Zack MacDonald
MacDonald is the map librarian at Archives and Special Collections for Western Libraries. His research interests focus on the use of historical geographical information systems (HGIS), remote sensing technologies, 3D modelling, building information modelling, discovery layers, and game engines in the reconstruction and study of historic built and natural environments. He is also a co-investigator on Environments of Change (EoC), where he works on several interdisciplinary teams. His work with EoC investigates the use of virtually reconstructed medieval villages for augmented reality educational games, as well as the use of HGIS and procedural generation in pre-modern settlement reconstructions. His most recent work explores the use of immersive technologies and discovery layers as mechanisms to enhance research data discoverability and access in virtual and augmented reality training and education applications. MacDonald holds a Master of Information from the University of Toronto (2015) and an MA in History from the University of Waterloo (2013). He is also an associate director of the University of Waterloo’s Medieval Digital Research in Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks Laboratory (DRAGEN Lab).