uNivErSity oF WAtErloo MAgAZiNE

It’s becoming clearer and clearer
that it’s really necessary now
for us to start to put the human
back in the technology.
Who better to deliver that
than an arts faculty?
Ginny Dybenko, executive director
of Waterloo’s Stratford campus
It made sense. The world is experiencing a media and technical
revolution like never before. Companies see a skills gap —
technology exists, but few employees have the knowledge to
realize its full communications potential. Stratford’s reputation
as a wired, arts-driven community made it an ideal fit.
“Stratford has been at the forefront of theatre. Now we want to
morph into more digital technology that’s going to be prevalent
in the next generation, if not longer. Waterloo is going to help
us get there,” says Mathieson.
Opening doors
Fast forward to 2013. A lot has happened since those early
blue-sky times.
In September 2012, Waterloo opened its new 42,000-square-foot
campus that boasts a towering, three-storey-high wall covered
in 150 MicroTiles created by Christie Digital, a Kitchener-based
manufacturer. When fired up, the atrium’s interconnected
display tiles are vibrant and sharp. The 30-cm by 40-cm tiles,
arranged five units wide by 30 high, come to life in a blaze
of colour and content, even when placed beside a wall of
windows. Students, researchers and outside industry can
use them for research, build new ideas for companies and
create more opportunity.
In January 2013, using a downlink from the Waterloo
main campus, the “wonderwall” was used to show a webcast
of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield speaking from the
International Space Station. More recently, it won gold in
the 2013 Apex Awards competition in the education and
healthcare category.
The rest of the building is just as impressive, with its seven
fully-wired classrooms, 16 project rooms, three video editing
suites and an audio editing suite that would make commercial
radio stations jealous. There’s also plenty of space for students
to meet and mingle in the bright, open-concept outer rooms.
The school has also found its footing in terms of what it teaches.
At the graduate level, it offers a Master of Digital Experience.
Undergraduates can earn a Bachelor of Global Business and
Digital Arts. They complete team-based design projects and
take advantage of high-end software for graphic design, sound
and video editing suites, and team project rooms scattered
around the building.
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The atrium of the new Stratford campus comes to life in a blaze
of colour, thanks to a three-storey wall, covered in 150 MicroTiles
manufactured by Christie Digital.
The programs have proven to be more popular than anyone ever
predicted, says Douglas Peers, dean of Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts.
The campus is also finding strong support in the community,
with an open house in the fall drawing a full house, he says.
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