Next event · showcase
Founders Demo Night
An evening for students curious about building a business, product or service — a panel of founders and engineers, XR and product demos, networking, and free pizza at District 3.
What we run
Events
Hackathons, workshops, screenings and socials — everything McGillXR has run since 2022.
Upcoming
Past events
21 events since our first VR social in May 2022.
2026
hackathon
CareXR
McGillXR's largest hackathon — 105 participants built 23 VR and AR projects for child and family wellbeing over a weekend at the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
social
CareXR Social Mixer
The kickoff for CareXR — participants met potential teammates, heard from guest speakers and started brainstorming over dinner.
workshop
CareXR Pre-Hack Workshops
Four free sessions before CareXR — building for VR in Unity and in Unreal Engine 5, then two online sessions on building for Snap Spectacles, led by Snap.
2025
screening
IMPULSE: Playing with Reality
Forty-minute sessions of Impulse, an award-winning mixed reality experience that takes you inside four people's lives with ADHD and how it shapes the way they see the world.
hackathon
NeuroVR Hackathon 25
Seventy-six students from 21 fields of study built 13 XR projects for healthcare over 36 hours at the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
showcase
NeuroVR Showcase
Inspiring uses of VR in research and healthcare, and the night NeuroVR Hackathon 25 participants met each other and formed their teams.
workshop
NeuroVR Pre-Hack Workshops
Two beginner sessions before NeuroVR Hackathon 25 — setting up the tools for VR and XR development, then building a sample project with the Meta Presence Platform.
2024
info session
IPN Graduate Orientation Event
New Integrated Program in Neuroscience graduate students met McGillXR and learned about the club's events, activities and how to get involved.
hackathon
NeuroVR Hackathon 24
McGillXR's first hackathon brought students together to integrate neuroscience with emerging XR technologies, with 50 students building VR applications in teams.
showcase
NeuroVR Showcase & Social Mixer
Dr. Argerie Tsimicalis and Dr. Yiming Xiao spoke on the convergence of neuroscience, healthcare and VR, followed by a reception for hackathon participants.
workshop
XR Development Workshops
Two hands-on workshops at Building 21 covering Unity and XR development set-up, then XR development with the Meta Presence Platform.
screening
McGillXR x CinéCampus: Everything Everywhere All At Once
A joint film screening with Campus Life & Engagement of the Oscar-winning 2022 comedy-drama, with an introduction to McGillXR and virtual reality.
hackathon
McGameJam 2024
McGillXR partnered with McGill Game Devs for their 2024 game jam, sponsoring a Best VR Game award and supporting teams working with VR.
2023
info session
FNC Info Session
Philippe Bédard of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma team presented on FNC, a Montreal film festival drawing over 160,000 attendees each year.
tournament
Undergraduate Orientation Beat Saber Tournament
New McGill students got their first exposure to XR at the McGillXR booth, competing for a Steam gift card.
workshop
Winter Workshop Series 2: Introduction to XR Inputs
A deep dive into using VR inputs, building on the fundamentals covered in the first workshop of the series.
workshop
Winter Workshop Series 1: Introduction to OOP
An introduction to object-oriented programming and the Unity interface, with a hands-on tutorial building a small VR project.
tournament
Engineering Beat Saber Tournament
A multi-day Beat Saber tournament pitting the undergraduate mechanical engineering club against the graduate club, with McGillXR hired for headsets, projection and safety.
2022
social
Phi Centre Outing
A team-building outing to the Phi Centre to experience the Horizons VR exhibition.
screening
FNC VR Film Festival
McGillXR's first VR film festival, run with Festival du Nouveau Cinéma and McGill Engine, showing experimental VR films to over 100 students on campus.
social
VR Social Event
McGillXR's first event — an on-campus social gathering with Beat Saber, drinks and snacks.