2019 was an exciting year at the Centre for Digital Media.
In February we held our first annual Alumni Startup Demo Day & Mixer, where alumni startup companies from the MDM program, along with startups from CDM’s partner schools—UBC, SFU and BCIT—presented their companies, met with investors and networked with entrepreneurs.
We hosted professors and industry leaders from all over the world, including Laure Casalini from Rubika—a highly regarded animation, video game and industrial design school in Northern France, Professor Maria Bakardjieva from the department of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary, as well as Nordine Ghachi, the creative director and co-founder of DOWiNO—a serious games company from Lyon, France.
MDM students also worked on many interesting projects, including creating an ancient VR city with UBC archaeology, building the SIGGRAPH VR Theater, and participating (and placing runner up!) in the Niantic Beyond Reality Developer Contest.
As 2019 draws to a close, we wanted to highlight Centre for Digital Media’s most popular news stories of the year:
1. Teaching Cultural Humility in Healthcare with the First Nations Health Authority
In May, six MDM students were paired with the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), the leading health and wellness partner of over 200 First Nations communities across British Columbia. The FNHA communications team, led by an MDM alumni, approached the team with an initial brief of building a platform to allow healthcare practitioners to pledge their commitment to cultural humility. By the end of the semester, the team delivered a communications strategy and microsite to teach cultural humility in healthcare.
2. Remembering David Lin: September 6, 1985 - June 28, 2019
We were saddened to learn that one of our alumni, David Lin, passed away on June 28, 2019. David graduated from the Master of Digital Media program in 2014. Before the MDM program, he graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double concentration of Design and Media in Interactive Arts and Technology. David will be remembered for his laughter and professionalism and played a key role in his cohort (C7).
3. Games for Good: MDM Students Build Serious Games
In January, three MDM student projects used games or gamified technology to teach healthy behavioral changes in response to three very different problems industry clients posed to them. The three teams: The Goal Diggers, Viva la Vida, and the Brain Bros—while given different problems and briefed by very different clients—all decided to solve their clients’ problems by building digital, gamified solutions.
4. Students Pitch Personalized Experiences at CBC Hackathon
The CBC hosted their annual hackathon at the beginning of February, which was focused around the theme of content personalization. Three MDM teams submitted their proposals and two were selected to participate in the hackathon. One of the teams developed a supplement to the CBC website that allowed visitors to search the digital archives based on their personal experiences.
5. English Language For Digital Media: Meet Professor Aida Osian
Pre-MDM is a qualifying program for students who don’t meet the English Language requirements for the MDM program. It is an 8-month program that helps to improve students’ language skills while immersing them in the language and industry of digital media.
Meet Dr. Aida Osian. Our Pre-MDM instructor discusses the program and who it’s for, what students can expect, and what she’s most excited about in digital media today.
And if you’re interested in reading more, these are our most popular blog posts, ever:
5 Tips for a Killer Graduate School Portfolio
6 Skills You Need To Become a Digital Media Leader
What’s the Difference Between Art and Design
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at the Centre for Digital Media. The campus will be closed December 20 - January 1, reopening January 2. See you in 2020!