Dr Regan Mandryk awarded Tier 1 Canada Research Chair
Recognized as among Canada’s most promising leaders in her field, Regan Mandryk has been awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs (CRC) to advance her innovative work in digital gaming.
Computer science professor Regan Mandryk has been awarded a Tier 1 chair that provides $200,000 annually for seven years. This is one of four USask awards totalling $4.8 million that were part of a national CRC announcement today by Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains.
Through her chair in Digital Gaming Technologies, Mandryk aims to understand and model the complex relationship between digital gaming and its impact on players, with the goal of designing new games and novel interfaces to improve social, emotional, and cognitive well-being.
“While gaming has many benefits, it also can lead to problems,” she said. “So, what is it about the game, the gamer, and gaming context that leads to positives outcomes such as healthy social interactions and stress relief, versus causing harm from problematic habits that affects other parts of their lives?”
Using her research findings, Mandryk aims to design new games that harness the positive sides of gaming enjoyed by many of the 23 million players in Canada, and keep out of harm’s way those for whom the pastime can pose problems.
Mandryk’s research is also supported by $155,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leadership Fund to build an esports observation facility and a social game play laboratory.