The Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business is an interdisciplinary University of Waterloo school in downtown Stratford, Ontario.
The Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business at the University of Waterloo offers interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs. They focus on the critical exploration of design and technology within a global business framework. The school develops collaborative interdisciplinary perspectives to responsibly design for societal, sustainable, economic, health and technological futures.
The school's programs are the first of their kind in Canada to combine creativity, technology and business with a human-centered approach. Its focus is digital media in teaching and research. A specialized co-op program for GBDA undergraduates enables students to gain real-world experience in areas such as user-experience research and design, marketing, graphic design, organizational behaviour and digital media. Upper level and graduate courses feature project-based learning designed in collaboration with industry partners. In place of a thesis, MDEI graduate students work in teams of 3-5 on project-based challenges within a partner organization.
The Stratford School campus is located in downtown Stratford. The building has an open-concept design with classrooms, media facilities, research labs, project rooms and collaboration spaces.
Faculty come from both academia and industry and are described as award-winning. Outside the classroom, they collaborate with researchers from other areas to develop new approaches to design and technology, identify business opportunities, and design games, interactive art, and VR/AR.