Ryan P. McMahan received all three of his degrees (B.S. in 2004, M.S. in 2007, and Ph.D. in 2011) in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, specializing in virtual environments and reality under the guidance of Dr. Doug Bowman. He earned his tenure at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), after serving as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science from 2012 to 2018 and winning a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2016. From 2019 to 2024, he served as an Associate Professor of Computer Science and the Associate Program Director for the Mixed Reality Engineering Graduate Certificate at the University of Central Florida (UCF). In 2024, he returned to Virginia Tech as a Professor of Computer Science and the Deputy Director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI). In August 2025, he became the Director of CHCI. McMahan has contributed to over $4M in research funding awards, with personal credit for over $2.5M. He has numerous highly cited publications and has won Best Paper and Honorable Mention Awards at ACM CHI and IEEE VR, respectively. His research currently focuses on the intersection of extended reality and artificial intelligence. 

Doug A. Bowman has been a member of the Center for HCI since arriving at Virginia Tech in 1999, and served as CHCI Director from 2011-2025. During his time as Director, CHCI grew to a community of over 80 faculty affiliates from all corners of the university, became an institute-level center within the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, and opened up formal membership to students for the first time. He instituted the CHCI planning grant program and oversaw other funding programs that help facilitate innovative, interdisciplinary HCI research across the center. His own research is in the area of user experience for virtual reality and augmented reality systems. His research contributions have been recognized with awards such as the ISMAR Career Impact Award and the IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award in Virtual Reality. Having handed over the reins of the Center, he is excited to lead new initiatives around the topic of intelligent XR.

Dr. Joseph L. Gabbard is director of the COGnitive Engineering for Novel Technologies (COGENT) Lab and Professor of Human Factors at Virginia Tech’s Grado Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Dr. Gabbard received his PhD and MS in computer science from Virginia Tech; both his Masters thesis and Doctoral dissertation focused on usability of VR and AR systems respectively. Dr. Gabbard’s research focuses on the connections between user interface design and human performance; and specifically the development of techniques to design and evaluate novel user interfaces for augmented reality technologies and virtual environments. Gabbard has been a pioneer in usability engineering with respect to applying to, and creating methods for, new interactive systems for close to 25 years. With funding from a variety of sources, he has developed several innovative methods for performing designing complex interactive systems and assessing their usability and impact on human performance, and disseminated this work in over 100 publications.

Yan Chen has been a member of the Virginia Tech HCI community from 2023 to the present. During that time, his research has focused on human-AI collaboration, programming education, and the design of interactive systems that make programming more accessible at scale. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where he leads the PRIME Lab. His recent work includes developing visualization systems to help instructors monitor real-time coding behaviors in large classrooms, creating validation-by-demonstration workflows for AI-generated feedback, and exploring wearable interfaces for adaptive feedback in physical training.

Dr. Myounghoon Jeon (Philart) is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a courtesy affiliation in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. He directs the Mind Music Machine Lab, where his research focuses on emotions and sound in Human-Computer/Robot Interaction. He serves as a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and as Associate Director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction. His research has been supported by NSF, NIH, DOT and industry partners, resulting in more than 300 publications. Dr. Jeon received the Early Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association (Division of Applied Experimental & Engineering Psychology). He also serves as an associate/senior editor for five journals and on the steering committees of the International Community for Auditory Display and the Automotive User Interfaces Conference.

Rachael Paine is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Human-Centered Design in the Graphic Design Program. With over 13 years of experience as a Creative Director and Brand Strategist, she brings a wealth of industry insight to her academic role. Rachael holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Graphic Design, and a Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University. Prior to her current position, Rachael worked as a user experience designer for SAS, a multinational analytics software developer. Rachael's research endeavors focus on crucial aspects of design and human interaction. Her recent work delves into the realm of health communication and accessibility, particularly within the contexts of rare diseases, mental health, and infectious diseases. Her research interests encompass health communication, health literacy, human-centered design, and adaptive user interface design.

Justin Kerobo is a doctoral student in Human-Centered Design at Virginia Tech, where he explores the intersection of technology, design, and human experience. His research spans wave physics, sound, and music as tools for engagement and learning. As part of the Building a Workforce for Wave Physics initiative, Justin develops interactive demonstrations that introduce secondary school students and recent high school graduates to fundamental principles of acoustics and wave phenomena. His work emphasizes accessibility and creativity in technical education, aiming to spark curiosity and expand pathways into STEM fields. Beyond his research, Justin is an active leader within the Virginia Tech community. He currently serves as President of the Student Council for the Center for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI), where he helps foster collaboration, mentorship, and professional development among graduate students. 

Anirban Mukhopadhyay is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where he works with Dr. Kurt Luther in the Crowd Intelligence Lab. His research focuses on human-centered artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing, and open source intelligence (OSINT). He designs and evaluates sociotechnical systems that support real-world investigative tasks, particularly those that involve gathering, verifying, and reasoning with publicly available information. By combining insights from human-computer interaction and AI, Anirban’s work explores how intelligent tools can augment human workflows in complex domains, enabling collaborative sensemaking at scale. His research has been published in leading venues such as CHI, CSCW, and DIS, where he contributes to advancing knowledge on the design and deployment of AI-augmented systems. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Anirban worked as a software engineer at Microsoft. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University in India.