University professors in Halifax swooped in and used their “mechanical magic” to help bring a beloved tradition to life this holiday season. Woody the Talking Christmas Tree opened his eyes and started to greet guests during his return to Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth, N.S., last month. Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Computer Science says this year’s “Wake Up Woody” event wouldn’t have been possible without its professors. The mall’s owner reached out to the university looking for help so Woody would still emerge from his slumber on Nov. 15. The mechanics that bring the talking tree to life each year were malfunctioning and programming to fix it was needed urgently. Assistant professors Hanieh Shakeri and Joe Malloch, who both specialize in human-computer interaction, quickly volunteered their skills. Shakeri moved to Halifax in January and wasn’t familiar with the local icon. “Our research space looks at how humans interact with different kinds of computer systems. There’s a lot about Woody’s wake-up routine that we would typically encounter on a day-to-day basis in our own research, but it was a fun, different way of using it,” she said in a social media post. Malloch, who grew up in Dartmouth, says he was happy to help. “For me, it has a bit of extra fun attached to it because I experienced Woody as a child — it’s that idiosyncratic nostalgia thing,” he said in the post. “And I was glad to do it with Hanieh, because it was much more fun to do this as a team. I’m very happy I said yes.” Malloch and Shakeri made multiple visits to the mall over two weeks getting Woody ready for the day and had to work off-hours to not disturb mallgoers. While they haven’t said exactly what was involved in helping Woody meet his deadline, the event went ahead as planned. The post adds Woody is now in some ways “talking and acting better than ever.” It says visitors may notice his blinking eyes move a bit more smoothly and his overall expressiveness continues to improve too. “We were incredibly impressed by the support Dalhousie was able to provide in helping us get Woody ready for Christmas,” says mall owner Joe Ramia of Rank Inc. “After we had exhausted our options to solve the problem, we reached out to Dal and couldn’t have been more pleased by how quickly they were able to react. Our thanks to the team from Computer Science for their help in bringing the spirit of the season to life this year.” The public can continue stop by and visit with Woody until Dec. 23. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
