The Brock University Design Studio (BUDS) provides students across Brock with course-based opportunities to complete a portion of their studies within a real-world, collaborative, project-based production studio context that incorporates a service-learning orientation.
Modeled on the principles of project-based learning, BUDS brings together interdisciplinary teams of students – leveraging a diverse array of instructional design, digital tool, and subject content expertise. The student teams collaborate on interactive design projects that are sponsored by community partners.
Mandate
Housed within the Department of Digital Humanities, BUDS has an experiential learning mandate:
Through the Brock University Design Studio (BUDS), student-designers hone their knowledge and skills within a real-world production studio environment in which they strive to meet the project goals of clients.
BUDS serves students across Brock, promoting opportunities widely and building collaborative project teams that leverage the diverse skill sets of students across a variety of disciplines.
Completed projects
Academic Year: 2023-2024
Project Title: SickKids Foundation
Student Team: Harman Barpaga, Lucas Batista, Andrew Camacho, Alyssa Capps, Caithlyn Maude Garcia. Jose Henriquez, Grady Hu, Maisyn Kwinecki, Dominic Momich, Logan Moss, Muiz Odebiyi, Jordan Odu, Meet Atulbhai Patel, Naym Salam, Carlos Santos, Evan Sawatsky, Sagar Sethi, Jiying Song, Tim Uniac, Marcus Werner
Instructor: Jeremy Leipert
Sponsor: SickKids Foundation
Summary: Students are developing an interactive onboarding experience (including interactive map, questing, and guide character) for new Foundation employees, to familiarize them with the hospital building and Foundation history, goals, and processes.
Project Title: Sketchbook Comics and Games
Student Team: Sava Beric, Tom Brown, Abubakar Bunamay, Simon Cummings, Hailey Davidson, Brenda Garlow, Adam Julien, Mitch Kogan, Matthew MacNeil, Monica Mok, Akshat Rawat, Kandace Reitzel, Ziqi Zhou
Instructor: Jeremy Leipert
Sponsor: Sketchbook Comics and Games
Summary: Students worked with a local comic and games store to redesign their website, including features, icons and graphics, point of sale, back-end inventory management, and social media strategies and integration.
Academic Year: 2020-2021
Project Title: Canada Summer Games – Medal Reveal Display
Student Team: Fariha Khan, Kacie de Wit, Jem Vandeworp Generalao, Lucas Lafleur, Tom Crawford, Zach Heil
Instructor: Jason Hawreliak (Fall), David Hutchison (Winter)
Sponsor: Canada Games Council and the Niagara Games Host Committee
Summary: Using video and animation, students in IASC and GAME will create a digital artifact which highlights medals from previous Canada Summer Games, with particular focus on the Canada Summer Games 2022 medal design. The project will be a part of the Canada Summer Games medal reveal ceremony and launch event.
Academic Year: 2020-2021
Project Title: Threads through Time digital museum exhibition
Student Team: TBA
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Vlossak (History)
Sponsor: Canada Games Council and the Niagara Games Host Committee
Summary: Using the Omeka web-publishing platform, students will create Threads through Time, an interactive digital museum exhibition for the Canada Summer Games hosted in Niagara in August 2021. The exhibition will bring together stories from past Canada Games with historical sites, personalities, events and artifacts of the Niagara region.
Academic Year: 2019-2020
Project Title: Ontario Ministry of Transportation
Student Team: GAME (BA); Interactive Arts & Science (BA);
Instructor: Jeremy Leipert (Digital Humanities)
Sponsor: Ontario Ministry of Transportation
Summary: The students collaborated on a project plan (i.e., game-design document) which the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is then planning to use to implement a gamified new employee training system.
Academic Year: 2017-2018
Project Title: Viticulture eBook Project
Student Team: Applied Health Sciences (BA); Business Administration (BBA); Economics (BBE); Interactive Arts & Science (BA); Psychology (BA)
Instructor: Dr. David Hutchison (Digital Humanities) and Jeremy Leipert (Digital Humanities)
Sponsor: Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, Brock University
Summary: The students collaborated on an interactive Apple iBook project which introduces the grape and wine research undertaken by Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute. Written for non-specialists, the iBook also summarizes key concepts related to grape and wine production.
Academic Year: 2016-2017
Project Title: Escape Room Project
Student Team: Dramatic Arts (BA); Interactive Arts & Science (BA)
Instructor: Dr. Natalie Alvarez (Dramatic Arts)
Sponsor: Niagara Military Museum
Summary: The student team built multiple live action escape rooms that challenge visitors, as they race against the clock, to solve a series of puzzles in order to gain their freedom. The students designed the escape rooms using period artifacts and props/sets that the students constructed. The escape rooms underwent testing in April, 2017.
Academic Year: 2016-2017
Project Title: Fallen Workers Project
Student Team: History (BA); History (MA); Interactive Arts & Science (BA); Labour Studies (BA)
Instructor: Dr. David Hutchison (Digital Humanities)
Sponsor: St. Catharines Museum
Summary: Working with artifacts and research in the St. Catharines Museum collection, the student team developed an interactive exhibit for the City of St. Catharines’ Welland Canal Fallen Workers Project and memorial. This project focuses on the workers whose lives were lost during the construction of the modern day Welland Ship Canal.
Academic Year: 2015-2016
Project Title: Autonomous Rover Project
Student Team: Computer Science (BSc); Education (MEd); Interactive Arts & Science (BA)
Instructor: Dr. David Hutchison (Digital Humanities)
Sponsor: IBM Canada
Summary: The student team built an autonomous rover. The team also wrote an instructional guide that will become part of an Arduino programming kit IBM will soon distribute free of charge to Grade 8 students across Canada.
Contact information
For more information about BUDS, please contact:
David Hutchison
Professor
Department of Digital Humanities
dhutchison@brocku.ca
