About Ryan P. McMahan
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About
Dr. Ryan P. McMahan is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and of Learning Sciences at the University of Central Florida (UCF), where he directs the eXtended Reality & Training (XRT) Lab. His research primarily focuses on using extended reality (XR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to facilitate and enhance training and education. Prior to joining UCF in Fall 2019, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Applications from Virginia Tech in 2011.
Research
Dr. McMahan has contributed to acquiring over $3.4 million in funding and personally credited with over $2.3 million in awards. He is a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award recipient. He is a coauthor of the 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition book, has over 5000 citations, an h-index of 26, and an i10-index of 49. He has advised 7 Ph.D. graduates and 6 M.S. thesis graduates to completion. He received the sole Provost's Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring from UT Dallas in 2016.
Teaching
Dr. McMahan is the Associate Program Director for the Mixed Reality Engineering Graduate Certificate program at UCF. He has taught over 30 courses, including both undergraduate and graduate topics in computer science. He consistently earns high student perception of instruction (SPI) scores, averaging over 4.8 / 5.0. He received an Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at UT Dallas in 2016 and the sole Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UCF in 2023.
Professional Service
Dr. McMahan has served in numerous professional service roles, including as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) and the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS), a Program Chair for the 2020 International Conference on Artificial Reality and Teleexistence & Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (ICAT-EGVE), Program Committee Member for 34 conferences, Organizing Committee Member for 11 conferences, Workshop Organizer for 6 workshops, and NSF Panelist for 13 different programs.
University Service
At UCF, Dr. McMahan has served as the Publicity Chair for the Department of Computer Science, the Faculty Advisor for the Girls Who Code (GWC) student organization, a Faculty Senate Information Technology Committee member, a Graduate Committee member for the Department of Computer Science, and several other positions. At UT Dallas, he had served as the Publicity and Website Chair for the Department of Computer Science, the Faculty Advisor for the Extended Reality Society (XRS) student organization, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committee member, a Graduate Admissions Committee member for Computer Science, and several other positions.