Summary
Nayan Chawla is a PhD candidate and XRT Lab graduate research assistant at the University of Central Florida with eight years of experience studying learning, training, and perception in Virtual and Augmented Reality. He combines hands-on VR development and experimental research with substantial teaching experience, having instructed over 200 students in Systems Software as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. His prior roles include VR research and development at the University of Mississippi and hands-on work building virtual environments for K–12 outreach, giving him a rare mix of rigorous lab methods and practical deployment experience. He also brings data science and NLP exposure from industry internships, including building speech models with Kaldi, which informs his interdisciplinary approach to human-computer interaction. Based in Florida, Nayan balances deep technical skill in VR experimentation with strong communication and pedagogy, making him effective at translating research into usable training systems. Colleagues describe him as driven and approachable—always open to new collaborations despite a packed schedule.
8 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy Human Computer Interaction, Doctor of Philosophy Human Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech
Bachelor of Science - BS Computer Science, Bachelor of Science - BS Computer Science at University of Mississippi
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Human Computer Interaction, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Human Computer Interaction at University of Central Florida