Olivier St-Cyr is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream and Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (iSchool) and cross-appointed in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Professor St-Cyr joined the iSchool in 2016, leading the creation and launch of the User Experience Design (UXD) Concentration in the Master of Information (MI) degree. His teaching and leadership philosophies rest on the premise that human-centred design principles apply to teaching, learning, and curricular design.

As a student-centred teacher with industry experience in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human Factors Engineering (HFE), Professor St-Cyr emphasizes active, hands-on learning. To enable this pedagogy, Professor St-Cyr designed and oversaw construction of two novel studio classrooms in the Claude T. Bissell Building. These spaces allow professors at the iSchool to teach active learning and technology enhanced courses and introduce studio pedagogy in their classes. These learning spaces have transformed teaching and learning at the iSchool and have become models for active learning classrooms across the University. His commitment to inclusive pedagogy is equally foundational, by designing learning environments where students feel belonging and by diversifying voices in the classroom. As Visiting Associate Professor of Teaching at UBC’s iSchool in 2022-23, he extended his curriculum and studio practices to new courses at undergraduate and graduate levels.

St-Cyr’s educational leadership extends beyond individual courses to program architecture and academic systems. As Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, he provides divisional leadership on curriculum design, quality assurance, and instructional planning for four-degree programs. His portfolio includes reviews and renewals of program curricula at the iSchool, most notably supporting the development of the forthcoming four-year, first-entry Bachelor of Information (BI) degree, the first of its kind in Canada. He has also launched an endowed divisional teaching award to recognize excellent and inclusive teaching at the iSchool. Across these initiatives, he treats leadership as an iterative design process, focused on gathering data, prototyping, and refining with evidence.

Internationally, Professor St-Cyr co-founded EduCHI, a community of practice for HCI educators that has grown from CHI (conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) workshops and symposia into a stand-alone Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) affiliated event. He serves as the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) representative on the ACM Education Advisory Committee (EAC) and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of ACM EngageCSEdu, a peer-reviewed repository of Open Educational Resources (OERs) that foreground evidence-based engagement practices and broaden participation in computing.

St-Cyr’s research focuses on HCI/UX pedagogy. Recent projects include a Public Health Agency of Canada partnership to create bilingual educational video resources on dementia awareness and a UofT LEAF+ initiative that explored the prospect of using GenAI to build and prototype an automated notetaking tool for UofT Accessibility Services. These efforts exemplify his practice of translating design research into tangible improvements for learners and communities both within the University context and with the public-at-large.

Prior to joining the iSchool, Olivier taught several courses as a sessional lecturer in Computer Programming, User Interface/UX Design, HCI, and HFE. He spent eight years in industry at organizations such as the University Health Network (UHN), IBM Canada, and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), experiences that have anchored his teaching in real-world industry-focused courses. He holds an Honours BA in Computer Science and Psychology (York University), a MASc in Systems Design Engineering (University of Waterloo), and a PhD in Industrial Engineering (University of Toronto).