About the Lab
The Data Experience Lab is Dr. Wesley Willett's research group within the Interactions Lab at the University of Calgary. We are a small team of researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates whose research explores the role of data and visualizations across a wide range of tools, contexts, and environments. The lab includes students from both the university's graduate program in Computer Science (for students with a more traditional computer science background) as well as the graduate Computational Media Design program (for students interested in research at the intersection of computing and design).
We are committed to creating a diverse and open research environment that encourages contributions from students of all backgrounds. Given the longstanding biases around gender, race, and other characteristics in computing, we actively encourage applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds — especially candidates from historically underrepresented groups.
Openings:
We currently have openings for funded Masters and PhD students, as well as Post-Docs starting in Winter or Fall 2025 in the areas of:
- data visualization in physical and virtual environments
- inclusive data visualization and analysis
Applying
Because of the high volume of requests, we are not able to respond to all applicant emails directly. If you are interested in applying, for either a Masters or PhD:
- Complete the unofficial Data Experience Lab expression of interest form. We process expressions of interest roughly once a month, starting in November and running until admissions close and will respond to applicants who are a good fit via email.
Students wishing to officially apply to either the Computer Science or Computational Media Design programs should also submit an application via those program's application portals. However, we encourage applicants not to list Dr. Willett as a potential supervisor without submitting an expression of interest and receiving a confirmation from him. Application deadlines for Fall admission are January 1st (international students) and May 1st (Canadian citizens and permanent residents). Winter admission deadlines are July 1st (international students) and September 1st (Canadian citizens and permanent residents).
If you have secured scholarship funding from an external source (such as an NSERC graduate fellowship or equivalent) please contact Dr. Willett directly.