The Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) was established in 1991 to foster research in media technology that supports economic development in the Province of British Columbia
A research centre within the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS), MAGIC’s people-centric focus answers where, what, when and why technology is appropriate and who it is for. Through our research affiliations, educational and industrial programs and our opportunities for entrepreneurship, we work at the edges of boundaries in communications and media technologies to benefit both the academic and corporate business communities.
MAGIC provides a home for industry sponsored and/or government funded research and provides learning opportunities for visiting scientists and students in an exciting, dynamic and challenging environment. We have four main foci of activities: Education, Entrepreneurship, Industrial Collaboration and Research.
Education
Our educational programs seek to train graduate students in entrepreneurship and technology design. We offer a Sub-Specialization in Human-Computer Interaction that is a supplement to a normal Masters degree program. We also facilitate interdisciplinary graduate training in entrepreneurship, e-Commerce, Computer Science and Engineering.
Entrepreneurship
We support, guide and encourage new ventures to co-develop business models and technology development processes.
Industrial Collaboration
We find collaborative research and development initiatives with industrial partners in a wide range of sectors. We assist in identifying and linking industrial research projects with expert teams within academia. We help manage these research projects and work together to secure matching funding from government programs. We encourage industrial partners to take part in our Researcher in Residence program where companies can have one of their employees join MAGIC for up to one year to be involved in research activities.
Research
We have an active research portfolio and a lively interdisciplinary research culture within the broad areas of digital media, human computer interaction, and applied cognitive science, including mobile and ubiquitous technologies, persuasive technologies and gamification, and computer graphics, visualization and visual analytics.