how people think with data in light of their existing views.

Explore the Data & Dialogue Lab

Everyday Design Studio

Location: SRYC 3400
Lab co-directors: Dr. Ron Wakkary, Dr. Will Odom

The Everyday Design Studio is a design research studio focusing on exploring interaction design. Our research investigates the changing nature of interaction design in response to the increasing role technology plays in mediating everyday practices.

Explore the EDS

Homeware Lab

Location: SRYC 3700
Lab director: Dr. Will Odom

The Homeware Lab is a design research lab that offers world-class facilities to the design, implementation, and study of radically new kinds of forms, materials, and technologies for the emerging Internet-of-Things paradigm that can scale and change over time.

Explore the Homeware Lab

Imaginative Methods Lab (IML)

Lab directors: Dr. Gillian Russell and Dr. Lesage (School of Communication)

The Imaginative Methods Lab is a methods incubator for futures literacies research. The IML creates tools to collaboratively envision socially, ecologically, and technologically sustainable futures together.

Indigitalization Lab

Location: SRYC 3763
Lab director:
Jon Corbett

The Indigitalization Lab is a collaborative space for exploring digital media and interdisciplinary creative research using Indigenous methodologies, storytelling, and culture.

Integrated Science Lab

Location: SRYC
Lab director: Dr. Brian Fisher

Researchers at the Integrated Science Lab bridge the gap between science and technology, integrating expertise from diverse domains to pioneer innovative solutions. Domains include decision intelligence, visual analytics, technology design, and behavioural science.

Explore the Integrated Science Lab

iSpace Lab

Location: SRYC 3800
Lab director: Dr. Bernhard Riecke

Researchers at the iSpace Lab work at the intersection of informatics, psychology, cognitive science, immersive interaction design, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction.

Explore the iSpace Lab

iViz Lab

Location: SRYC 2945
Lab director: Dr. Steve DiPaola

iVizLab is focused on AI-based computational models of human characteristics such as expression, emotion, behaviour, empathy, and creativity, including computer graphics-based facial/character systems and AI-based cognitive modelling systems.

Explore the iViz Lab

Learning Analytics Lab

Location: SRYC
Lab director: Dr. Marek Hatala

Using data science and machine learning, the Learning Analytics Lab focuses on developing theories and models that support the development of technologies, such as dashboards, or pedagogical interventions that stimulate students’ learning motivation and improve their ways of studying.

Making Culture Lab

Location: SRYC 3910
Lab director: Dr. Kate Hennessy

Researchers at the Making Culture Lab explore the collaborative development and evaluation of culturally specific applications of new media in public space, museums, and communities, both online and on the ground. 

Explore the Making Culture Lab

Metacreation Lab

Location:
Lab director: Dr. Philippe Pasquier

Researchers at the Metacreation Lab develop systems that are capable of human-level creativity. These are systems capable of autonomous creation, producing original artwork and creative output alongside and beyond their human counterparts.

Explore the metacreation lab

Moving Stories Lab

Location: SRYC 2955
Lab director: Dr. Thecla Schiphorst

Moving Stories is an interdisciplinary, collaborative research partnership focused on designing digital tools for movement, meaning, and interaction.

Pain Studies Lab

Location: SRYC 2775
Lab director: Dr. Diane Gromala

Researchers at the Pain Studies Lab study, invent, and design technologies for people who live with persistent pain, their pain physicians and healthcare professionals, their caregivers, and their social milieux.

Explore the Pain Studies Lab

Tangible Embodied Child-Computer Interaction (TECI) lab

Location: SRYC 3930
Lab director: Dr. Alissa Antle

Researchers at TECI conduct design-oriented research and train the next generation of researchers to design, build, and evaluate technical innovations that improve, augment, and support children’s cognitive and emotional development.

Explore TECI

Virtual and Augmented Reality, Visual Analytics, Interaction, Systems, and Experiments (VVISE) Lab

Location: SRYC 3880
Lab director: Dr. Wolfgang Stuerzlinger

The research in the VVISE group spans the fields of human-computer interaction, virtual and augmented reality, visual and immersive analytics, large displays, 3D user interfaces, and both software and hardware systems.

Explore VVISE