Dr. Ryan Straight is an Honors and Assistant Professor in Cyber Operations in the College of Information Science at the University of Arizona, where he directs the Mixed Augmented ViRtual eXtended Reality (MA{VR}X) Lab and serves as Coordinator and Advisor for the MS in Cyber Operations program. He received his doctoral degree in Instructional Technology in 2015 from Ohio University and in 2023 graduated with an MS Cybersecurity degree from the University of Arizona. He teaches classes on data science, human-computer interaction, and cyber ethics. In his capacity as lab director, Ryan oversees or supports over a dozen ongoing research projects at any given time with student research assistants from across the university. His research focuses on online learning, cybersecurity, posthuman inquiry, and applied postphenomenology.
Featured Work
Systematic AI-Human Collaboration for Worldbuilding in Cybersecurity Education
A reproducible framework for AI-human collaborative worldbuilding, building persistent fictional universes for cybersecurity case studies. Published in the EdMedia 2026 proceedings.
May 2026
Semantic Technologies for Cybersecurity Education Competencies
A JSON-LD and SPARQL implementation translating posthumanist coding of the NICE Framework into machine-readable form. Published in CPPJ Vol 5.
April 2026
EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2026, Edinburgh
Presented the systematic worldbuilding framework for AI-human collaboration in cybersecurity education at EdMedia 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
May 2026
“Posthuman Encounters in the Security Operations Center: A Methodological Recipe” accepted to the 2026 meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science.
May 2026